Predictions: Celtics vs Raptors

[coco]

depends  whether Kanter will be allowed to travel to Canada for away games?

I forgot, that would've been a big issue for Boston if these games weren't in Orlando, FL.

I think Kanter recently became an American citizen.
Travel shouldn’t be an issue anymore.

[tenn_smoothie]

I suppose Danny and Brad stayed with this bench without a trade because they didn't see us winning the title quite yet and figured if the real young bench develops into solid players, it will coincide with the Jays becoming super stars and we will hit a nice long window of contention. But the young, raw talent of the kids is not showing up much at all. Plus, Brad is gonna play our stars into the ground like this. These crazy playoff minutes have a residual effect seasons later.

[gouki88]

I suppose Danny and Brad stayed with this bench without a trade because they didn't see us winning the title quite yet and figured if the real young bench develops into solid players, it will coincide with the Jays becoming super stars and we will hit a nice long window of contention. But the young, raw talent of the kids is not showing up much at all. Plus, Brad is gonna play our stars into the ground like this. These crazy playoff minutes have a residual effect seasons later.

Why will they be run into the ground? The Jays averaged 34MPG throughout the condensed season. This isn't like Thibs on the Bulls playing Deng 39MPG in the regular season then 42MPG in the playoffs.

I'm all for ensuring our players stay healthy, but they are professional athletes after all.

Also, how have the kids not shown up? Tatum averaged 27-10-2.5 with over 2 blocks per game, on shooting splits of 49% from the field and 45% from 3 through this series, and Brown averaged 22-6-2.5  while shooting 45% from the field and 35% from 3. Brown was shooting below his usual from 3, but that's hardly not showing up. Those are All-NBA and All-Star tier numbers respectively, and we swept our opposition.

Unless you meant the raw talent of our bench youth, in which case to an extent I agree, but our bench vets in Kanter and Wanamaker have been solid

[Surferdad]

I suppose Danny and Brad stayed with this bench without a trade because they didn't see us winning the title quite yet and figured if the real young bench develops into solid players, it will coincide with the Jays becoming super stars and we will hit a nice long window of contention. But the young, raw talent of the kids is not showing up much at all. Plus, Brad is gonna play our stars into the ground like this. These crazy playoff minutes have a residual effect seasons later.

Couple of posters here freaking out about the minutes for the starters. C’mon, these guys just had a 4-month rest and they are young.  I don’t see an issue at all.  This is the playoffs, win or lose with your top 8 or 9.

[RPGenerate]

I hate to be that guy, but why are we babying our players so much in terms of minutes. They have to play 40 minutes in playoffs games? The horror!!! Does everyone forget that not long ago, stars used to play that every night for 82 games? It's not ideal, but our stars are young; they'll be fine.

[MichiganAdam]

I fear our starters will be dead by the middle of the 2nd round lol.

The bench really needs to be more like they were in Game 2 of this series if we want to beat Toronto. Just 11 bench points today.

Meanwhile, Tatum and Brown played 41 minutes and Smart played 43 minutes today. Is that sustainable in a long series??

CBS though doesn’t really have better options if the bench can’t score much and with Hayward out. We don’t need the bench to play superstar-like (though it’d be nice) but they need to do better than just 10-15 points a game. PHI at times came back today before the 4th quarter because the scoring dried up again with our bench mostly in.

Remember...in some respects these playoffs are different with no travel.  Also seems to be a little more time off between games so far.

Also, Semi I like you and still think you’ve got solid 3-and-D potential similar to Crowder and others alike. But you’ve GOT to drain these 3s man. Especially the open looks more often.

Yeah of course you want Kemba + Tatum to shine in their matchups against Lowry and Siakam, but Toronto's bench is really good and so we need our bench to do well also

[CelticsPoetry]

This is as far as Boston will go, unfortunately. Lack of Gordon Hayward and an abysmal bench will doom the Celtics against these quick, dangerous, and deep Raptors team.

Toronto in 5.

Dude what is up with you always being against the Cs? Aren't you a Celtics fan?

[Neurotic Guy]

I hate to be that guy, but why are we babying our players so much in terms of minutes. They have to play 40 minutes in playoffs games? The horror!!! Does everyone forget that not long ago, stars used to play that every night for 82 games? It's not ideal, but our stars are young; they'll be fine.

John Havlicek AVERAGED over 45 mpg in the regular season from 1970-1972. Guys weren't as big and as strong. But running is running.   I think the big idea is that if the other teams' top players are all playing 35 and C's are playing 41 is probably will take its toll. 

