Despite a sluggish start to the match with five small points scored after six minutes, the Celtics marched on the Raptors to sign one of their biggest victories in their history: 125 – 71. This 54-point success is also the largest in home history, and it is therefore a franchise record. But in absolute terms, it is not the largest victory in their history, since six years ago, Jaylen Brown and his partners won by 56 points in Chicago!
It took a layup from Ulrich Chomche for the Celtics to equal this franchise record. Behind this basket, the reigning champions still had one possession to equal, or even beat, this record, but they preferred not to play it.
A big “road trip” to come
The most impressive thing is undoubtedly to have conceded only 71 points. It's the lowest total of the season, and the biggest defeat in Raptors history. It has now been three seasons since Toronto last beat Boston, and Joe Mazzulla was keen to highlight the impact of Jrue Holiday, back after treating his shoulder.
“Obviously the fact that he came back in good health was decisive”, analyzes the Boston coach. “I think he brings stability, especially defensively. It's one more player who can put pressure on the ball, it's one more player who can defend in different positions, it's one more player who can perform defensive tasks in different ways. And then he didn't have a lot of shots, but he made the ones he had. So I think his impact and his presence is more important to us than he realizes.”
An ideal return before spending a revealing “road trip” very tough with trips to Minnesota, Houston, OKC and Denver.
