National Basketball Association

3 Takeaways From Celtics-Raptors

Published Sep. 1, 2020 9:07 p.m. ET

The defending champion Toronto Raptors are officially in deep waters.

The Boston Celtics won Game 2 over the Raptors, 102-99, and now have a commanding 2-0 series lead.

Here are the key takeaways from this Eastern Conference semifinals matchup.

1. Marcus Smart gets offensive

The Boston Celtics entered the fourth quarter trailing 78-70.

Then Marcus Smart went supernova.

Smart made five three-pointers and scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to serve as the catalyst for Boston's comeback victory.

For the series, Smart is 11-for-20 from deep.

He is known mostly for his hard-nosed defense, but his hot shooting has been a major factor in the Celtics rushing out to a 2-0 series lead.

2. Walker finishes what Tatum started

So far this postseason, Jayson Tatum has been on a different level.

Tatum recorded his third game of at least 32 points so far this postseason in only six games played, carrying the Celtics offense by scoring 29 points in the first three quarters.

He connected on all 14 of his free-throw attempts and his 34 points were a new playoff career-high.

In the postseason, he is now averaging 27.2 points for the 6-0 Celtics.

However, best of all for Boston is the fact that Tatum's got help.

When Tatum went slightly cold in the fourth, scoring 5 points on 1-for-4 shooting, Boston's star point guard stepped in to shut the door.

Kemba Walker, along with Smart, dominated the fourth, not missing a basket and scoring the final 5 points for Boston down the stretch.

3. Toronto's 'Big 3' goes cold

While the Celtics got big contributions from Tatum, Smart and Walker, the Raptors core players struggled in Game 2.

For the second consecutive game, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam failed to reach 20 points, and all three failed to shoot at least 40% from the field.

While Siakam and Lowry struggled throughout the game, VanVleet was hot in the first half, scoring 14 points.

But in the second half, VanVleet only scored 5 points while shooting 2-for-10 from the field and 1-for-6 from three-point range.