Kyle Lowry led the way with a game-high 32 points, five assists and four rebounds.
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However, Lowry turned it on in the fourth, scoring 15 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc. The Celtics cannot win a championship with Durant and the roster they have now, and it would still be tough even if they added another free agent on their team. “I would never disrespect a bench”.
“I tried to tell the guys after the game, this is not on the coaches or anybody else”. I didn’t feel like they didn’t give us an opportunity to talk with them throughout the game. “For me it’s just about being consistent throughout”, Lowry said.
Toronto (46-21) has now won three straight and 12 of 15.
“We got ourselves back into the game, so we showed signs of playing like we know how, but a good team like the Raptors you can’t just play one good quarter”. “These are games we need and we don’t complete them”.
The Celtics were led by a team-high 20 points from Isaiah Thomas. “I guess we got back in it in the third quarter and then we had a cluster of errors there that led to transition points and kind of got us back out of it”. IN ranked fourth in steals per game at 9.0….
Then, with just over seven minutes remaining, Lowry hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Toronto a 17 point lead. The Toronto Raptors were, after all, facing the Boston Celtics, a playoff contender coach Dwane Casey warned had “pit-bulls”, and comprised “one of the scrappiest teams in the National Basketball Association”. “He came through and again he played with force. If you don’t play with force in this league people will take your reputation and everything you have”. X-rays were negative in Chicago, but the Raptors are being cautious, aiming to enter the playoffs at full health. Thomas led the comeback with 12 points. They led by 19 points early in the second quarter, 14 at half but just by five at the start of the fourth quarter. Thomas paced the visitors with eight points at the break. Credit Bismack Biyombo’s 25 boards with helping the Raptors to win the battle on the glass as Biyombo’s nine offensive rebounds tied Indiana’s total.
The Pacers might have won in regulation if Monta Ellis had made both of his foul shots, but the score was locked up at 85-85 before Toronto closed out in in the extra period.
“I don’t think anyone is discouraged”, said Amir Johnson. “That will be a little bit of a challenge for us to continue to build while we rest players and play games maybe not as meaningful”. With the exception of a short stretch around the five minute mark that included a string of turnovers, the Raptors exhibited good ball movement, and successfully quelled any mini-run that Boston put together.
Lowry finished with 32 points on 9-for-14 shooting, and had 15 of them in the fourth.
The game marked Lowry’s 21st career regular season game with 30-plus points.
35-year-old Argentinian power forward sparked Toronto’s bench in a delirious frenzy with every bucket. “I call Scola… he’s like an old-school Cutlass. He gets you where you gotta go but don’t rely on him for the road trips”. Jordan Hill had 11 and George Hill scored 10.NOTES: Raptors C Jonas Valanciunas (left hand contusion) was not active for the game…. G Norman Powell made his third consecutive start, as a result. G Evan Turner started for the Celtics in place of G Marcus Smart….
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It’s been a rough couple of games without Jae Crowder for the Boston Celtics.
