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Celtics Play 3 Quarters; Survive G1

The Boston Celtics tipped of their 2016 Playoffs campaign on Wednesday night with a home game against the Toronto Raptors, narrowly defeating the dinosaurs in a nail-biting shootout, 121-119. In what could be a theme through the series, the teams traded huge offensive punches in the form of 10-0+ runs, with each team trying to outscore the other. Defense was scarce but the thrills were abundant, with each team recording a 40+ point scoring quarter.

The first quarter saw the Celtics get going with a run at first, taking a 10+ point lead at stages in the initial term. Durant was in early foul trouble, but the Celtics even spread saw them get good looks consistently, with Lin being a huge boost off the bench with seven first quarter points.



The bench production has been an issue for the Celtics since losing Gibson and Neal to injury and they routinely get outscored by their opponents. Toronto were no exception and through D-Will, they built a lead to start the second term. However, when the Celtics starters came back, they blew the game wide open and ended up creating a 13 point lead at the half. The Celtics caught fire and dropped 41 points in this term.

The third quarter saw much of the same, with Boston able to maintain their lead of around 10-12 points. However, as the fourth came around, the 2K gods rubbed their hands together and the Raptors were en fuego, reeling off a 20-4 run in the first few minutes of the fourth to bring the game back to even. The lead swung back and forth in the last, with the Celtics putting their foot down and holding a ten point lead with a minute to go. Sensing the game was over, the starters were pulled for Boston and high fives were delivered.

Luckily for the Celtics, there wasn’t 20 more seconds on the clock, as the Raptors hit huge threes and got stops to really light some fireworks in the closing moments. Hearts were in mouths as the starters continued to watch the bench crew try to stop the bleeding. The final margin ended up being two points in a much-too-close for comfort game one.


Where Durant goes, the Celtics go.


Bryant dropped a vintage 39 points and Deron Williams stuffed the stat-sheet. Too much burden falls on those two too frequently. For Boston, four players scored 20 or more points in a typically balanced effort.

Game two will again be played in Boston, and the Celtics will have to do a better job taking shots away from Bryant and Williams. Durant played an inexplicably low 30 minutes on Wednesday and will hopefully see much closer to 35-37. There were no injuries to report of but there are rumours that Deron Williams may have a sports hernia injury that they are not disclosing. Stay tuned.