Three reasons the Boston Celtics are the scariest matchup for the Toronto Raptors

Toronto Raptors: The Boston Celtics will have the best player on the court

So often the team with the best player and best performer will be the one who advances to the next round in the playoffs. The problem for the Toronto Raptors here is that they won’t have the best player in the series, Jayson Tatum. The Raptors have played most of their games against the Celtics before Jayson Tatum’s resurgence as a player.

I am more than confident in this year’s Coach of the Year, Nick Nurse, to find the appropriate game plan to shut down Tatum. Throughout the season they had Kyle Lowry as the primary defender against Tatum, and it feels as though that has to change. Tatum is 6 feet 8, while Lowry is only 6 feet 0. As great as a defender Kyle Lowry is, Tatum still shot 7/11 from the field when guarded by Lowry.

Nurse will most likely stick OG Anunoby on Jayson Tatum once the series starts. Anunoby is one of the best on-ball defenders in the league and has the height and wingspan to deal with Tatum. We already have a small sample size of OG guarding Tatum. In the five minutes where Tatum was guarded by OG, he shot 1 for 5 from the field and had 2 turnovers.

With Gordon Hayward gone for the series — Anunoby was his primary defender — we can definitely expect this switch from coach Nick Nurse. Tatum is still an exceptional offensive gift and will find a way to score nonetheless, but if they can limit Tatum’s threes and force him into his mid-range fadeaways, then those are shots that Nurse will live with, even if they go in.

The Raptors have to do everything it takes to shut down Tatum, the absence of Hayward will certainly help them a lot since they have one less twenty point guy to worry about.

The Toronto Raptors amazing 11-1 record in bubble won’t look that nice for too long after this series. It’ll be a long, ugly, and hard-fought battle between the two. Expect it to be a very tight series, and we’ll have to hope that the matchups are not like the regular-season ones.