Celtics rally from 22 down in the second quarter to beat Raptors
The Boston Celtics rallied from 22 points down in the second quarter to beat the Toronto Raptors 98-93 for their fifth straight win.
The Celtics trailed 59-37 with 5:24 left in the second quarter. They outscored the Raptors 61-34 the rest of the way.
The Raptors had the ball down 3 with 15 seconds left, but Sam Hauser stole the ball from Jamison Battle, lifting the Celtics’ chance to win from 91% to 96%. A 3-pointer would have tied the game.
During clutch time, the Celtics outscored the Raptors 12-4. Jayson Tatum scored 5 of the Celtics’ 12 on 1 for 3 shooting and 3 for 4 at the line. Early in the fourth quarter, Baylor Scheierman had 2 steals, both with the game within five points, and the Celtics scored 3 points off them. The Raptors held Tatum to 1 for 5 on pull-up 3-pointers. He has taken 904 pull-up 3-pointers since 2022-23, the third-most in the NBA, and made 33.0% of them (the league: 33.6%).
Tatum had 24 points and 8 assists but shot 6 for 21, and Derrick White added 19 points, 7 assists and 4 blocks.
For the Raptors, Ja'Kobe Walter scored 17 points (12 in the first quarter, on 4 3-pointers) with 5 3-pointers, and Immanuel Quickley went 1 for 8 from 3.
The Celtics went 24 for 28 at the line to the Raptors’ 13 for 18. The Raptors took 10 of their 85 shots in the paint away from the rim (12%), the lowest share of their season. They had averaged 21%. They got 12 offensive rebounds, about 4 fewer than usual for the shots they missed. The Celtics scored the last 8 points of the game. The Celtics outscored the Raptors 16-2 in 5 minutes with Tatum, White, Queta, Hauser and Scheierman on the floor together.