That was an impressive win because they were down 3 of their top 6 (both centers) and the managed to grit out the win anyway.
It was like 3 games in one: 1) the first quarter where their hot shooting (led by 4 threes and 15 points from Brown) got them out to a 15 point lead, 2) the middle quarters where they maintained their scoring but were matched by Toronto, in part because their turnover woes returned, and 3) the 4th quarter, which turned out to be a game in itself, where Toronto crushed their bench unit early on to erase a 13 point deficit in under 4 minutes and then the Celtics finally tightened up their defense and let White (who had shot terribly for most of the game) provide the offense.
This game saw the good and the bad of Jaylen Brown: 40 minutes, 31 points on 11-16 shooting, 5-6 from three, 10 rebounds (his first double-double of the season), 6 assists... but 7 turnovers, the leading offender on a Celtic team that turned it over 16 times (vs. Toronto's 4). Most of Brown's damage was done in the first half, when he scored 24 points on 8 of 10 shooting including 5-6 from three, plus 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and just 2 turnovers. Things fell apart on him in the third quarter, when he played the full 12 minutes and scored only 2 points (1-4) with 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers). In the 4th he was a bit better but still pedestrian: 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 turnovers. For the game, Brown was a +8, meaning that the Celtics were a -10 during the 8 minutes when he sat. But the entirety of that -10 happened in the first 3:44 of the 4th quarter when the Celtics blew most of a 13-point lead.
Kornet had his Celtic career game, playing 33 minutes and scoring 20 points on 9-11 shooting, along with 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, and just one turnover. During the terrible 18-3 Toronto run to start the 4th, Kornet was the 3, going through someone's arm to get to the rim for a putback and the htting the FT.
White was the Celtics second leading scorer with 21 points, which he managed despite an awful shooting line (5 of 19, including 2-10 from three) because he got himself to the line a lot and was a perfect 9-9. His secondary stats were good: 5 rebounds, team leading 7 assists, the only 3 Celtic steals in the game, and his 7th (I think) straight 2-block game, though he did turn it over 3 times. But the story of this game is White's play late in the 4th quarter when he took over late despite his poor shooting night. He led the team with 9 points in the quarter despite shooting only 2-6. But that is only half the story. White scored all 9 of his points in a 3:38 minute span late in the quarter when the Celtics went on an 11-4 run to go up by three:
- At 4:42, down 109-105, shooting foul against White and he makes both, 109-107.
- Brown gets a rebound at 3:42 with, Toronto defends them well and the ball gets to White with the clock running down... but he drills a defended step-back three to put the Celtics up 110-109.
- After a Toronto FT, a White missed three, and a Toronto three, and a Brown drive for a layup, Toronto is back up by 1, 113-112. WHite is fouled and makes both to put the Celtics up 114-113 at 1:38.
- White rebounds a Toronto miss and goes strong to the basket between 2 defenders, 116-113 at 1:04
After that sequence, Tornton once again hit a three to tie, but this was followed by Jaylen Brown driving to the basket but throwing a lob to Kornet, whose dunk put the Celtics ahead to stay, even though the final 30 seconds got a little dicey with fouling and missed free throws.
Holiday looks like he might be the next Celtic due for a maintenance day. He shot 5 for 15 in this one without much in the way of secondary stats. And in the finals econds he was fouled twice and hit only 204, keeping the drama going for longer than it needed to. Plus he was listed as questionable before the game. His 5-15 was 3-5 from three but only 2-10 from 2, which is not characteristic of him.
The last couple of games have exposed the Celtics bench a bit (granted, playing without multiple starters will do that). In the Detroit game, without Brown, Mazzulla tried a 4th quarter lineup with 3 guards (White, Holiday, and Pritchard) and that unit struggled to get stops. Against Toronto, missing KP, Al, and Tatum, seemed to have a bigger impact on the defense than the offense. AFter holding Toronto to 20 in the first quarter, the Raptors got three 30-point quarters. Although the -12 tunrover differential was a factor there along with the defense. In the 4th, after the 18-3 run, the Celtics D did started getting stops.