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BOSTON – Before the start of the game, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Steven seemed to be looking into the near future, imagining a time when two of the best teams from the Eastern Conference would trade ties deadly in the last game, like, for example, Wednesday night on the floor of the TD Garden.
Given that Raptors tend to rely heavily on Kawhi Leonard in such scenarios – he manages the ball more than twice as much as his closest teammate in shot situations – does that make them (or Leonard) predictable to defend?
Stevens hesitated.
"That's how my words are writhing, right, and I'm on his wall for the rest of his career?
He was never insured.
"Well, he's super hard to defend, that's why he still has the ball," said Stevens. "And you know what, he always marks. This is what the great players of this league do. "
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Spend a few hours later and Stevens looked like Nostradamus.
After three rounds of basketball back and forth during which the Raptors had a fantastic start to the first quarter, they made it all with a huge second quarter, then regained the top in the third quarter. Leonard was going to wear the Raptors at home.
His first basket of the fourth quarter gave the Raptors their first lead since the middle of the second period and allowed the schoolboy to score 16 points three minutes after halftime. His second hoop put two and a pair of free throws, four. There was a triple, then a fierce stalemate in the traffic as he sent the Celtics defenders back as a defensive end, dismissing the linemen heading for the quarterback. He also made the free throw.
Toronto was four with 4:22 to play and his MVP candidate was carrying the team and several Celtics on his back.
It was great to watch and the Raptors could not help themselves.
"We often give the ball to Kawhi and get out of the way," said Raptors goalie Kyle Lowry.
When it works, it's a thing of brutal beauty, like watching an expert lumberjack shoot down a tree with a powerful ax strike after another.
But that night, the Raptors (33-13) were finally down 117-108 by the Celtics, putting an end to their winning streak five times. The well is finally dried up. And as it happened more than once when the Raptors got into tight games, Toronto seemed puzzled as to what to do when Leonard was closed.
"It's obvious that the last three minutes of the game have eluded us – and I think the attack is pretty responsible," said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.
"We had a very good pace and a long offensive dynamic for a long time, then we took some quick shots and did not perform two things exactly as needed, after a timeout, you can not make. . "
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The nurse or the Raptors did not have to look far to find out what was happening in the stretch during tight games.
The Celtics – who have won their fifth straight home game against Toronto and improved to 26-18 over the year – may have struggled at times this season, but they can score in difficult situations. Their 128.6 points for 100 points of possession in games below five points with five minutes or less of play lead to the NBA and overtake the Raptors, who rank 13th in the "clutch" markers, despite one of the most dominant starting units of the league. .
The Celtics' final bloom was on display Wednesday. Making a point four with a time of 4:22 to play, Boston stole a 17-2 record that slammed the door in Toronto, and he did it by committee, with nine badists for 12 goals on the field during the last period.
Kyrie Irving, Boston's star playmaker, orchestrated orchestras – he had 18 of his 18 badists, a career high, to go with 10 of his 27 best Celtics points – but he was not solo.
Second-year wing Jayson Tatum scored three points and then a triple – both badisted by Irving; and after Irving hit a pull-up pull-up then a dagger-three to give Boston five points with a time of 1:39 to play, he participated in a series of Al Horford layups.
It was a group effort, but it started at the top with Irving.
"He just did a good job," said Stevens of his point guard, who had stirred up the Celtics pot earlier this week taking some shots after the game against his younger teammates in the middle of the three-game losing streak. Game. "These shots were huge, then the staging in the end … you know it's a threat to make the right shot [but he] obviously attracts a lot of attention and it can usually read the meaning. "
The Raptors do not have this mix yet in their end game arsenal. Determining how to combine Leonard's ability to get his own shot almost at will while having other players available to be threatened and make games themselves could easily be the key to the Raptors' success in the post-season – Well, that's three. The Raptors fired 7 times out of 29, which exacerbated all the other problems.
But the problems are real. There have been signs of improvement – Toronto was decent in a tight win against Atlanta and has run enough to survive doubling against Washington – but the last time Toronto was in Boston he lost in overtime in November the stretch was stagnant and predictable then too.
"I think we've just been comfortable with Kawhi taking over and shooting every shot," said Lowry, who scored neither points nor help on the fourth goal with 10 points and seven points. helpers in the first three quarters. "He's really good and he can do it, but we have to help him."
Even Leonard has noticed them. He feels the responsibility of being the Raptors crutch at the critical moment, but he acknowledges that this might not be sustainable.
"That's what I have to do, that's why I'm here, that's why I'm working," he said about his role at the end of the game after spending 4 7 on the ground in the fourth. "We just have to move a little rather than stay still, even in the last stretch, that 's not right in the far right, it' s all along the game, sometimes when I 'm not in the right. have the ball, there is no movement, just everyone watching me. "
Does Leonard have to move it anymore? Should the Raptors give him better targets? Maybe he should be the finisher rather than the initiator.
These are all questions that need to be answered on the remaining 30 games of the Raptors, as they are not the type to ask questions that can wait for the playoffs to be resolved.
Watching Leonard at work is one of the best shows in the NBA, but late in games against elite teams, it may not be the only channel the Raptors can turn to.
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