Toronto Raptors: Five takeaways from win against Boston Celtics

The Toronto Raptors passed their first test of the young season by beating the Boston Celtics in a critical home game. What were the five biggest takeaways?

The Toronto Raptors won their first big matchup of the regular season on Friday night, with a win against the Boston Celtics. The matchup featured the top two teams of the Eastern Conference (Sorry Philadelphia) battling each other in the first of four regular-season contests.

In what was only the second game of the season for both teams, it’s important not to overreact from what we saw last night.

Both teams are integrating stars back into their lineup and are struggling with chemistry issues that will (or should) be gone come playoff time. Due to a minute restriction, Boston wasn’t even able to start Gordon Hayward to begin the second half.

The game was also played in Canada, a crucial difference in a matchup that features margins as razor-thin as this one.

Still, it’s hard not to be excited from what happened on the court Friday night.

The game started sloppily. With five minutes remaining in the first quarter, the two teams were tied with just 11 apiece.  As the benches of each side began to take the court, the Celtics took control of the game. Boston led for the majority of the first half and was ready to take a seven-point lead into half until Fred VanVleet made a quintessential Fred VanVleet play. 

The third quarter was won by the Raptors, thanks in large part to Kawhi Leonard. The team shot greater than 70-percent from the field and outscored Boston by a healthy seven-point margin.

The fourth saw the two teams battle back and forth until a dominant 10-0 Raptors run with under three minutes remaining which promptly ended the game.

So what were the biggest takeaways from the biggest game of the young NBA season? We take a look at five critical factors which may impact the Raptors moving forward the rest of the season.