POST GAME TORONTO

GAME STATS

SCORE CELTICS - 112 /TOR - 88
REBOUNDS - CELTICS 40 /TOR 34.....Offensive - CELTICS 6 /TOR 7 ......Defensive - CELTICS 34 /TOR 27
POINTS IN THE PAINT - CELTICS 52 /TOR 48
FAST BREAK POINTS - CELTICS 20 / TOR 11
FG - CELTICS - 39/76 ( 51.3%) TOR 34/79 ( 43%)
3PM - CELTICS 6/15 ( 40%) TOR 3/13 (23.1 %)
FTM - CELTICS 28/35 ( 80%) TOR 17/19 ( 89.5%)
TO - CELTICS 14 / TOR 17
ASSISTS - CELTICS 29 / TOR 17
STL - CELTICS 11 / TOR 11
BLK - CELTICS 7 / TOR 6
PF - CELTICS 19 / TOR 23
BENCH POINTS - CELTICS 58 / TOR 29
TOTAL TEAM TURNOVERS (Points off turnovers)[/b] – CELTICS 14 (19) /TOR 18 (18)

NEXT GAME SATURDAY - HOME - BOBCATS - 7:30PM - CSNE/NBA LEAGUE PASS


POST GAME RECAP

ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid Reaction: Celtics 112, Raptors 88

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Toronto Raptors 112-88 on Wednesday night at TD Garden:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Jeff Green scored a team-high 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting to go along with six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block, while Jason Terry (12 points, 7 assists) and Jordan Crawford (12 points, 3 assists) aided a solid bench output. Celtics veterans Paul Pierce (15 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Kevin Garnett (12 points, 7 rebounds) enjoyed breezy milestone-filled nights as Boston put seven players in double figures overall. Rudy Gay scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-19 shooting, while DeMar DeRozan added 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting to pace the Raptors.

TURNING POINT
Toronto had knocked a 13-point deficit down to six after a DeRozan dunk with 4:46 to play in the third quarter. But Boston closed out the frame on a 17-4 run keyed by a reserve-heavy lineup that had balanced output from Avery Bradley (5 points), Jason Terry (4), Chris Wilcox (3) and Jordan Crawford (3) as the unit made five of their final six shots in the quarter (while Toronto missed eight of its final nine). Boston led 81-62 heading to the final frame.

KG LEAPFROGS JERRY WEST ...
Garnett leapfrogged Jerry West while moving into 15th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. For his 18-year career, Garnett now has 25,201 points. Garnett entered Wednesday's game three points behind West and made his move with a little bank shot with 10:03 to play in the second quarter. Garnett's accomplishment was acknowledged on the JumboTron during the next timeout and he received a standing ovation from the crowd. Next in his sights: Reggie Miller at 25,279 points.

... AND PIERCE JUMPS BARKLEY
Pierce capped a milestone night for the veteran C's by moving past Charles Barkley and into 20th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. For his 15-year career, Pierce now has 23,763 points. Pierce entered Wednesday's game 10 points shy of Barkley and a third-quarter free throw pushed him ahead. Pierce's accomplishment was acknowledged on the JumboTron during the next timeout and he received a standing ovation from the crowd. Next in his sights: Allen Iverson at 24,368 points.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
Terry, frustrated after losing possession of the ball out of bounds, picked up an odd technical foul late in the first quarter for swatting the ball back into the crowd when a fan tried to throw it back onto the court. It was Terry's third technical foul of the season. ... Sebastian Telfair, hounded for much of his playing time by Avery Bradley, picked up two technical fouls, including one before the start of the fourth quarter that led to his ejection.

WHAT IT MEANS
Nothing like a visit from the Raptors to cure what ails Boston. One night after a dismal effort in Charlotte, the Celtics got incredibly balanced output, including a third-quarter bench spark that tore the game open. Garnett played a breezy 20 minutes and got to enjoy Gino dancing at the final TV timeout, while Pierce eased his way back in after getting the night off against the Bobcats. The Celtics have two days off before a rare Saturday night game at the Garden (a rematch with those Bobcats). Boston will take Thursday off after the back-to-back and will get to work with what coach Doc Rivers termed a much-needed practice on Friday.
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CSNE

Celtics demolish Raptors, 112-88

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON — It was a scene that wasn't all that different than the night before in Charlotte.

