Celtics Even Regular Season Series With Raptors

In what might be the dream matchup, in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, in 2019, the Boston Celtics evened their four games regular season series with the Toronto Raptors on Friday night with a 123-116 overtime victory. The win, for Boston, required a 43pt and 11 assist outing from star point guard Kyrie Irving. In response, the Raptors got 31pts and 15 rebounds from Kawhi Leonard.

With 48.7 seconds on the clock, in regulation, Jayson Tatum cut a 4 point Raptors lead from 107-103 to 107-105 with a dunk. Kawhi Leonard then missed a jump shot on which Pascal Siakam grabbed the rebound but was called for an offensive foul. Then, with the score tied at 10, with regulation time running out, Leonard missed a jumper sending the game into overtime. The Raptors were then outscored 16-9 in the overtime period.

The Basketball schedulers have done both of these Franchises a favour. They have now completed half of their four games regular season series with two more dates on January 16th, 2019 and February 26th, 2019.

This potentially means neither team has to worry about the other until the Eastern Conference final. However, that’s the plan, if both sides, who appear to be the class of the Eastern Conference, in the NBA, finishing first and second by the end of the regular season. Milwaukee and Philadelphia may have something to say about the seeding of the top teams in the NBA’s east but time will solve that matter.

For those dreaming of a Raptors–Celtics Final, its simple. If both teams finish first and second, in the east, they won’t see each other until the Eastern Final. However, if either or both teams struggle and say either or finishes first and the other 4th, then this becomes a second-round series paving perhaps a simpler path to the NBA finals for the surviving team.

After a splendid 12-1 start to the season, the Raptors have now dropped three straight games. As for Boston, they have had a less impressive start and sit at 9-6 and are 4th currently in the Eastern Conference.

As for last night, the Raptors trailed 54-52 at the half, were leading 80-78 after 3 quarters and then coughed up the lead in the final minute allowing Boston the opportunity to satisfy their hometown crowd with a solid overtime period to take the win. This was the opposite, of game one, of this matchup, back in October, when the Raptors used the last three minutes of the game to clamp down and pull away from the Celtics.

Some quick takeaways from this game, on the Toronto Raptors side, is they shot 8/29 or 27.5% from the arc. Vanvleet who is the Raptors engine for the second unit was held scoreless in 22 minutes. The Celtics got 39 minutes and 38 minutes out of Gordon Hayward and Jayson Tatum respectively and 36 pts combined. This is an excellent sign for Celtics fans.

With Gordon trying to recover from a serious injury last year and reintegrate into the Celtics lineup, last night was a good bit of work especially since it did not cut into Jayson Tatum’s opportunity to play. Also, Irving showed MVP type work rate and was a great 18/26 from the field which translates to 69.2% from the field. Irving clearly had his shooting target set to sharp last night.

With two games down and two to go, between these two teams, nothing has been decided yet. One thing is for sure whenever or if these two teams meet in the 2019 playoffs it should be a treat for NBA fans to watch.