Boston trots into Toronto looking to extend their four game winning streak and Toronto seems to want to oblige. With our hometown heroes sporting various injuries, Kinnon Yee takes a look at tonight's game.
You gotta love Doc Rivers.
After a 4-2 overtime score to win against Atlanta the other day, 88-86, Rivers says "That was the worst game we've ever won."
I wonder, did he mean for this year, this incarnation of the Celtics, or for all Celtics time? Cause I'm sure there's plenty of Toronto Raptors games that we could introduce him to, which would blow his mind.
In tonight's game, we have the unstoppable force facing off against the quickly folding cheap deck chair. The Raptors are doing their best to make up lottery places in these final games, and the Celtics are looking to maybe catch Indiana in the final stretch. This should be a no brainer and frankly, I don't see how the Raptors could win this game.
Sure, Jose Calderon could go off on the Celtics, or one of the roster-fillers like Alan Anderson could have something to prove and have an incredible shooting day. But at the end of the day, the Celtics are trying to tune up for the playoffs and while the Raptors have beaten the Celtics earlier this year, the Celtics just seem to turn it on in the last month of the year.
I frankly just don't see how the Raptors are going to take this one.
And if you're a reader of our site, I doubt you want them to.
Instead, I'd like to talk a little bit about our own coach, Dwane Casey.
Now for all that Dwane Casey has done this year, there's one aspect I'd say about him which hasn't been as prevailent as some of the other top coaches in the league.
He really isn't an interesting quote.
I know, we've had our share of exciting coaches. Kevin O'Neill, Brendan Malone, and the king of them all, Sam Mitchell have all been pretty entertaining even in spite of some pretty ugly Raptors teams. They'll talk with the media, chide them for asking certain questions, and heck, the players we've had on some of those previous teams have given us memorable moments.
I certainly can't forget Rafer Alston "quitting" the Raptors.
A lot of the best coaches have this quality too. The aforementioned Doc Rivers ,Phil Jackson, and Gregg Popovich all come to mind as people who sometimes shoot from the hip when in front of the media.
But this year, it's all be mum and without much incident. Sure, there was the DeRozan flare up, and I'm sure there's been the odd grumble about playing time, but it's been a relatively quiet year for the Raptors.
Then, with only a few weeks to go, oh boy! James Johnson is summarily suspended for a game (and DNP for a second) and the matter is handled internally, quietly without incident.
Just when I was heating up my popcorn.
Now I'm sure we were all hoping to hear stories of choking, karate chopping, blackbelt kicking action, but at the same time, Dwane Casey has run a tight ship. Casey's been largely vocal yet unconfrontational. You can see it in how he interacts with officials. He's passionate but he seldom gets thrown out.
The kind of coach you want to lead by example.
Especially the kind of coach you want to break in your wild horses.