Ranking all 4 potential Raptors first round playoff opponents

1. Boston Celtics

The Celtics would’ve been much lower on this list if we were just judging them on their first-half performance. Ime Udoka has done a masterful job of completely reinventing Boston’s style, creating a hellacious defense while he’s at it. They are white-hot at the moment.

Not only has Boston won nine of their last ten, but they’re doing so while blowing out contenders. This week, the Celtics beat the Warriors, Jazz, and Nuggets by a combined 70 points. With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown ready to unleash the full force of their scoring skill, Toronto should feel nervous about this team’s new identity.

The Boston Celtics could be a bad matchup for the Toronto Raptors.

After a very slow start to the season, the Celtics currently occupy the No. 4 seed. This means that any potential benefit the Raptors might incur as a result of leapfrogging the Bulls in the standings could be nullified by going up against such a difficult team.

This is not the same team that Scottie Barnes decimated in his first-ever road game. Boston has a collection of perfectly molded role players to go along with an emerging young big man in Robert Williams and one of the best 1-2 punches in the game in Brown and Tatum. The Raptors might not fare well against them.