The Celtics beat the Raptors 115-101 on Sunday and got Nikola Vucevic back after he missed one month with a broken right ring finger, leaving Boston with a fully healthy roster for the first time this season. It was the kind of night that can matter more in late April than in early April: a win, a return, and a reminder that the Celtics can still pile up points even when the 3-pointer is not falling.
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 26 points, while Jayson Tatum added 23 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists as the Celtics improved to 53-25. Brown said the team has to find other ways to win when the three-ball is off, adding that in the past that has been one of its critiques. Boston made just 8 of 28 shots from 3-point range but scored 76 points in the paint, a number that told the story of how the game was won.
Neemias Queta was a big part of that. He made 9 of 10 shots and finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, giving Boston a steady interior presence. After the game, Queta said he thinks about earning more of a role all the time, said he felt he made a good case for it, and added that he cannot control those decisions. His focus, he said, is helping the team win.
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Vucevic’s first game back came after a month on the sideline, and the Celtics were outscored by 14 points while he was on the floor. Even so, he said he felt pretty good and comfortable in the flow of the offense and defense, though he added that it was not perfect and there were mistakes. He said the goal is to be himself, use his skill set and help within what Boston is trying to run.
The context is simple enough. The Celtics are two weeks from the playoffs, have been testing different looks in what could be a postseason preview and had not had a fully healthy roster at any earlier point this season. With four games remaining, they led the third-place Knicks by three games in the Eastern Conference. That cushion does not decide anything, but it does buy Boston time to sort out rotation questions while its roster is finally intact.
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Brown put the urgency plainly. It is great to have Vucevic back, he said, and the next step is to keep building toward the playoffs. For a team that already knows how to score, Sunday was a useful answer to a more important question: what happens if the threes stop and the game gets tight? The Celtics gave themselves a better answer than most teams do.
