Brad Stevens Wants Celtics To ‘Clean’ Things Up Despite Game 1 Win Vs. Raptors

At a glance, the Boston Celtics look like they’re in good shape in their second-round series against the Toronto Raptors.

Boston on Sunday cruised out to a significant lead in Game 1, handing Toronto a 112-94 victory where they held their opponent to 36.9% shooting, at times completely suffocating the Raptors with their defense.

But looking closer, it wasn’t the Celtics’ cleanest performance.

Boston turned the ball over 22 times, leading to 15 points for Toronto. That was to be expected to an extent considering the Raptors force some of the most turnovers in the NBA.

But head coach Brad Stevens would like to see his team tighten things up a bit. He knows that’s difficult against a team so versatile on defense, too.

“This team, Toronto, the way they help and the way they recover is so difficult,” Stevens said, per The Athletic’s Jay King. “They’re so active. They get hands on balls. It’s just really hard to play against, and it’s a lot of credit to them, so it’s easy for me to look at the film and pause it and say this is what we should do, but it’s hard to play that with a clear mind when you’re playing a fast-paced game, so I give our guys a lot of credit. We played with a lot of purpose, but we do have to clean some of that stuff up.”

The Celtics and Raptors go at it again Tuesday for Game 2. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m. ET.