Collapsing like a pack of cards in front of the Toronto Raptors perfectly summed up everything that has been wrong with the Boston Celtics lately.

Toronto, a team better suited to signing Cooper Flagg than securing a playoff spot, pulled the rug out from under Boston on Wednesday night. The defending champions were in good health, entering Scotiabank Arena at 32.8% as the league’s seventh-worst 3-point shooting team since the start of 2025, and even that wasn’t enough of a wake-up call.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined as a duo to score a season-low 26 points on 9 of 31 field shots en route to a 110-97 loss.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla sent a message to Boston’s locker room in Toronto amid a 7-7 loss in the team’s last 14 games.

“Just stick together,” Mazzulla told reporters, as seen in NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “Obviously we’re not playing our best basketball. You can’t expect things to always be easy. You can’t expect things to always work out the way you want, because that’s not the case. We just have to find a way to enjoy the challenge but make sure we get through it together. … You just have to enjoy the challenge of mastering it. This is a great test of what the NBA season has to offer, so we just have to find the joy in it.”

Boston bullied the same Toronto team at halftime during their New Year’s Eve meeting at TD Garden less than four weeks ago, suffering a 125-71 loss that was the worst ever in Raptors franchise history. This time, Toronto’s Revenge overpowered and overpowered the Celtics in a confident matchup.

Once the Raptors discovered the punishing formula – interior scoring – the climb became an avalanche attack by the C’s. Boston’s defense allowed Toronto to shoot 73.7% in the third quarter and consolidate the game-winning run to take advantage of the Celtics and their persistent problems – points, intensity and adjustments.

Mazzulla finally lost with 1:22 left in the fourth quarter and switched to five players to relieve the pressure on the bench.

“We just weren’t great on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said.

Payton Pritchard’s 20 points off the bench and Tatum’s near triple-double (16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists) were the few glimmers of hope that kept the Celtics in the race for victory. Tatum’s poor 5-for-15 performance on the field didn’t hurt the five-time All-Star’s commitment in all other areas, but it wasn’t nearly enough to erase the bigger picture.

The failure of Derrick White’s All-Star candidacy – White has shot 22% from three in his last five games – coupled with the team’s defensive struggles against the pick-and-roll with mobile big men forced the C’s to pay the price pay. That price was too high for Mazzulla’s clipboard, Tatum’s toughness and Boston’s willingness to catch up.

Toronto ended its 10-game losing streak against the Celtics and was 28-12 after a 21-5 start to the season.

Until Boston asserts itself decisively, teams across the league will continue to pick at their weaknesses and exploit the defending champions in ways that will call into question whether or not the championship hangover is in play.