Six of the 10 starters in the game between the Raptors and the Boston Celtics on Friday night were between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-9. This was not surprising in the least, as the two teams are defined by their defensive versatility, the kind of lineups that have become en vogue as the Warriors have taken over the league.
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“It’s not small ball,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said before the game. “It’s skill ball.”
Despite the sloppy first half, that was evident in the two teams’ first meeting, a 113-101 Raptors win in which the intensity flew in the face of the early-season status of the game. In the third quarter, especially, you saw how breathtaking a seven-game series between these two teams, considered by most to be the two best in the Eastern Conference, could be in May.
The Celtics, it is clear, can beat you on so many different fronts. Serge Ibaka had a great offensive night, but the pick-and-pop from Al Horford exposed him all evening long. Horford found sophomore Jayson Tatum for an early three-pointer in the third. There were classic dribble-drive breakdowns, with Kyrie Irving and Marcus Smart both getting to the rim. Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris were finding soft spots in the Raptors defence. And this was all without Gordon Hayward, who is still on a minutes restriction.
It is likely that the Raptors would have drowned in that third quarter without the presence of Kawhi Leonard. The lack of rhythm of his first six quarters as a Raptor gave way to a slow-motion display of his whole arsenal. He accounted for 15 of the team’s first 22 points in the frame. The Raptors’ offence was not as cohesive as the Celtics, but points are points.
“He did a little bit of everything,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “He hit a three or two, one or two threes in that quarter, he took a couple in transition to the basket and he had a couple of isolation post-up plays. Again, that’s kind of his versatility. I think there’s some growth to be done with his screen-and-roll game. I think we can get him up the floor and get him into some more screen and rolls … he’s got a really good handle on it, he hasn’t really busted that out yet, but he can do that as well.”
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That is not totally true. Leonard put Irving on roller skates with a series of one-on-one dribbling to get himself three free throws, and he found Ibaka off of a screen with a very simple bounce pass early on. The Raptors are not a screaming, well-oiled machine yet, but they are showing some signs of connectivity in that regard.
Mostly, though, Leonard proved how total his game can be, and how overwhelming it can be when he is flowing.
“I think any time he goes through you to try and score, I don’t think you are doing anything wrong coverage-wise,” Stevens said. “I think when he gets to the rim uncontested, or you are fouling him, then I think we have to do a little bit better. He’s going to create some of that stuff. He is a great player, and he is a great two-way player. He certainly looks really good.”
As Nurse alluded to, the offence came in all sorts of ways.
- For his first two points, he had a decisive drive to his left before the defence could set up.
- He then hit a pair of jumpers in isolation, one each with his face and back to the basket. Those were the shots that were just not going in against Cleveland and in the first half against Boston.
- Another decisive move to his left got him to the line again — he made nine free throws on the evening, or two more than the entire Celtics team did — and then he got a layup on the baseline.
- Finally, after goading Irving into that foul, he made a very simple cut to take advantage of Kyle Lowry turning the defence inside out by dribbling the ball underneath the basket and back out again, the type of play that the point guard and DeMar DeRozan developed a simpatico relationship around.
“He’s a guy who knows his shots, and he got to his spots a lot tonight,” Lowry said. “Tonight he played extremely hard.”
“Coach Nurse and Kyle did a great job of calling some plays to get me the ball in a rhythm, and (I) just made shots,” Leonard said, deflecting the credit right back to his coach and point guard.
Of course, all parties deserve credit, this being a team sport and all. This was fairly simple stuff all the way around, though: Get the ball to the really good player in a bunch of different spots and get out of the way. Leonard had a ton of isolation looks on Wednesday, and Friday was the same. While Lowry sealed the win with a vintage series of plays, including a three-pointer, a step-back jumper, two defensive rebounds and a drawn charge all in the final three minutes, it was Leonard acting as the foundation of the Raptors for most of the night. He is a superstar, and this is how these things work.
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With Boston, it is not so simple. Each of the Celtics’ five starters took at least 10 field-goal attempts, as is the nature of their roster. Tatum dominated early but disappeared late. They did not lean too hard down the stretch on the Horford pick-and-pop that was so dangerous early on. Jaylen Brown did not even play in the game’s final minutes. While Irving will have the ball a disproportionate number of times in close games, the Celtics are about as democratic as it gets for an elite team.
That makes them harder to game plan for, but it also makes the balancing act difficult, especially early in the season. As the Celtics’ young players who led them to within a game of the NBA Finals last year re-acclimate to life with Irving and Hayward, who missed the playoffs and the entire season last year, respectively. As far as learning curves go, throwing it to one player more often than not and working off of him is a lot easier than figuring out how to distribute things more or less evenly.
“I think the locker room takes a shape that’s not necessarily the same shape that’s being played out on either end of the floor or on the court,” Nurse said on Friday morning. “You guys know, it’s one of the most integral things of coaching at this level or watching at this level, is who’s sharing the ball. How are they sharing it? How are they reacting to a number of shots, number of minutes, all those kinds of things? It’s always something that you’re working on, thinking about and trying to massage, I guess, for lack of a better word.”
Right now, the Raptors have a clear hierarchy. They still might be figuring each other out, as well as mixing and matching lineups, but the direction of their offence is easily understood. For the Celtics, they still are in the feeling-out process. That will change as the season goes on, but it gives the Raptors a bit of a jump start on the year.
(Top photo: Tom Szczerbowski / USA Today)