The Celtics continue to dominate Toronto despite Jaylen Brown, Malcolm Brodgon and Marcus Smart not playing Friday, defeating the Raptors 121-102.
As for why Brown did not play, he cut his hand after cleaning up a broken vase that he had dropped while watering his plants. He was officially ruled out with a hand laceration, which needed stitches. As for when Brown will be back, he will be available for the playoffs according to the Celtics.
Back to the game, where the Celtics displayed how dangerous they are with the depth they have on the bench.
Sam Hauser stepped up big time, starting in place of Brown and scoring a career-high 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting, going 6-for-12 from behind the arc. Hauser also had five assists and two rebounds — and surprisingly, three pretty explosive dunks.
"I haven't had that many dunks in a game since high school, so I'll take it," Hauser said. "…When we have a full roster, I don't really know if I'll play or not. But you know, I'm always ready, and I know I'm going to be locked in timeouts and huddles and make sure that I know what's going on, so if my number is called I'll be ready. Obviously, the playoffs is a big step up from the regular season in terms of attention to detail and intensity, so I just got to be ready for it."
Payton Pritchard also had himself a night, scoring 22 points, shooting 9-for-14 from the field and 4-for-8 from the three. Before the trade deadline this season, Pritchard was very outspoken about wanting to be moved to another team to get a shot at being a starter elsewhere. If Pritchard continues to step up like this, he should have no problem finding him a new home this offseason.
Jayson Tatum was third in scoring and finished the game with 21 points off of 7-for-12 shooting. He was 0-for-5 from behind the arc, but his ability to drive and get to the basket allowed him to adjust and get points. The crazy part about his performance is that Tatum only played in the first half, with the Celtics leading 68-40 going into the third quarter.
The only downside of this team continues to be turnovers. The Celtics had 21 — a season-high — compared to the Raptors' eight, which is unacceptable. Those 21 turnovers equated to the Raptors scoring an extra 21 points. In the playoffs against a good team, the Celtics are most likely going to lose the game if they turn the ball over 21 times. Last year, turnovers wound up being their biggest downfall against the Golden State Warriors and cost them a championship.
When the Celtics had 15 or more turnovers against the Golden State Warriors in the Finals last year, they were 0-4. In Game 6 of the Finals, they had 22 turnovers, which surpasses their season-high in turnovers for this year. As for this season, the Celtics are 5-6 when letting up 17 or more turnovers.
They must clean up their habits before the postseason starts if they really want to take home the Larry O'Brien this year.
