Celtics pull away from Raptors, win 115-101

Don’t let the final score mislead you, the Toronto Raptors nearly gave the Celtics all they could handle on Easter Sunday. 

Toronto is fighting for a playoff spot coming down the final stretch of the season, and its physicality and desperation was evident as it hung around with Boston for 42 minutes. But those final six minutes is all the time Boston needed to earn another double digit victory. 

The Celtics knocked out the Raptors in the fourth quarter to run away with a 115-101 victory and earn their 53rd win of the season. The victory also moves them another step closer to locking up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Jaylen Brown led all scorers with 26 points on 11-for-20 shooting, while Neemis Queta dominated down low with 18 points on an efficient 9-for-10 from the floor. Jayson Tatum continued to stuff the stat sheet with 23 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. 

Boston did have trouble holding on to the basketball through the first three quarters, playing with fire against a desperate Raptors group. The Celtics committed 15 total turnovers, including 10 from Tatum and Brown, but only turned the ball over once in the fourth. 

The Celtics were able to carry over their dominant offensive play from earlier this week into the beginning stages of the first, jumping out to a quick 10-2 lead. Toronto was having a lot of trouble early matching Queta down low as the big man scored eight points on 4-for-4 shooting in his first stint. 

The theme of the first half was a pendulum swing as Boston couldn’t build on two separate eight-point leads in the opening quarter. A lot of that had to do with live ball turnovers, which the Cs had four of in the first. 

The Raptors closed the first quarter on an 11-4 run, with Ja’Kobe Walter hitting two threes to tie the game at 26 after 12 minutes of play. Besides Queta, most of the Cs were quiet early on, with Tatum trailing with five points. 

Nikola Vucevic did make his return from a right finger fracture in the first, but didn’t look particularly sharp, finishing as a -7 with a turnover. 

Boston’s turnover woes continued in the second as its total jumped up to eight, including four from Tatum. Toronto took advantage of the sluggish Celtics, building an eight-point lead of its own off the back of a 10-0 run. 

Walter continued to be the best Raptor on the floor in the second quarter, leading his team with 13 first-half points on 5-for-7 shooting. 

In the closing minutes of the second, Boston cleaned up its turnover issues, and as a result started to play much better against a physical Toronto group. 

Derrick White and Tatum both connected on back-to-back triples, and Brown set the tone with a pair of driving buckets to give the Celtics a 54-46 lead that they didn’t necessarily deserve heading into the break. 

Boston’s turnover cure didn’t last for very long in the second half though as three more turnovers from Brown (2) and White (1) once again had the Cs in a fist fight with the Raptors. Collin Murray-Boyles capitalized off the sloppy play with six quick points in the third. 

The Celtics’ bench — which was eerily quiet for much of the game — finally got going with Payton Pritchard and Jordan Walsh both scoring four a piece. Vucevic scored his first bucket since returning as well. 

Despite Brown turning the ball over four times in the third, he found a way to score eight in the frame, highlighted by a shot-clock beating fall-away triple. The forward’s scoring had the Cs up just three on the Raptors heading down the home stretch

Boston — who had been tested physically all night — finally did start to break through in the fourth. Pritchard, after having just six points in 18 minutes, scored 11 in his first stint of the quarter as the Cs jumped out to an eight-point lead in the fourth. 

Toronto did answer many of the Celtics' punches in the final minutes as Brandon Ingram did his best to keep the Raptors in it, scoring six-straight points. 

Ultimately it wasn’t enough as Boston’s stars closed up shop. White connected on his second triple of the night to push the lead to double digits, and Brown (26 points) and Tatum (23 points) scored six points in eight seconds to seal the deal. 

Boston will continue the final week of the regular season when it welcomes in another potential first round opponent in Charlotte on Tuesday night.