Friday night gave us the Celtics’ second game of their four-game preseason schedule, as they went on the road for an exhibition game at Toronto.

And as the game made its way into the second half, it felt like Boston was about to move to 2-0 in preseason action, as they held a 27-point second half lead over the Raptors.

Even when that lead shrunk to 14 in the fourth quarter, it still never felt like Boston was going to blow it. Sure, head coach Joe Mazzulla had emptied the bench, but it just didn’t feel plausible that Toronto, a team mired in the middle of both rebuilding and competing for a play-in spot, had the talent within their preseason rotations to complete this type of comeback.

But after the Celtics went up 103-89 with 3:45 to go in the final frame, the Raptors proceeded to go on an 18-2 run to close out the game, beating Boston 105-103 and giving the Celtics coaching staff a nice chunk of game tape to use for coaching points as the preseason rolls along.

As Mazzulla is wont to do, he framed the obvious adversity postgame as a positive for his group.

“That’s good,” he said. “They have to go through that. Those guys have to get those reps.”

“Those guys” is the key phrase here, as some of Boston’s most important rotational players received the “DNP - Coach’s Decision” distinction after playing well in Preseason Game 1 down in Memphis on Wednesday.

Here are four takeaways from Friday night at Scotiabank Arena:

1. Missing in Action

As I mentioned, some of Boston’s best players were kept on the bench on Friday, with Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Sam Hauser all receiving the night off. Two of these guys are going to be starters for you on opening night at TD Garden on October 22 against the Sixers, and there’s a universe where all three are in the starting lineup to open the season.

To put any real stock into a preseason game where none of those guys play would be a fool’s errand. This is where I go back to my common preseason refrain of ‘I get it, it’s preseason.’

Friday night might have been the biggest example of ‘I get it, it’s preseason’ we’ll get this entire exhibition slate.

When Mazzulla emptied the bench in the second half to relieve a starting five that consisted of Payton Pritchard, Anfernee Simons, Josh Minott, Chris Boucher and Neemias Queta, you knew the preseason was in full effect.

Granted, all of the names I just mentioned above are going to be rotational guys for Boston in 2025-26, but that’s a different topic for a different day.

2. New Guys Came to Play!

Anfernee Simons is someone I’ve written about on numerous occasions so far this camp season, and we finally go to see the 26-year-old in action in green on Friday.

He finished the night with 18 points on 6 of 13 shooting, going 2 for 7 from three and 4 for 4 from the charity stripe. I thought his best sequence came in the third quarter on consecutive possessions - a 10-foot fadeaway with defenders in his grill to give Boston a 25-point lead, and a 25-foot three-pointer that was only made possible after Simons used high-level ball handling to shake himself free to give Boston its game-high 27-point lead at 72-45 with 9:45 remaining in the third frame.

Simons’ Achilles heel is always going to be his defense, and after getting into trouble early with three fouls in the first five minutes, he bounced back nicely to remain a part of the rotation for 26 minutes on the night. If Simons can give Boston something on that end of the floor, he’ll compete for either a starting role or a heavy rotational guy.

Chris Boucher, on the other hand, is someone I have not spent a ton of time talking about this preseason. But I have to say, the guy has really impressed me through two preseason games.

I get it, it’s the preseason.

It was a “revenge game” for Boucher on Friday, as he was returning to the place he called home the last seven seasons of his career. Boucher is somewhat of a Raptors’ hustle legend, as he holds the franchise record for bench points, bench rebounds, bench blocks, bench made-threes, games coming off the bench, and bench minutes.

You guessed it, Boucher was mostly a bench guy while wearing a Raptors uniform. But in his first season in Boston, the 32-year-old is going to have a real opportunity to win a starting job, as his lanky 6-foot-9 will come in handy for a team that’s in desperate need of size close to the basket.

Through two preseason games, Boucher has shown me that his size can be useful outside of rim protection, as he’s looked solid on switches around the arc. He’s not a big, lumbering big man who can’t move. His body type is much more akin to a Kevin Durant with slightly more bulk.

He finished the night with 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting, going  2 for 5 from three and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. He led the game in rebounds with 9, and added 2 assists, a block and a steal. He finished Friday with a game-high +22, just one game after finishing with second highest plus-minus on the team at +16.

If we’re handing out Preseason MVP Awards through two games, Boucher is my winner so far.

3. Need More from Neemias

Make no mistake about it, Queta is going to be this team’s starting center in 2025-26.

Despite what’s on the horizon for him this upcoming season, Queta looked bad in his preseason debut on Friday, both offensively and defensively.

​​He finished with 5 turnovers, yet only accounted for 4 points and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes of action. He was the only starter in the negative on the night for plus-minus (-3).

At 26 years old, it’s time for the 7-footer to show all the time and energy this organization has put into his development was worth it over the last two seasons.

If his performance at EuroBasket with Portugal this summer means anything, then Queta is clearly capable of a well-rounded game.

If he can carry over that international success into the NBA remains to be seen.

4. Boston’s Lack of Depth

I get it, it’s the preseason.

But when Mazzulla emptied the bench for that prolonged stretch to finish out the game, it got ugly.

I recognize most of these guys like Max Shulga and RJ Luis Jr. are never going to see the light of day during a game-of-consequence for Boston. But it got me thinking back to preseasons of yesteryear, where guys like Hauser, Pritchard and Luke Kornet were the ones in mop-up duty.

Even in the moment, those guys felt overqualified for those roles. It just shows you how strong this roster has been over the course of the past five-plus years.

2025-26 is a different animal. Hall of Fame pieces are either gone or injured.

Friday night was the first real example of Boston’s lack of depth outside of its projected seven/eight-man rotation, which isn’t exactly brimming with world beaters top-to-bottom, either.

After an off day on Saturday, the Celtics get back to preseason action on Sunday night at TD Garden, as they’ll host the Cleveland Cavaliers for Preseason Game 3 of this exhibition calendar.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.