Joe Mazzulla’s core rotation consists of nine Celtics players. Nearly half of them were unavailable Tuesday night in Toronto.
No Jrue Holiday and Al Horford, who both sat out on the first night of a back-to-back. No Luke Kornet, who was ruled out for personal reasons. No Kristaps Porzingis, who was expected to play before being downgraded due to illness minutes before tipoff.
Those absences — Boston’s top three centers, plus one of its best defenders in Holiday — forced Mazzulla to roll out a procession of unfamiliar, mostly undersized lineups, many of which had never seen meaningful regular-season minutes together.
Those hodgepodge groups did the job, however. Despite their slew of missing pieces, the Celtics defeated the Raptors 111-101 for their sixth consecutive win.
Jayson Tatum again was Boston’s top playmaker, finishing with 19 points, 11 assists and six rebounds. Derrick White was a difference-maker at both ends, shooting 6-for-11 from three while notching three steals and two blocks, and Payton Pritchard added 20 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals in 35 minutes off the bench. Jaylen Brown led all Celtics scorers with 24 points despite going 0-for-5 from 3-point range.
Boston’s various absences forced Mazzulla to plum the depths of his bench, including giving recently signed veteran wing Torey Craig a surprise start at center. Neemias Queta, Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman and JD Davison all saw meaningful minutes, as well.
Toronto, which was missing starting center Jakob Poeltl and trade-deadline pickup Brandon Ingram, got 22 points from RJ Barrett and 21 from Scottie Barnes.
It didn’t take the shorthanded Celtics long to open up a double-digit lead. A Payton Pritchard 3-pointer eight minutes in put Boston up 10, and another two minutes later made it 31-18.
Scheierman and especially Walsh delivered a few eye-popping hustle plays in the first quarter. Queta had six points and three rebounds in his first eight minutes of floor time, but he also picked up three fouls during that span, limiting his availability.
Rather than turning to Boston’s only other available big, the seldom-used Xavier Tillman, when Queta hit foul trouble, Mazzulla chose to spend most of the game cycling through various small-ball lineups. Tillman was the only available Celtic who did not see the floor in the win, underscoring how far he’s falling down the depth chart.
The lineups that featured Tatum — who often played as the de facto “big man” with no traditional fours or fives on the floor — were highly effective. Boston outscored Toronto by 20 points over Tatum’s 20 first-half minutes, and he was an assist shy of a double-double at halftime.
When Tatum sat, though, the Celtics struggled. The Raptors opened the second quarter with a 10-0 run — including seven straight points from an aggressive and visibly animated Barnes — all while Tatum watched from the bench. That flurry cut an 11-point Boston advantage to one, and Toronto took its first lead shortly thereafter when Chris Boucher turned a Tatum turnover into a fast-break layup.
The Celtics scored on five of six possessions late in the quarter — including threes by Tatum and White and two up-close makes by Brown — to take a 66-54 halftime lead. They maintained that cushion during a tightly contested third quarter despite playing much of it without Brown, who limped to the locker room early in the frame.
Brown’s departure led to another opportunity for Scheierman, who checked back in to replace him, and the first meaningful NBA action of the season for two-way player JD Davison. Davison, the Maine Celtics’ all-time leading scorer, notched one steal and one assist (on a Scheierman floater) while giving Pritchard a four-minute breather.
Reentering with less than a minute remaining in the third, Pritchard immediately fed Sam Hauser for a 3-pointer, then hit his own stepback three just before the buzzer to make it 89-76 Boston. Hauser (10 points, five rebounds) started in place of Holiday and was a plus-19 in his 39 minutes, second only to Tatum’s plus-20.
Brown returned to start the fourth quarter and scored the next eight Celtics points. Two late threes from White — including a deep-heave 30-footer — helped Boston put the game away.
The Celtics will begin their longest and most compelling homestand of the season this Friday against the NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. But first, they’ll head to Detroit on Wednesday to face a Pistons team that’s been one of the league’s biggest surprises this season.
Led by first-time All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham, the Pistons are surging toward their first playoff berth since 2019. They’ve already surpassed their win total from the last two seasons combined (32-26) and are riding a seven-game win streak.