{"id":585498,"date":"2026-04-06T08:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585498\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T08:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:55:08","slug":"raptors-back-in-play-in-position-as-celtics-coast-to-season-series-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585498\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors back in play-in position as Celtics coast to season-series sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 For a team chasing an NBA championship, getting Jayson Tatum<\/a> back at full strength is a big deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Boston Celtics haven\u2019t needed their five-time All-NBA wing to give the Toronto Raptors<\/a> the business, mind you. Boston was 3-0 before Sunday afternoon\u2019s game at TD Garden, with none of the results ever really in doubt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Tatum\u2019s return to All-NBA form after missing the first 62 games of the season recovering from a torn Achilles tendon suffered last May could very well be the finishing piece Boston needs to return to championship form.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not even clear they needed him against Toronto on Sunday, as the Celtics dusted the Raptors in the fourth quarter to coast home with the 115-101 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tatum was merely a \u2018nice-to-have\u2019 when the best big man on the court was the Celtics’ Neemias Queta. A Portuguese centre who was a former second-round pick and spent three seasons on two-way deals before signing a team-friendly three-year deal for $7.2 million. He scored 18 points on 10 shots, mostly on a mixture of putbacks (thanks to five offensive rebounds) and unimpeded rolls to the rim. These things happen, but considering that Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovi\u0107 eventually had to adjust his rotation so that he could match up rookie Collin Murray-Boyles<\/a> with Queta instead of Jakob Poeltl \u2014 who signed a three-year, $84 million extension last summer \u2014 you can kind of glean that the Raptors have bigger problems than how to match up with Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But that didn\u2019t go all that well either. Throw in Payton Pritchard, back in his super-sixth man role with Tatum healthy again, and the trio combined for 66 points on 53 per cent shooting, with Tatum adding 13 rebounds and seven assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Raptors’ core three players? They weren\u2019t nearly as good. Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett combined to shoot 16-of-43 from the floor (37 per cent) while committing nine turnovers. Once again, the difference in the game was the fourth quarter \u2014 a theme all season. The Raptors were trailing by three going into the third, coughed up a couple of live-ball turnovers, lost track of Pritchard for a three and a lay-up, and the lead was back up to 12 in the blink of an eye. The Raptors had cut the lead to seven with 4:53 left on a pair of buckets by Brandon Ingram, but a Queta putback dunk, a Pritchard steal and a Derrick White three sparked a 15-4 run that sealed it for Boston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we needed to come out with more urgency,\u201d said Ja\u2019Kobe Walter, who, together with Collin Murray-Boyles, were the Raptors’ bright spots. Walter finished with 16 points, was 4-of-5 from three and had two steals; one each on Tatum and Brown, who combined for 10 of Boston\u2019s 18 turnovers. \u201cThey went on a quick run in that fourth; we just didn\u2019t stop the bleeding. We have to figure out a way to punch back. Our identity is defence and we can\u2019t have that many slip-ups early in that quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray-Boyles finished with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. He added five assists, finding his teammates on cuts with some sharp passes out of the high post. It\u2019s his fourth consecutive game in double figures scoring, a stretch in which he\u2019s averaged 16.5 points per game on 65 per cent shooting.<\/p>\n

The loss dropped the Raptors into seventh\u00a0place in the East. They have the same 43-35 record as the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers, but Philadelphia owns the tiebreaker because it has a better divisional record.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That two of the Raptors’ best performers Sunday \u2014 and really of late \u2014 are Walter and Murray-Boyles might be the most encouraging thing about the Raptors as they unconvincingly plod their way to the post-season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Murray-Boyles, in particular, is a key figure for the Raptors now and in the future. If he can become a two-way difference maker, he represents Toronto\u2019s quickest path to meaningful improvement this year and next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And consider the circumstances:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Murray-Boyles isn\u2019t coming back from the kind of injury Tatum has admirably and remarkably fought his way back from, but his rookie season has been a battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He’s been dealing with two separate injuries to different parts of his left thumb \u2014 one when he caught his hand in the jersey of a Miami Heat player on Dec. 23\u00a0and the other when Lakers star Luka Doncic took a massive chop on his left hand on Jan. 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rookie tried to play through them, but would inevitably take some kind of blow on his thumb during the course of play and end up in obvious pain. The sight of Murray-Boyles waving his hand around like he\u2019d caught his finger in a car door was a common sight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It got to the point where Murray-Boyles needed some extended time off, the most telling sign being that he wasn\u2019t looking to score. In a 10-game stretch after Doncic\u2019s karate chop, Murray-Boyles was averaging just 4.9 shots in 23 minutes per game and just two offensive rebounds. In the 11 games before Doncic hit him (and Murray-Boyles sat out four games), the Raptors rookie was putting up 8.1 shots per game and grabbing 3.9 offensive rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s at least back to that level, if not better. And by the way, his thumb isn\u2019t back to normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even close,\u201d he said to me before the Celtics game. But it\u2019s not bothering him enough that it\u2019s affecting his offence. And he hasn\u2019t looked like he\u2019s caught in a door lately, so that\u2019s encouraging too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really trying to do as much as I can, whenever I catch it, to be more aggressive because I know that helps the team,” said Murray-Boyles. “I know that helps get teammates open even if I\u2019m not going to score. Just being aggressive makes teams respect me more.\u201d<\/p>\n

