BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla fielded one more question before the Celtics all but concluded their regular season by thrashing the Raptors. With the No. 2 seed already in hand, the question lingered over whether losing home court advantage in the playoffs will come back to haunt Boston.
“Honestly, a team went on a 20-game win streak, that’s what happened,” Mazzulla said on Friday.
The Celtics could enter the playoffs winners of 10-of-12 with a final victory. Mazzulla prefers another distinction — No. 1 in offense and defense over their last 15 games.
After Boston introduced Justin Champagnie, a second-year rebounder who played for the Raptors earlier this year, Jaylen Brown appeared in the locker room with a heavy bandage on his right hand. He blamed the injury on a vase that broke while he watered his plants, one of a dwindling but existing list of concerns for a Celtics team that went on to smash the Raptors, 121-102, with Brown, Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon out.
The win eliminated Toronto from eight-seed contention and set Boston up in the first round against the winner of Hawks-Heat in Tuesday’s play-in tournament game at 7:30 EST.
The Celtics held the Raptors to a 1-for-9 start from the field while Jayson Tatum began his 21-point half with a driving layup through Jakob Poetl and a pick-and-roll feed to Robert Williams III, who blocked Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam in succession and found Sam Hauser cutting back door for two. Boston built a 19-7 lead with a pair of Tatum scores at the rim separated by an Al Horford block on O.G. Anunoby.
Blake Griffin checked in first off Boston’s bench for real minutes in a fourth straight game, serving as the backup five while the Celtics returned to starting Horford and Williams III for the first time since Mar. 3. He chased down a pair of misses by teammates, blocked Anunoby guarding the middle and found Tatum cutting for a 16-point lead before the end of the first quarter. Griffin’s passes to Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, who returned from a heel injury to play heavy reserve minutes, for a three and give-and-go layup pushed the Celtics ahead by 21 points when Griffin checked out after nine minutes. Griffin’s case for playoff minutes escalated.
“Blake can help us out, depending on the matchups and who we play,” Tatum said. “We know what he’s gonna bring. He’s gonna go out there and compete. He can guard bigger guys. He’s gonna compete for every offensive rebound, can obviously stretch the floor, he’s gonna take charges. Blake is a guy who’s willing to do anything that we need him to. Whether that’s give us a spark, or if somebody’s out, if he needs to start, we can just count on Blake to do a variety of different things.”
Williams III and Horford both blocked three shots in the first half, decimating a Toronto team that looked ready to fade after a 14-2 Celtics run led by Pritchard, Tatum and Horford extended their lead to a game-high 36. Anunoby, Barnes and Siakam attacked the basket to lead a 24-6 run into the second half and pull back as close as 16 before White created a pair of layups for Mike Muscala and himself to settle the Celtics back into the driver’s seat.
“(Williams) has done a great job taking care of himself,” Mazzulla said. “We’ve done a good job ramping him up and getting him to a level of, he looked really good playing a long stint. That’s what we need him to do. These last two games, I saw a different Rob on the offensive end. When we play him, he has to have an ability to affect both ends of the floor. Tonight, you saw defensively, and he did a great job ducking in on cross-matches. That’s the little stuff he has to bring, his intentionality on offense. We need him to be involved, because he has the ability to screen and get guys open, and … if they’re going to switch, we have to be able to punish that with him.”
Tatum scored 21 points in under 20 minutes, shooting 7-for-12, while Sam Hauser unloaded his first career dunks attacking the basket to send the Celtics’ bench into a frenzy. As the wave broke out in the crowd, the win took on shades of the team’s early season dominance — without the elite shooting.
Boston finished 55.6% from the field and only 34.1% from three, a third recent victory while shooting below league average from three. They had previously been 16-20 when they struggled from deep.
“We got Malcolm. Derrick is a lot more comfortable. Experience is the best teacher,” Tatum said. “This group, we’ve been through a lot over these last two years, we’ve accomplished a lot and we’ve failed, we’ve failed together. Essentially, we’ve worked all offseason, preseason and had a great regular season … to get back to this point, to get to the playoffs, to get another opportunity, another shot, this is the moment we’ve been working for.”
