Preview: Toronto Raptors vs Boston Celtics — Home at last!

Home sweet home!

Toronto returns back to Scotiabank Arena tonight after a lengthy western road trip. The road has not treated the Raptors very kindly this season, as they sit at a measly 6-15 as the away team.

Home is truly where the heart is, as Toronto’s record is drastically better at home, currently sitting at 9-9 on the season. With the home crowd behind the, they’ll need all the help they can get as they host the league leading Boston Celtics.

Despite a close-fought, seven game series in the 2020 bubble, this rivalry has been lopsided for quite some time now. Dating back to the 2019-20 season, the Raptors are 3-15 against the Celtics, having lost their last seven games against Boston.

Toronto hopes to snap both their losing streak to the Celtics, as well as their losing streak on the season, having dropped three in a row to end their road trip.

The Celtics are a formidable team, sitting first in the league and boasting a top five offence and defence. Despite their record overall, Boston is only 4-3 in their last seven, with the most significant loss in that stretch being to Indiana in the matchup where Tyrese Haliburton was injured and played only 13 minutes.

In the last two matchups between these teams, the Celtics only won by three points and then by two. Hopefully, if that trend continues, we can skip the loss by one point and go straight to a Raptors win.

How to Watch:

TSN at 7:30 p.m. ET

Lineups:

Toronto: Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Pascal Siakam, Thaddeus Young

Boston: Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis

Injuries:

Toronto: Christian Koloko (out - respiratory), Otto Porter Jr. (out - knee), Jakob Poeltl (out - ankle), Gradey Dick (questionable - thumb)

Boston: Jaylen Brown (OUT - knee)

*****

Jakob Poeltl still Out

The Raptors will continue to lack power in the front court as Poeltl is expected to be out for another week at least. He was seen doing light work at Raptors practice on Sunday though, which is good news.

With him out, and Otto Porter Jr. out with with a knee sprain, Toronto has struggled with size. They got absolutely destroyed on the glass in Friday’s game against Utah, and their replacement into the starting lineup, Thad Young, scored 0 points in that game.

Hopefully the team has made some lineup decisions to combat the loss of Poeltl going into what will be a tough battle.

Darko Drama

This game also marks the first time the Raptors have been home since Darko Rajakovic went on his rant last week about the NBA officiating system. Since then, Sacramento’s head coach has also spoken up about the discrepancies of officiating in the NBA.

Darko’s impassioned speech gained him a lot of support from Toronto Raptors fans, so it will be interesting to see if he is welcoming home tonight with roaring support from the Scotiabank Arena crowd.

Quickley the Celtic-Hunter

According to the internet... Immanuel Quickley loves playing the Celtics? He once scored 38 points against the Boston Celtics while he was still playing for the New York Knicks.

Will need him to turn that energy UP tonight — the Celtics are the number one team in the NBA and the Raptors would love to avoid a fourth straight loss.