Now THAT was a playoff game.

The first half of Game 2 was tight, with Boston taking a 50-48 lead into the break, but it looked like the defending champion Toronto Raptors righted the ship after a strong third quarter.

The Raptors held an eight-point advantage going into the final stanza, but just couldn’t close it out. In a furious finish, the Boston Celtics were the ones who showed up in the fourth quarter to win.

So much happened in the final few minutes, from Marc Gasol fouling out, to Jayson Tatum getting a technical that allowed the Raptors to get key free throws, to Kemba Walker breaking Serge Ibaka’s ankles to hit a sweet Jumper.

With a minute left, though, it was still a one-point game.

Kemba Walker made a clutch jumper with 41.6 seconds left to make it 102-99. He had a slow start to the day but made the shots when it mattered. Walker also went 1 of 8 from beyond the arc, but that wasn’t important as the single triple he made came when the Celtics desperately needed to hold onto a slim lead. His final statline was 17 points, six rebounds, and four assists.

Marcus Smart’s defense is so important to the Celtics, especially shown in a late possession where he was a complete pest and disrupted the Raptors every time they tried to do something.

Smart’s most important contribution may have been on the offensive end, though, as he buried five three pointers in the fourth quarter to bring the Celtics back. He finished with 19 points.

Though Walker and Smart were certainly the fourth quarter heroes for the Celtics, they wouldn’t have been in a position to win without the stellar play of their star teammate Jayson Tatum, who had 34 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and a steal.

The Raptors had an improvement on offense, with five players reaching double digits. However, their late game execution and mental mistakes will haunt them. Their star Pascal Siakam is still looking for a big scoring game in this series, as he finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals, a block, and a single turnover.

OG Anunoby led all Raptors scorers with 19 points, and Fred VanVleet put up 19. It’s going to be hard to bounce back, but they did manage to figure it out against the Bucks when they were 2-0 down last year.

Then again, they did have Kawhi Leonard. While the Raptors have shown all year that they are still a great team without the reigning Finals MVP, they were in desperate need of a late game closer who could take the game into their own hands and make the big plays on both ends of the floor.