As the final minutes evaporated ever so slowly in Boston's matchup with Toronto on Wednesday, Kevin Garnett and the rest of the Celtics' main guys were on the bench, chilling.

But Wednesday night's early respite was due to their dominating play, not getting done in by an inferior team.

And because of that, the Celtics continue to get the job done at home with a 112-88 win over the Raptors which extended the C's home winning streak to 10 in a row.

It was the kind of balanced, all-around attack that the C's (35-29) are capable of delivering against teams like Toronto that are simply playing for pride right now while the C's are battling to improve their playoff seeding.

With the victory, Boston maintains its sixth-seed status in the Eastern Conference, but remain within striking distance of continuing its climb up the standings.

Boston winning by such a decisive margin did not seem likely when you consider how the game began.

Boston spent most of the first quarter playing with a slim lead, but the Raptors closed out the quarter by scoring the final six points to lead, 22-21.

The second quarter was where the Celtics began to exert their defensive will on the Raptors as the C's pulled ahead by as many as seven points.

Despite its record, the Raptors are not a pushover, not with a pair of explosive scorers like Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan.

Toronto spent a good bit of the second quarter within a possession or two of the Celtics, but Boston closed out the quarter with an 8-2 spurt to lead, 49-40 at the half.

Jeff Green, among the many Celtics players looking to bounce back from what has been a pair of rough outings on the road, led all Celtics scorers with 12 points at the half while Brandon Bass chipped in with seven.

Meanwhile, Toronto was getting decent production from Gay and Amir Johnson who had nine and eight points, respectively.
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WEEI 93.7 FM

FAST BREAK: KEVIN GARNETT, PAUL PIERCE HELP CELTICS SPREAD WEALTH 03.13.13 at 9:58 pm ET

By Ben Rohrbach

Seven Celtics scored in double figures and every member of the team but Shavlik Randolph made a bucket as they handed the Raptors a 112-88 blowout win to bounce back from a loss to the Bobcats the night before.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

New Logo: In what’s becoming a nightly occurrence, Garnett passed another milestone, the Celtics crowd gave him a standing ovation and he reciprocated with a salute. This time, Garnett (12 points) passed Jerry West for 15th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with a layup two minutes into the second quarter. Midway through the third quarter, Pierce (15 points) surpassed Charles Barkley to claim 20th on the same list and also saluted the cheering crowd.

Green lantern: After shooting a combined 16-for-47 (34 FG%) in his last four games, Green came out firing. He made 5-of-7 attempts, including his lone 3-pointer, to enter the break as the lone player in double digits (12). His three rebounds paired with Garnett’s seven first-half boards gave the C’s an early edge on the glass. Green finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting.

Air Jordan: Jordan Crawford submitted his best two performances in a Celtics uniform in back-to-back games. After scoring 14 points in the stinker against the Bobcats, he totaled 12 against the Raptors, and each basket was more improbable than the next. The off-balance 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and a half dunk over a chagrined Raptor in transition were just two of his highlights. At some point, as the kid keeps hitting ridiculous shots, it’s more skill than luck, right?

WHAT WENT WRONG

Worst first: It’s hard to tell whether the first quarter was even basketball or not. The Celtics and Raptors combined for 11 turnovers (BOS 6, TOR 5), Jason Terry (12 points) earned himself a silly technical foul for batting the ball off an announcer and the C’s allowed 14 points in the paint. The result? A 22-21 Toronto lead after one.

Turd-quarter runs: The Celtics built a 53-40 lead a minute into the second half, but they proceeded to watch as the Raptors ran off a 9-0 run that included three layups and a Rudy Gay (19 points) dunk. For the sake of Garnett and Pierce’s legs, thankfully the C’s closed out the third quarter on a 28-13 run, taking an 81-62 edge into the final frame.

