The Celtics turned a rough night into a clean finish Wednesday in Toronto, erasing a 22-point deficit to beat the Raptors 98-93. The comeback capped a perfect 4-0 road trip and pushed the winning streak to five games.
Jayson Tatum drove the recovery with 24 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, even while making just 6 of 21 shots. He also sparked an 11-0 second-quarter run that helped pull Boston back into a game that had looked out of reach, and Derrick White added 19 points with four blocks.
What made the finish matter was how little margin the Celtics left themselves. The Raptors led 93-90 with 1:14 left, then Boston closed on an 8-0 run, with Neemias Queta scoring 11 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking three shots before his two free throws with 15 seconds left made it 94-93. The Raptors were held to 32 second-half points and just two points during a 7-minute, 50-second stretch that began midway through the second quarter and carried into the third.
Tatum said the challenge was bigger than the opponent because of the circumstances around the game. The Celtics had played the 76ers the night before, were in the middle of their third road game in four nights and had to fight through fatigue after getting to the hotel at 3 in the morning. He said great teams have to win nights like that, whether the tiredness is physical or mental.
The strain did not end when the final buzzer sounded. The flight home to Boston was delayed by a mechanical issue, leaving the team stuck after a night that already had asked plenty of them. Some Celtics players sipped wine from paper cups while others ate fresh banana bread, a small ending to a win that was built on resilience, defense and one last run when the game was slipping away.
That is the part Boston will carry forward: not the hole it dug, but the way it climbed out of it. Tatum was not sharp from the field, yet he still controlled the game, and the Celtics found enough stops to turn a fatigue test into another win.
