The Celtics preseason finale was a enjoyable one. After taking a giant lead late, the Celtics let the sport slip away earlier than Xavier Tillman Sr. saved the day with a recreation profitable floater over the Raptors. Boston beat Toronto, 110-108.
BOSTON WINS IT ‼️
Xavier Tillman hits the GAME-WINNING floater with 0.8 seconds left 🤯 https://t.co/RKWPV7pvHZ pic.twitter.com/8Hzz9lNmS2
— NBA (@NBA) October 16, 2025
It was the primary time we received to see the Celtics take the ground in opposition to a workforce’s beginning lineup. The Raptors began their projected beginning 5 of Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl. For the Celtics, it was Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Chris Boucher (in his 2nd revenge recreation) and Neemias Queta. Sam Hauser didn’t play.
The Celtics opened up the scoring with an 11-point lead, led by 5 factors from Jaylen Brown and 4 factors from Derrick White.
Anfernee Simons, Luka Garza and Josh Minott had been the primary three guys off of the bench for the Celtics. Hugo Gonzalez checked in just a little later and had a pleasant spinning layup.
HUGO pic.twitter.com/1TYiwOMnGb
— NikNBA🏀 (@NIKNBAYT) October 16, 2025
The Celtics jumped off to a 30-19 lead, however a 6-0 Toronto run lower the result in 5. Derrick White led the workforce in scoring with 12, whereas Gonzalez had 5 off of the bench.
In the meantime, Jaylen Brown departed the sport through the first quarter with left hamstring tightness and didn’t return after being listed as uncertain.
Payton Prichard was passing the ball properly through the first half with 8 assists, together with one dime on a pleasant backdoor lower from Jordan Walsh with Raptors large man Jonathan Mogbo was caught ball watching.
Neemias Queta had a terrific half: 6 factors, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. The Celtics took a 52-50 lead into the locker room.
Welcome to Neemias Queta’s block occasion 💪
4 rejections… in 1 half. pic.twitter.com/u9DRcfZobw
— NBA (@NBA) October 16, 2025
Baylor Scheierman changed Brown within the 2nd half beginning lineup.
Queta’s robust play continued into the third quarter. Defensive rebounding is the important thing for him this season; if he can constantly be within the appropriate place and rebound properly, Boston might be significantly better off for it.
Chris Boucher had an superior block mid method by the quarter, capping off actually robust preseason.
Boucher is enjoyable pic.twitter.com/ykX35jygzm
— Pull up shoot (@NElGHT_) October 16, 2025
On the finish of the third quarter, the Celtics led the Raptors, 79-75. Derrick White was the one Celtic in double figures at that time within the recreation with 25 factors, 9 rebounds and 5 assists.
White has an opportunity to flirt with triple-doubles all season lengthy and I believed he was the perfect participant on the court docket Wednesday evening. White was all around the court docket all evening, blocking photographs, operating the offense, making photographs. He appears to be like able to have an enormous yr this season and positively flirt with being an All-Star.
Derrick White block.Derrick White triple.
He is as much as 30p/9r/5a/4b for the C’s on NBA TV 👀 pic.twitter.com/wX0G9tX0IR
— NBA (@NBA) October 16, 2025
White completed the sport with 33 factors, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.
It was wanting like we might have a extremely enjoyable preseason end, however then Darko Rajaković pulled his starters with 5 minutes left within the recreation, in a really lame transfer.
In the meantime, Mazzulla ran a 12-man rotation, all the gamers which are on the lively roster that had been in uniform performed within the recreation. It is going to be fascinating to see if that carries over to the common season or not.
A late Celtics collapse let the Raptors again within the recreation, created by the Celtics incapability to interrupt a press, however it all led to a Xaiver Tillman recreation profitable floater. It was Tillman’s 2nd Celtics recreation winner.
The Celtics shot 39% from the sphere and 29% from three whereas the Raptors shot 40% from the sphere and 30% from three. The Celtics open up the common season subsequent Wednesday, October twenty second, at 7:30 EST in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Backyard.