Toronto Raptors: Lowry and McCaw get revenge for Christmas Day loss
After suffering a tough loss at home on Christmas Day, the Toronto Raptors decided to return the favour against the Boston Celtics in the rematch.
It’s tough to take away the sting of getting run out of your building on Christmas Day but the Toronto Raptors did their best to turn the tables against the Boston Celtics.
Toronto decided to dish out some revenge after getting an unfavourable result days earlier and while it might have been tough at times, they were able to finally get the job done. They can thank Kyle Lowry‘s 30 points and a bounce-back game from Patrick McCaw as a big reason why Boston didn’t earn an advantage in a tiebreaker scenario.
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Considering how close the Eastern Conference standings are, these are crucial games for Toronto if they want to gain any advantage they can for the playoffs. Sure, it’s only December but if the team does end up securing home-court advantage during the post-season, they can point to games like Saturday as a reason why they got there.
Considering they were still without Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell and Marc Gasol, it was great to see Nick Nurse make the necessary adjustments to make sure that Toronto was not exposed like they were on Christmas Day.
As Sportsnet’s Steven Loung explains, Nurse made sure to have Serge Ibaka out against Enes Kanter rather than have Chris Boucher get mismatched by the bigger and stronger center. Loung also notes the continued success Ibaka and Lowry have with their pick and roll.
After having a game to forget, McCaw scored 18 points and registered a career-high eight assists which was significant considering Toronto has struggled to find scoring beyond Lowry and Fred VanVleet. While McCaw won’t be able to replace Siakam’s production, anything he can provide is a bonus especially in a game where the officials weren’t exactly making life easy on the Raptors.
Another great development was seeing Oshae Brissett getting a chance to show what he could do in as significant of a game he’s probably played in his career. He certainly earned the respect of his teammates with the way he locked in defensively on Jayson Tatum, he’s only 21-years-old by the way.
This has been the big development over the last stretch with Siakam, Gasol and Powell out and when they return, it will only benefit the Raptors in the long run.
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What impressed you about the Raptors win over the Celtics? Can they continue to sustain their pace? Let us know in the comments below.