Restart Game #4: Toronto Raptors vs Boston Celtics - August 7, 2020 - 9:00 PM ET

[MixxAOR]

PROBABLE STARTERS

TORONTO RAPTORS







VS

BOSTON CELTICS







GAME NOTES

• The Toronto Raptors continue play in the Orlando bubble Friday night when they face the Boston Celtics. Boston leads the season-series (2-1). Toronto’s starting backcourt of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet are averaging 24.3 and 17.7 points, respectively, in three games against the Celtics this season. The two teams have split the previous two season-series (2017-19).

• The Raptors currently lead Boston by 4.5 games for second in the Eastern Conference. With a victory Friday, Toronto would capture its sixth Atlantic Division title in the last seven seasons.

• Toronto needs one victory in its final five “seeding” games to reach 50 wins for the fifth straight season. The Raptors never won 50 games in their first 20 NBA seasons. Since the start of the 2015-16 campaign, Toronto’s .691 (273W-122L) winning percentage during the regular season leads the NBA.

• The Magic scored 99 points and shot .402 (35-87) from the field Wednesday night. The Raptors have now held their opponent to fewer than 100 points in 21 games this season - most in the NBA. Toronto is 17-4 in those contests. The Raptors lead the NBA in points allowed per game (106.1) and opponent three-point percentage (.334), and rank second in opponent field goal percentage (.427).

• Fred VanVleet scored 21 points to lead the Raptors to their seventh consecutive win (Mar. 3 - Aug. 3), a 109-99 victory over the Magic on Wednesday. Toronto improved to 3-0 in the Orlando bubble. Over their last seven regular season games, the Raptors are shooting .451 (219-486) from the floor and .396 (89- 225) from beyond the arc, while Kyle Lowry is averaging a team-high 25.3 points.

• Pascal Siakam is averaging career highs of 23.3 points and 7.5 rebounds this season. Only two players in Raptors history have finished a season averaging at least 23.0 points and 7.0 rebounds: Chris Bosh in 2009–10 (24.0, 10.8) and Kawhi Leonard in 2018–19 (26.6, 7.3). • Through three games in Orlando, Fred VanVleet is averaging team highs of 23.3 points and 8.3 assists. VanVleet has posted two double-doubles and led the team in scoring twice in the team’s first three games.

• OG Anunoby finished with 12 points in Wednesday’s win over the Magic. Anunoby has scored in double figures in nine-of-12 games since the NBA All-Star break, including a career-high 32 points Mar. 1 at Denver. He is averaging 13.7 points post NBA All-Star, compared to 10.2 points in 54 games before the break.

• No opposing player has scored 30 points against the Raptors since Brooklyn’s Caris LeVert had 37 points in the Nets’ loss Feb. 8 at Toronto. According to Elias, Toronto’s current streak of 14 straight games without allowing an opponent to score 30+ points is the longest current streak for any NBA team.

[planetmars]

I think most Raptor fans had this game penciled in before the restart. Tatum, Brown and Hayward have all been great. Theis is a ball of energy. Smart can be a handful on defense. And Kemba always goes off on us (although gives it right back on defense).

Celtics scored 149 against the Nets and had plenty of rest.. but we had RHJ playing point against Orlando. Everyone is primarily healthy. Going to be a really fun game. Can't wait!

It's a bummer that the game start at 9 though.

[G__Deane]

This feels like a playoff game....but the Celtics needs this more than the Raps do. How about Norm or Siakam goes off?

[DanH]

OK, was hoping last game but this game would be great to see Siakam establish his post up game. In the playoffs, if we meet up with them, the biggest advantage we'll have on offence is if Siakam can score easily inside with their lack of real size. This game would be a good test of that.