Finish rim: Avery Bradley came into the game shooting a season-worst 56 percent at the rim. Considering the number of times he gets himself open under the basket, that’s disturbing, but most of his misses seem to come in transition, when he’s 1-on-1 with a defender as he was at the end of the first quarter. Since Bradley’s defensive prowess will so often put him in transition, he needs to work on finishing at the rim.

112288

breath of fresh air.

So, the difference between getting destroyed by the Charlotte Bobcats and destroying the Toronto Raptors is Paul Pierce playing? I think not. The inconsistency of this team will be its undoing.

1. KG passed Jerry West to own #15 on the all-time scoring list. Granted, KG played more years than West, but it is still quite impressive to pass The Logo. West was a great, great scorer. Next up? Reggie Miller, in just 270 points. KG is averaging 14.8ppg this season. At that rate, we talking 18 games. At 35-29 the Celtics have played 64 games in an 82 game season leaving, you got it, 18 more games.

2. Not to be outdone, Pierce passed Charles Barkley for the #20 slot last night too. Pierce said it felt good passing Barkley because "he's always talking smack about us". That's the trouble with being "quotable". Karma's a bitch, ain't it Sir Charles? Ray Allen is only 152 points behind Barkley at this point. Barkley's having a bad year. In 605 points, Pierce will catch Allen Iverson for #19. Pierce hit the quinella last night by also passing Allen Iverson for ownership of #10 in all-time free throws made. Rumor is that, after hearing about getting passed once and about to get passed again, Allen Iverson tweeted about mounting an NBA comeback. Pierce is just 335 ftm away from tying Dolph Schayes and Kareem (who are tied for #9. What a strange coincidence that, considering the number of years both those players played and that they were not contemporaries, that they should be exactly tied). This year, Pierce has averaged 4.4ftm per game. At that rate, it'll take 76 games. So, next season. Let's hope he's still in green.

3. Courtney Lee plays such a fundamentally sound game it's easy to overlook him. He shot 5-10 with a 3 for 11 points. Not overwhelming statistically, but it all came out of the offense. Except for when he's flying high on a dunk there is no showboat in the man. He also had 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 0 TOs. Just solid, albeit unimpressive, effort night-in-and-night-out. I shook my head when I heard Danny signed him for $5m (and gave up E'Tuan Moore in the process) but it's looking like a good decision now. He's a young, veteran presence. Holding Demar DeRozan can be easy, because he's a little out of control but when he's on a roll he can kill you. He was 5-13 last night, in part, because he didn't get a lot of open looks.

4. Sebastian Telfair got ejected last night. He started off grumpy when they forced him to surrender his sidearm at the door and it went downhill from there. If Danny did nothing else, getting rid of this human eyesore was worthy of acclaim.

5. Jeff Green's inconsistency is driving me crazy (it drove Rosalie a little nuts on the Game On thread too). The difference between being a good player and a great player is consistency. Pierce and KG are celebrating these milestones because they produced almost every night year-after-year-after-year. They are emotionally driven to the point of fanaticism by their competitiveness. Jeff Green hasn't gotten that yet. He had 12 points in the 1st half, 8 in the 2nd. I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said many times before. He has all the skills, he has the size and athleticism one could ask for. He can overpower almost any 3 and outrun any 4. He can shoot like a guard and finish like a forward. He just doesn't get angry enough. How do you make that happen? Doc's the best in the game at that, but even he's having trouble getting that dependable, predictable effort out of Jeff Green. Last night, coming off the bench, he was great. Starting, on Tuesday, he stunk. He can't take Pierce's place if he can't do it every night, that's what starters do.

6. Another trick-or-treat night from the lower bench. Jordan Crawford continues to shoot well, but struggles in any other role. He had 3 assists and 3 TOs on some questionable decisions, including some of his shot selections. Terrence Williams had 5 points in 5 minutes on outstanding athletic moves but had 2 assists and 2 TOs too. White and Randolph played 3 minutes each and did ok, each chipping in a little bit at the bitter end of garbage time.

