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Raptors on edge of elimination after loss against Celtics

Kyle Lowry had all but pushed the Toronto Raptors to a pair of triumphs with two excellent performances.

But the six-time all-star guard had an off night on Monday. And so did the rest of the Raptors — and now the defending NBA champions are one loss away from elimination.

“We just didn’t play crisp enough,” Lowry stated. “We didn’t look at the rim early enough in the shot clock to attack. But it happens. Now we got to watch the film and make adjustments and play for our lives.”

Jaylen Brown scored 27 points while Kemba Walker had 21 and the Boston Celtics pummelled the Raptors 111-89, taking a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Raptors’ campaign will end with a loss on Wednesday. Game 7, if needed, would be Friday.

“The energy level of our guys, we kinda just weren’t with it tonight, which is disappointing,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse. “[The Celtics] looked faster, stronger and hungrier than we did. Man, I thought we had great shots in the first quarter and we get 11 points and somehow that really disheartens us against (Boston). I think it was a lack of energy for the most part.”

Fred VanVleet topped Toronto with 18 points, while Norman Powell had 16.

Pascal Siakam, who led Toronto in scoring before the four-month COVID-19 hiatus, had another rough night with 10 points. He took just three shots in the first half.

“I just felt like we didn’t really catch a rhythm throughout the whole first half and they had a lot of easy stuff and, on the other end, we didn’t really execute as well — but, yeah, we can’t have halves like that,” Siakam said.

Toronto was the leading team in Game 4, but looked nothing like that team on Monday.

Anunoby’s seven points were a team-high in the first quarter. Lowry and Ibaka, with two points apiece, were the only other Raptors who scored in an ugly period that was almost the worst in Raptors playoff history. They scored just nine points in a quarter versus Detroit in the 2002 post-season. Toronto trailed 25-11 to start the second.

The second quarter was no better. Boston pulled away with a 23-7 run. Lowry and Ibaka led the way with just five points each and the Raptors trailed 62-35 heading into the halftime break.

The Raptors had been 7-2 all-time in Game 5s before Monday, and had won Game 5s the previous four times they’d been tied 2-2 in series.

This series shows how there is no such thing as a home game in the NBA bubble in Walt Disney World. The selected “away” team has won each game in the series. Toronto is the “away” team on Wednesday. “You can’t make excuses about having fans or not,” Lowry stated. “We wish we had our fans, we wish we were at home and in front of our fans but this is the situation, there’s no . . . it doesn’t really matter.”

Boston took the series opener 112-94 and Game 2, 102-99. The Raptors bounced back to take Games 3 and 4 by scores of 104-103 and 100-93.

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