The Celtics got a surprise challenge from the Raptors at TD Garden on Saturday night but emerged with a 126-123 win after Jayson Tatum (24 points) hit a game-winning 3-point shot in overtime at the buzzer.
The Celtics led by as many as 10 points in the first quarter but it was a lethargic early effort from Boston, particularly against a undermanned Toronto squad. Boston's lead was down to two points by halftime and Toronto came out hot after halftime, building a seven-point lead early in the third quarter behind some dominance in the paint from Jakob Poeltl (game-high 35 points).
The Celtics second unit alongside Jayson Tatum fought back with a 17-4 run late in the third quarter fueled by a barrage of 3s from the bench. That set the stage for a back-and-forth fourth quarter with neither team leading by more than five points in the fourth. Tatum had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation but missed badly, setting the stage for his redemption in overtime with the clutch game-winner.
Jaylen Brown (27 points) led six different Celtics in double figures in the win, with Al Horford delivering a season-high 18 points including a pair of key 3-point makes in the fourth quarter. Poeltl led the Raptors with 35 points and 12 rebounds.
The Celtics now get two more days to rest up before the undefeated Cavaliers come to town Tuesday night for an NBA Cup matchup.
Here are four takeaways from the Celtics' overtime win:
Neemias Queta gets another spot start: The big man got the nod in place of Jrue Holiday (sore knee), giving Boston a jumbo look for their frontcourt with Al Horford sliding over to power forward. It was the fourth start of the year for Queta, an impressive feat considering he started the season out of Joe Mazzulla's rotation on most nights. Queta did his job on the offensive end early in this one, hitting his first four shots of the game including what impressive outback dunk. However, he got pulled early in the second half after getting outworked for a rebound with Luke Kornet getting subbed in just two minutes into the half. Consistency has been an issue for Queta throughout his career and he was not sharp enough in this one defensively especially early in the second half.
Celtics bench snaps team out of miserable 3-point shooting funk: Jayson Tatum and Al Horford were steady from beyond the arc on Saturday night. The rest of the roster? Not so much in the first half. Despite hoisting double the number of 3s as their competition, it was miserable shooting night for the hosts for much of the first three quarters as Boston knocked down just nine of their first 35 3-point attempts through 30 minutes before Payton Pritchard helped to break the ice with a pair of makes in the third period. Pritchard kickstarted some momentum for Boston's offense as the Celtics bench knocked down five of their next six 3-point attempts to jumpstart a 12-0 Boston run.
Paint protection remains an area of concern: Four days after giving up a brutal 68 points in the paint to a undermanned Atlanta squad, the Raptors feasted against Boston down low despite missing four rotation players. Toronto nearly doubled Boston's scoring output in the paint (76-42) with Toronto's ball handlers regularly getting to the rim off dribble penetration. That letdown allowed a host of open looks for Poeltl all night long in the paint as he was one fire with his push shots and punished the Celtics on the glass as well. Boston was missing a key defender for this one in Holiday but this team is trending the wrong defensively in the early part of the year after being a top-3 group last year.
Celtics are going through the motions more than we saw all of last year: It may be human nature coming off a title win but this team's starting unit is not playing with the same type of consistency we saw last year. Boston dominated nearly every opponent at home last year and we barely saw any letdowns against subpar opponents. That mentality has simply not been in place this year between lethargic starts and underwhelming defensive efforts that are beginning to pile up despite the Boston's 11-3 record. Every team is bringing their best shot now to the defending champions and the Celtics need to be ready for it.