Toronto Raptors: Five takeaways from win against Boston Celtics

Jekyll and Kawhi

Kawhi Leonard played poorly in the first half. He shot 3-11, had two turnovers, and was often holding up the flow of the offense to attempt ineffective post-ups on like-sized players.

Most of his looks weren’t terrible, particularly those which came within the flow of the offense rather than trying to isolate a “favorable” switch. (Al Horford stifled him on a couple of occasions late in the second quarter).

Mostly, shots just weren’t falling. That tends to happy when you’ve played in only a handful of games during the past calendar year.

In the second half, shots started to fall.

Kawhi began the quarter with an explosive blow-by past Jaylen Brown and a two-handed jam. The play might not seem like much, but it’s one of the few times we have seen Kawhi look like himself athletically since being traded to Toronto.

From that point forward Kawhi began to assert himself. In eight minutes of play, he scored 15 points, shot 5-7 (including a perfect 5-5 from inside the arc), and perhaps most importantly, had/made five free-throw attempts.

The same mid-post, isolation/post-ups that stalled the offense in the first half, resulted in buckets during the third.

The fourth saw Leonard return to earth as he scored seven points inefficiently.

However, the third quarter was enough. Both to help Toronto Klaw back into the lead and to give Raptors fans a glimpse of what the Kawhi experience can be like when he is running on all cylinders.