[Jclaw]

With the caveat of "is each team really going to show their best hand before the playoffs?", I think this might be a Pascal night. He must hear all the talk of who is the next superstar in the east..Pascal or Tattum (well, obviously it's TJ Warren ). Pascal should trade off with Tattum, OG can guard Brown. Kyle and Kemba might be a wash. We should have an edge inside. But it may come down to who has the better night between Hayward and Freddy

[golden]

With the caveat of "is each team really going to show their best hand before the playoffs?", I think this might be a Pascal night. He must hear all the talk of who is the next superstar in the east..Pascal or Tattum (well, obviously it's TJ Warren ). Pascal should trade off with Tattum, OG can guard Brown. Kyle and Kemba might be a wash. We should have an edge inside. But it may come down to who has the better night between Hayward and Freddy

I think we'll probably see Fred chasing Kemba around and Lowry daring Hayward to post him up.

[G__Deane]

With the caveat of "is each team really going to show their best hand before the playoffs?", I think this might be a Pascal night. He must hear all the talk of who is the next superstar in the east..Pascal or Tattum (well, obviously it's TJ Warren ). Pascal should trade off with Tattum, OG can guard Brown. Kyle and Kemba might be a wash. We should have an edge inside. But it may come down to who has the better night between Hayward and Freddy

Maybe Gasol or Serge will surprise

[planetmars]

McCaw had a career night against these guys last time out... is he playing or still out?

[LJ2]

OK, was hoping last game but this game would be great to see Siakam establish his post up game. In the playoffs, if we meet up with them, the biggest advantage we'll have on offence is if Siakam can score easily inside with their lack of real size. This game would be a good test of that.

Yup, Raptors need to establish a half court offense for the playoffs when play typically slows down. Marc would also make a lot of sense to me in the post, but he seems more comfortable swinging the ball from the perimeter and it also saves him having to hustle back on defense (as much) against smaller, younger, quicker opposition. Siakam is the obvious choice here. His size and length should allow him to dominate.

[DanH]

With the caveat of "is each team really going to show their best hand before the playoffs?", I think this might be a Pascal night. He must hear all the talk of who is the next superstar in the east..Pascal or Tattum (well, obviously it's TJ Warren ). Pascal should trade off with Tattum, OG can guard Brown. Kyle and Kemba might be a wash. We should have an edge inside. But it may come down to who has the better night between Hayward and Freddy

I'd expect them to have OG guard Tatum, while Tatum has to stick to Pascal, to make Tatum work on both ends and split the load between the two guys on our end. If they try to guard Pascal with Brown, great, he should be able to take advantage with his length. They like to swap guarding roles compared to offence anyway to try to get mismatches in transition. I'd also expect Freddy to get the Kemba assignment, while Lowry and Pascal toss a coin for Brown/Hayward, and whoever Lowry gets, dare them to post up and we bring Gasol to double team.

[DanH]

McCaw had a career night against these guys last time out... is he playing or still out?

I don't think there is official word, but before the last game they made it sound like a longer term thing. Hard to say though.

[slaw]

With the caveat of "is each team really going to show their best hand before the playoffs?", I think this might be a Pascal night. He must hear all the talk of who is the next superstar in the east..Pascal or Tattum (well, obviously it's TJ Warren ). Pascal should trade off with Tattum, OG can guard Brown. Kyle and Kemba might be a wash. We should have an edge inside. But it may come down to who has the better night between Hayward and Freddy

Definitely has the potential to be a late season game between contenders that ends up being both underwhelming and completely meaningless with Stevens and Nurse experimenting with lineups and players holding back a little.

[Sonny]

I'm here for the Kyle Lowry vs Marcus Smart matchup!

[chris]

I don't think there is official word, but before the last game they made it sound like a longer term thing. Hard to say though.

at this stage i think he's close to being permanently out of the rotation for the remainder of this season, despite how much nurse loves him.

OG couldn't crack the playoff rotation last year when he was available after his appendectomy, because they didn't want to throw him back out there in a super high intensity environment after a lengthy time out. if mccaw's not able to play any meaningful minutes in these seeding games i don't see nurse inserting him into a playoff game after 5 months off.

[KeonClark]

I wanna compile all of mixx album covers and make a poster out of it. That's how highly I think of the effort on these. They're all so clean and fresh...and brand new ideas for every game. We're not worthy.