Celtics at Raptors
A day after their final home game of the season was canceled in the wake of the bombings in Boston, the Celtics hit the road Wednesday for their regular-season finale in Toronto. Boston's game against Indiana on Tuesday at TD Garden was called off in the hours after the tragic incident Monday afternoon near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The NBA announced that it would not make up the game, which had no impact on the standings.
The Celtics locked up the No. 7 seed Saturday with a 120-88 win in Orlando. It was Boston's largest road win of the season and it was able to spread the minutes in preparation for the postseason, which will begin this weekend in New York. Toronto finished its road schedule Tuesday with a 113-96 win in Atlanta. DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points to lead the Raptors, who were able to play spoiler by giving the Hawks a loss that could hurt their seeding. Toronto has won four straight and six of seven.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, Comcast SportsNet (Boston), TSN2 (Toronto)
ABOUT THE CELTICS (41-39): After the blasts shook their city to its core, Celtics team officials expressed a strong desire to cancel the game, saying it would not be right to play a relatively meaningless basketball game at such a time. The team has to move on at some point, however, and it knows that its performance can do wonders for the residents of Boston. "I think that's what our city wants," coach Doc Rivers told reporters at practice Tuesday. "I think that you hear the police commissioner today talking about that. We want to return things as soon as possible back to normal because that tells whoever did this that you don't stop the spirit of Boston."
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (33-48): Toronto will miss the postseason for the fifth straight year, but it has increased its win total in three consecutive seasons and is ending this one on a good note. Each of its four straight wins has come against teams that had already clinched the playoffs but had something to play for in terms of seeding. None of them were taking the night off, but the Raptors took care of business. Much of the success has come on the defensive end. The Hawks shot 39.8 percent in becoming the sixth opponent in Toronto's 6-1 stretch to fall short of 100 points. However, Toronto has also flashed some prolific offense during the late surge, scoring 96 points through the first three quarters on Tuesday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Even with the win in Orlando, Boston has lost eight of its last 10 road games.
2. DeRozan has scored 66 points on 23-of-39 shooting in his last two games.
3. The Celtics have won the first three meetings this season by an average of 15.3 points.
PREDICTION: Raptors 99, Celtics 90