The Toronto Raptors played the first away game of the season tonight winning 113-103 against division rivals the Boston Celtics. It was also the first meeting with ex-Raptors forward Amir Johnson. The game was tied 26 all at the end of the 1st and was again tied at 56 heading into the main break. A 30 point 3rd quarter from Toronto gave them a nine point lead to start the fourth which was then capped off by outscoring the Celtics 29-28 in a high scoring 4th. A big turning point in the game came midway through the third when the Raptors went on an 11-2 run highlighted by a Kyle Lowry 3-point play after getting fouled by Marcus Smart on a running lay-up. The Raptors did not give up the lead after that moment.
DeMar DeRozan top scored for the Raptors with 23 points while Terrence Ross came off the bench and contributed 21 points shooting 8-12 (66%) from the field. DeMarre Carroll had a mixed night, he also scored 21 going 8-16 from the field while also hitting 4-7 three point attempts, he did however have a team high 4 turn overs and was the only player to see negative +/- impact while on the floor. Boston was heavily reliant on its bench for points, Isiah Thomas getting the top scorer of the game with 25 while Olynyk and Johnson contributed 11 each. Once again the Raptors dominated the boards 53-38, Jonas Valanciunas taking 10 while Luis Scola helped out with 9. Lowry was big when needed but had an off shooting night going 3-11 from the field, his biggest contribution came through his 9 assists, he also shot 8-10 from the free-throw line.
Offence: A
In the end the Raptors shot 43.9% from the field and an impressive 42.3% from beyond the arc putting up a big 113 points altogether. The overall scoring was also more spread out compared to the season opener against Indiana. Scola scored his first points for the season and finished with 9 for the night while Cory Joseph improved from 3 against the Pacers to 7 in this one. The ball seemed to move more fluently and the team was not as one dimensional. Shooting performances from Lowry, DeRozan and Valanciunas could have been better all three upped the assist count for themselves. Game time was also more even, Carroll, DeRozan and Lowry each had 34 minutes while Terrence Ross was given 21 minutes and showed exactly the good he can do with it.
Defence: B
Defensively the Raptors get a B as they gave up 100+ points to Celtics side that is expected at best to contend for the lower playoff spots and in every quarter the Celtics put up 20 or higher. That said Valanciunas was big on the rebounding with 9 of his 10 at the defensive end. It was also important to hold the Celtics to just 26% from the three point line, in the 3rd quarter when the Raptors got going Boston were unable to finish on offence and a big reason for the win was the hustle play the Raptors showed to shut down the main shooting threats. When it comes to bigger teams though the Raptors will have to force more turn overs, the Celtics only gave it up 17 times compared with the Raptors 22.
Rebounding: A+
Another domination of the boards was on display. Out rebounding the Celtics 53-38 and giving them just 31 defensive boards. With another big rebounding effort the Raptors can be a real force on this aspect and be so effective when it comes to second chance points.
Game Ball: Terrence Ross
Ross was huge taking 21 points and an amazing shooting performance. It was a big improvement from opening night this time he saw greatly improved game time and was big time with it. If Ross can consistently come up with games like this it will be a big gain, we have seen so many house of highlight reels from him it will be great to see more high statistical performances, tonight from Ross we got both.
