The Toronto Raptors have equalized the series against the Boston Celtics. In game 4, the reigning champion fired from all cylinders and ultimately hit enough three-pointers to win the game 100: 93. The Canadians’ best scorer was Pascal Siakam with xx points.
Boston Celtics (3) vs. Toronto Raptors (2) 93:100 (BOXSCORE), Serie: 2-2
After OG Anunoby’s miracle throw in game 3, the Raptors won the game earlier this time. The champion was led by Pascal Siakam (23 points, 11 rebounds), who barely hit anything from a distance (2/13), but could not be stopped in the zone. The Cameroonian got support from the two guards, Kyle Lowry (22, 7 assists) and Fred VanVleet (17), as well as from Serge Ibaka (18, 4/4 threesome), who had the hot hand coming from the bench. In general, the Canadians let it rain three-pointers, of 44 attempts at least 17 found the target.
The Celtics could only dream of such a yield. Boston stayed freezing for the entire game (7/35), especially Jaylen Brown (14, 2/11 threesome) hit almost nothing at all. The best scorers of the Celtics were Jayson Tatum (24, 10/18) and Kemba Walker, (15, 8 assists) while Daniel Theis delivered 8 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block in 26 minutes.
The Canadians got off to a good start, thanks in large part to Lowry, who had marched to the free-throw line six times after just a few minutes. After the first quarter the point guard was already at 11 points, but was cleared once by Daniel Theis. The German was replaced by Robert Williams by Celtics coach Brad Stevens after two minutes, but Theis later made it much better.
Toronto Raptors benefit from poor Celtics shoot
Toronto took a lot of threesomes and hit them solidly, which was important as the Celtics delivered the zone well and allowed little in that area. Among others, Serge Ibaka was hot, who sank his first three triples and thus had almost as many hits as the entire Celtics team in the first half. Boston only hit 4/18 from distance and ran behind the music for the first 22 minutes, but the game was even at break (49:49) because Toronto only hit a meager 33 percent from the field after a good start.
After the move, the Raptors again had small advantages. Siakam didn’t hit anything from a distance, but the Cameroonian Brown made Brown look bad a few times in the post. On the side of the Celtics, on the other hand, almost only Tatum and Walker scored, while Brown put one corner three after the next on the ring.
VanVleet did better by the end of the third quarter. The Guard netted three threes in a row and gave the reigning champion the first double-digit lead of the evening and also the first double-digit lead in the series. Boston stayed tuned – despite the bad shooting. Tatum showed a few drives, but the Raptors always had an answer when in doubt and the Stevens team didn’t hit anything from a distance.
With a good two minutes left, Lowry raised the free-throw line to 11 again, but now the tremors began. Brown scored from outside, Marc Gasol fouled and Tatum followed up with an and-one. But the Celtics didn’t come closer than five points. A drawn offensive foul by Lowry against Tatum 32 seconds before the end took the wind out of the sails. The series is thus balanced, game 5 takes place on Tuesday night at 0.30 a.m.
