Power forward Jayson Tatum once again showed his great class by throwing the decimated Boston Celtics on his shoulders and guiding them to a 114-126 road win over the undervalued Toronto Raptors.
Tatum, who did not feel the effort made on Sunday in the game that his team played and won, also at home, 120-122 against the Detroit Pistons, scored 40 points that made the difference in the final score.
The Celtics, who played without three of their main point guards, bounced back from a poor start to the game, still on heavy legs from Sunday’s effort, and had a 26-point lead in the second half.
The Boston team finished the game with 49 percent shooting from the field.
Tatum turned the game around with 21 points in the second quarter. He finished the game with five triples and made his 13 free-throw attempts to stay within one point of his personal best, imposed last January in the game they played against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Rookie point guard Payton Pritchard was also the positive note of the night with the Celtics, scoring 23 points and eight assists for the Celtics.
Guard Jaylen Brown maintained his status as a permanent support player for the team and reached 19 points.
Backup center Robert Williams III emerged as the winning wow factor as did rookie Pritchard, contributing 11 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks.
Again, the guard-guard Fred VanVleet was the only Raptors player who showed consistency in the attack of the Canadian team, involved this start of the season in a losing streak.
The 35 points and eight rebounds contributed by VanVleet were not enough to avoid the defeat of the Raptors (1-5).
VanVleet scored 14 points in the first quarter and Toronto made seven of its first nine three-point attempts to take a 28-15 lead in the first eight minutes.
But the Raptors missed their next 13 3-point attempts and by the time VanVleet made one, with 7:24 left in the third period, they were down 15, without being able to make the comeback.
Tatum took over late in the first half, scoring 13 points during an 18-2 run by the Celtics (5-3) Boston. He concluded the first half with four straight free throws to give the Celtics a partial 46-61 lead.
The Boston team increased the margin to 23 in the third quarter, and when Tatum benched with five personal fouls and less than 10 minutes left, the Celtics were up 93-109.
The Raptors, who have had a double-digit advantage in each of their games this season, shot 40% from the field and made 13 of 37 three-point attempts, too little against an opponent who was superior in the decisive moments of the game .