He showed it when he turned the corner in a pick-and-roll with Jamal Shead and rocked the backboard early in the second quarter. Or when he stood up Brown in the halfcourt and scored on a dunk in transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a moment in the second quarter against Memphis\u00a0on Friday when the Raptors had fallen behind \u2014 which felt a little bit concerning given the Raptors were coming off a disappointing loss to Sacramento, another tanking team, in their previous start \u2014 when Brandon Ingram was waiting to check into the game with Murray-Boyles. The 10-year veteran looked at the rookie and bumped fists and trusted the rookie with a simple message.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just told me play as hard as I can and let\u2019s blow this game out of the water,\u201d said Murray-Boyles.<\/p>\n

On his first touch, he finished another pick-and-roll with a dunk. His athletic burst stands out on a Raptors team that can be lacking in that area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s got plenty of room for improvement: his perimeter shooting is a work in progress, and even around the rim, he\u2019s very left-hand dominant, which the league will catch up to sooner than later, especially if the Raptors do end up in a playoff series. For now, it\u2019s not something he\u2019s worried about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he said. I\u2019ll just be aggressive. That\u2019s all that really matters. I\u2019m strong and I\u2019ll just use my size to my advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

His teammates are picking up on his confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s moving the needle for us,\u201d Ingram, who finished with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting against Boston, said. \u201cDefensively and offensively.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s very rare for a rookie. A lot of rookies, they want to show their stuff, but he\u2019s found his niche, he slides in the right spot, he\u2019s available at the right time and he sees the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the Raptors make the playoffs or survive the play-in is an open question. It\u2019s hard to be optimistic after matchups against teams like Boston, who have won four games against the Raptors by an average of 12 points. The Raptors are now just 5-17 against the top eight teams in the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But a performance like Walter had against Boston or the way Murray-Boyles has played of late, there\u2019s at least room for optimism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hey, wait \u2026 that\u2019s Aaliyah Edwards:\u00a0You never know who you will run into. I was taking the elevator up to floor level at TD North Garden, and there was Edwards, the Canadian women\u2019s national team star and Connecticut Sun forward. She was in Boston as part of an all-female broadcast on NBC Sports Boston, doing pre-and-post-game analysis. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been interested in,\u201d said Edwards, who is poised to start her third WNBA season and second with the Sun. \u201cI majored in communications at UConn, so it\u2019s definitely something I want to do in the future. Obviously, my priority is basketball in my season and my passion, but off-season, this is my chance to explore and tap into different things that I like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slowly for Quickley:\u00a0\u201cI missed basketball.\u201d That\u2019s how Immanuel Quickley described how he was feeling as he sat in the Raptors locker room before the Celtics game, his troublesome right foot encased in a bucket of ice. He\u2019s at least able to see some basketball in his future. He\u2019s out of the light walking boot he was wearing to protect the case of plantar fasciitis that popped up recently and has kept him out of the lineup for eight games and counting. The Raptors’ point guard has gone through on-court workouts for three straight days now, without a setback. The official word is he’s \u2018ramping up\u2019 his basketball activity, with no return date set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now there are four:\u00a0Back when the Raptors had 10 games left on their schedule, I broke them down this way: They had three games against elite teams they have struggled to compete with all season; three games against the \u2018tanking class\u2019 the Raptors have mostly done well against, and four against the middle class \u2014 their peer group, basically. I suggested that if the Raptors could finish 6-4, with three wins against the tankers and three-out-four against the middle class (presuming they go 0-3 against the elite), it would be enough to finish with 46 wins and grab sixth place.<\/p>\n

So far? They went winless against Detroit and Boston but went 2-0 against New Orleans and Orlando. They dropped the game against Sacramento but easily handled Memphis to go 1-1 against the tankers. With four games left, they can likely control their destiny if they can sweep Miami, which they host for two games in Toronto this week. They then go on the road against the third-seeded Knicks next Friday before finishing at home on Sunday against the woeful Nets. Meaningful basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 For a team chasing an NBA championship, getting Jayson Tatum back at full strength is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-585498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}