NBA Games of the Week: The best playing the best
By Chazz Scogna
Tuesday, Feb. 6: Boston at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. ET
I’ll sign up for seven games of this in the Eastern Conference Finals right now.
The Raptors continue to be one of the most fun teams in the league. They’re top four in both offensive and defensive rating, the only team to have that claim. Their 6.9 net rating is third in the league, almost a full two points ahead fourth-place Boston. The crazy thing is they’re 2.7 points behind first-place Golden State and 1.1 behind second-place Houston — the supercharged offense of Houston and the all-time talent of the Warriors is what it takes to top the Raptors season so far.
Even better, they’re attempting 31.8 three-pointers per game, good for fifth. Compare it to last year, they attempted fewer than 25 per game. I’ve said before that the revamped Raptors offense, and their ridiculous depth, have catapulted them up to levels the franchise has never seen. I enjoy everything about this team.
But that’s not to say the Celtics aren’t as good or as fun. Though they won’t have an offense as efficient or lethal as Houston or Golden State or Toronto, their clamps on defense more than makes up for the gap.
The trouble with the Celtics is this week they play five times this week, all against playoff teams, including the second (Toronto), third (Cleveland, who stinks) and fourth (Washington) seeds in the East. If they can go 4-1 or 3-2 with wins over those top teams, then they can set themselves up well for the second part of the season. And the silver lining: After they play those five games, their next five opponents heading into the All-Star break are all under .500.