No matter where Isaiah Thomas sprinted to on the floor, there was seemingly one or two defenders with him, awaiting him or on his heels.
The Toronto Raptors did all they could to take away as much of Thomas’ airspace as possible.
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- Highlights: Toronto Raptors 114, Boston Celtics 106
- Celtics implode in fourth quarter, lose to Raptors, 114-106
And he still managed to score 27 points and dish out seven assists.
Thomas got solid contributions from his teammates offensively.
But their defense more than anything else, was to blame for Tuesday’s 114-108 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Boston Celtics
“We didn’t make plays,” Thomas told reporters after the game. “We didn’t make shots on the offensive end. And on top of that we didn’t get stops. They got into a rhythm. They scored at will the last part of six minutes.”
Celtics coach Brad Stevens echoed similar sentiments:
“The last six minutes of the third quarter crushed us and the last six minutes of the fourth,” Stevens told reporters after the game. “It was like 42-15 in those time frames.”
Despite the loss, Stevens said he took more positives away from the loss than negatives.
Al Horford believes in the long run, the Celtics will benefit from having gone through a game like this.
“This is a good learning experience for our team,” Horford told reporters. “We’ll grow from this. We really had this game in control and just let it get away.”
Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Tuesday’s game.
STARS
DeMar DeRozan: He was a man among boys in the second half which is when he scored 31 of his game-high 41 points.
Isaiah Thomas: Thomas did a nice job of balancing his scoring with getting others involved, scoring a team-high 27 points with seven assists which was also a team high for Boston.
Kyle Lowry: Extremely efficient with the ball, Lowry had 24 points on 7-for-12 shooting with nine assists, four rebounds and two steals.
STUDS
Marcus Smart: It was a solid night for Smart who is still filling in for Avery Bradley (Achilles injury). Smart had 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting with four rebounds and five assists with four steals and a blocked shot.
Jonas Valanciunas: Boston had no answer for how to keep him off the boards, as he finished with a double-double of 18 points and 23 rebounds with two blocked shots.
Al Horford: It was yet another stat-stuffing night for Horford. He had 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting, to go with nine rebounds and four assists.
DUDS
Patrick Patterson: He’s usually a wild card that winds up hurting the Celtics, but not so on Tuesday night. He was scoreless for the Raptors in 21 minutes, missing all three of his field goal attempts while racking up four personal fouls.