I'm not as optimistic about beating the Raptors as many here, but if they do and then get Gordon back... who knows?

[blink]

Hard to predict this series, especially with bubble and no home court advantage.  I honestly didn't expect us to sweep the 76ers, so who knows with this series.
I expect it to go 6-7 games and it is anyone's guess right now.  Toronto is good and so are the C's...

[gouki88]

I hate to be that guy, but why are we babying our players so much in terms of minutes. They have to play 40 minutes in playoffs games? The horror!!! Does everyone forget that not long ago, stars used to play that every night for 82 games? It's not ideal, but our stars are young; they'll be fine.

John Havlicek AVERAGED over 45 mpg in the regular season from 1970-1972. Guys weren't as big and as strong. But running is running.   I think the big idea is that if the other teams' top players are all playing 35 and C's are playing 41 is probably will take its toll. 

I'm not as optimistic about beating the Raptors as many here, but if they do and then get Gordon back... who knows?

John Havlicek could probably play 3 games in one night back-to-back

[Phantom255x]

depends  whether Kanter will be allowed to travel to Canada for away games?

I forgot, that would've been a big issue for Boston if these games weren't in Orlando, FL.

I think Kanter recently became an American citizen.
Travel shouldn’t be an issue anymore.

Yeah, hasn't Kanter played in Toronto once already? I think the Christmas Day game? His first time at Toronto.

[Phantom255x]

I suppose Danny and Brad stayed with this bench without a trade because they didn't see us winning the title quite yet and figured if the real young bench develops into solid players, it will coincide with the Jays becoming super stars and we will hit a nice long window of contention. But the young, raw talent of the kids is not showing up much at all. Plus, Brad is gonna play our stars into the ground like this. These crazy playoff minutes have a residual effect seasons later.

Couple of posters here freaking out about the minutes for the starters. C’mon, these guys just had a 4-month rest and they are young.  I don’t see an issue at all.  This is the playoffs, win or lose with your top 8 or 9.

There's a decent chance in a long, 6-7 game series with games every other day that guys get fatigued and start running on fumes especially by the final few games. You've seen it with big men like Nurkic and Embiid lately, and you look at other teams like Toronto with a good bench and they don't need guys playing 40+ minutes often. Smart, Tatum and Brown in particular are having to really carry the load with Hayward out. Kemba's not in a minutes restriction BUT it seems they're trying to avoid having him go more than 38 minutes a game (unless it goes to OT and beyond).

Also, you're risking injury the longer you play. That's why in blowouts teams often take their star players off the court.

It's nice though that they took care of business today and will have at least three full days off before the next round. Maybe 5-6 days if the Raptors lose tonight.

[gouki88]

I suppose Danny and Brad stayed with this bench without a trade because they didn't see us winning the title quite yet and figured if the real young bench develops into solid players, it will coincide with the Jays becoming super stars and we will hit a nice long window of contention. But the young, raw talent of the kids is not showing up much at all. Plus, Brad is gonna play our stars into the ground like this. These crazy playoff minutes have a residual effect seasons later.

Couple of posters here freaking out about the minutes for the starters. C’mon, these guys just had a 4-month rest and they are young.  I don’t see an issue at all.  This is the playoffs, win or lose with your top 8 or 9.

There's a decent chance in a long, 6-7 game series with games every other day that guys get fatigued and start running on fumes. You've seen it with big men like Nurkic and Embiid lately, and you look at other teams like Toronto with a good bench and they don't need guys playing 40+ minutes often. Smart, Tatum and Brown in particular are having to really carry the load with Hayward out. Kemba's not in a minutes restriction BUT it seems they're trying to avoid having him go more than 38 minutes a game (unless it goes to OT and beyond).

It's nice though that they took care of business today and will have at least three full days off before the next round. Maybe 5-6 days if the Raptors lose tonight.

If we were playing Philly without their two stars and another starter or two our guys wouldn't be playing that long either. And in any case, Lowry has played two games over 35MPG, and Van Vleet has had a 43 minute game and a 39 minute game. Not exactly a tight leash

[CelticSooner]

Smart will determine whether the C’s win this series or not. He will have to give the C’s that 10-20 points they miss with Hayward. If the games are close down the stretch I think the C’s can pull it out. If their bench goes on a run it’s going to be tough. Could go either way.

[hpantazo]

Looks like Lowry suffered an ankle injury tonight and is going for further testing:

https://twitter.com/BDCCeltics/status/1297684575561416705