Today, the Toronto Raptors have another opportunity to see if they have what it takes to beat a contender in the Boston Celtics. 

Both teams have five games left in the regular season. While the teams who will appear in some type of playoff contention are set, it’s still unclear how exactly the seeding will shake out. Now more than ever, winning matters. 

Boston is four and a half games behind Detroit, who has clinched the one-seed, meaning catching up is no longer an option. Their goal will instead be to hold off the Knicks who sit only 2.5 games behind them, and maintain one of the hardest remaining schedules. 

Toronto handled business Friday in Memphis, but Atlanta and Philly were also both able to collect victories, solidifying the standings for another night. To the Raptors’ benefit, the Hawks and Sixers both have a far more challenging road ahead. 

So far this season, these teams have already met three times. All three of those contests went in Boston’s favour, each by at least three possessions. 

There’s no consistency in terms of any one thing that Boston out-did Toronto at. Boston shot better overall in two of the games, had better long range shooting in two of the games, out-rebounded in two, had more blocks in only one, had fewer turnovers in two, fewer fouls in only one….. And the list goes on. No one stat was in either team’s favour between the three contests. 

This leads us to the question: how can Toronto avoid the sweep by Boston and get another much-needed win?

The first key will be adaptability. Boston, and other great teams have this characteristic, which is what makes them so hard to beat. If you run them off the 3-point line, they drive. If you’re being aggressive defensively, they draw doubles and kick the ball out. Toronto needs to recognize how Boston’s game develops throughout the course of the game and keep adjusting their defence to slow and stop them. Adopting some of that strategy themselves would help too.

The second key will be slowing Boston’s big three. Brown and Tatum can score at will, and stopping them forces the less-efficient rest of the roster to make plays. The third “big” player in this is Pritchard. For whatever reason, he’s had some of his best games against Toronto, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he tries to have another 30-piece. The combination of Scottie, CMB, and Shead will have to step up in a big way to slow these guys, and hope that will stifle Boston’s offense enough. 

The third and final key is desire. At times this season, it’s felt like individual players or even the team as a whole doesn’t care. That’s easy to say from the other side of a TV screen, but even RJ pointed out the need for intensity recently when he said they needed to “play like their lives depend on it”. The season is coming to an end, and to set themselves up for the best chances to make it past the first round, they need to lock all the way in. He also pointed out that they are capable, as long as they play their brand of basketball:

Toronto: Chucky Hepburn (Out: Knee surgery), Immanuel Quickley (Out: Plantar Fasciitis)

Boston: Nikola Vucevic (Questionable: Finger fracture)

Toronto: Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jakob Poeltl, Brandon Ingram

Boston: Jayson Tatum, Sam Hauser, Neemias Queta, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown

Tune in at 3:30pm ET on Sportsnet.