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Celtics dispel SI's portrayal as "borderline-boring" with win over Raptors

 I wrote about this portrayal pre-season when Sports Illustrated rated the Boston Celtics 14th in "watchability", based on how entertaining their performance would be. Frankly, SI was not far off, but Boston's win last night over the Toronto Raptors was a team-generated victory - and a damn entertaining one.


The Guys-in-Green did it the right way this time, starting with Jayson Tatum. He only took 16 shots in the game - making two of them. But he did his best Larry Bird impression on an off shooting night, handing out a team-high 10 assists, to go with seven rebounds and a plus/minus of +13.

The guy that publicly criticized the Jay Team for being selfish at times put forth a solid line of 21 points (team-high), 8 boards and six assists. Marcus Smart, often taking heat for his reckless shot-taking hit 44% of his field goals, 40% from deep and 100% from the foul line.

Al Horford had yet another double-double consisting of 17 points and 11 rebounds. Grant Williams continued to show improvement as he scored 15 points while hitting 3-of-4 on 3-pointers. Josh Richardson finally got some decent floor time (27 minutes), taking second-place honors with 18 points.

Romeo Langford with eight rebounds (3 of them offensive) aided the cause, while Enes Kanter Freedom came close to his own double-double with nine points and 10 boards.

Entertaining? You bet! The win helped, but the Celtics showed they can win and entertain at the same time. But let me state that I miss the play of Payton Pritchard whose minutes have been severely limited this season - and I miss the excitement that Rob Williams generates. Now - are you not entertained?

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