7. In the end, JET played a good game although there were a few real head shaking moments in the middle. Some really bad decisions. All's well that ends well though. 7 assists and only 2 TOs including some nice forward-looking and interior passes.

8. We shot 51% with 20 fast break points. That's great. 20! We had 52 points in the paint. Damn, we need to bottle this game. Of course, Toronto was playing without Andrea Bargnani AND Aaron Gray AND Linus Kleiza, but let's not think about that.

We are now in a statistical 3-way tie for 5th place. Chicago owns the tie breaker, and therefore has the edge, while we own the tie breaker on Atlanta. Chicago plays in Oakland on Friday, while we await the Bobcats in Boston. Unfortunately, the Lakers didn't get the job done against the Hawks last night. That's what happens when I root for the Lakers, so I'm not going to do it again. If GSW has a good game and we get payback against Charlotte, we could be in 5th place by 1 game by Sunday.

Go Warriors! Go Celtics!

bob


.

Bobh,
Thanks for, as usual, great summary.
I have a couple of additions.
You have to give a "credit" to the Raptors. IMO, last night they play similar to how Celtics played the night before.
Secondly, I'd like to mentioned AB. Again, it's just my impression, but all Raptors PGs reminded me that cartoon character who's kicking and screaming trying to avoid being put into a meatgrinder.

As for the playoff spot, I'd say they should stay at #6 (maybe #5) so they play NYK or BKN in the first round. I think it's better than facing Chi and especially Ind. But whatever spot they pull the health of the core players takes priority.

AK

sinus007 wrote:Bobh,
Thanks for, as usual, great summary.
I have a couple of additions.
You have to give a "credit" to the Raptors. IMO, last night they play similar to how Celtics played the night before.
Secondly, I'd like to mentioned AB. Again, it's just my impression, but all Raptors PGs reminded me that cartoon character who's kicking and screaming trying to avoid being put into a meatgrinder.

As for the playoff spot, I'd say they should stay at #6 (maybe #5) so they play NYK or BKN in the first round. I think it's better than facing Chi and especially Ind. But whatever spot they pull the health of the core players takes priority.

AK

sinus,

Yeah, they looked like crap last night. Nothing like losing your starting frontcourt to help make that happen, huh?

I try to give credit where I feel it is due but sometimes I overlook someone. Bradley constantly amazes me at his sustained defensive focus and impact. I joked about Telfair getting ejected because he wanted his gun back, but it was really just his frustration at not being able to outplay Bradley that did it. He took it out on the refs and they took it out on him.

The playoff brackets are this:

1 vs 8. Winner of this takes on winner of 4 vs 5.
2 vs 7. Winner of this takes on winner of 3 vs 6.

So, if there are no upsets, being #6 is better than #5 since it puts off facing Miami until the EC Finals. If we are #5, we'd have to beat #4 (currently Brooklyn) and then we'd face Miami next. Indy is a tough matchup for us, but I'd rather face them, I think. They are not as experienced playoff-wise as Miami. Besides, one never knows when DWade's knees might act up. I know, I'm supposed to want to beat everybody when they are at their best, but screw that. I want to win. Period. Besides, right now our first round opponent would be NYK, and they are dropping like stones. We lost a shot at the Championship when KG's knee kept him out. We lost another chance when Perk's knee blew out. We lost another chance when Rondo's elbow got blown out by DWade. Injuries can happen to anybody at anytime, so deferring the harder matchups could make a difference. Wouldn't it be awful if we play Miami in the 2nd round, lose, and then then LBJ blows out a knee in the following round and Miami loses and the team that avoided him as long as possible gets to advance? That team could be us.


bob


.

Consistency was an issue for Jeff Green in Oklahoma City, so some of this is just on him. But one thing I'll point out is that his inconsistency is still related, in part, to his surgery. He has said that some days he feels great, but other days he doesn't have energy, and that the doctors told him to expect this.

It's easy to think his surgery is no longer an issue when he has explosive plays and very good games, but it's going to be a while before he's completely recovered.

Bobh,
Agree with your last sentiment about injuries. Unfortunately, Celtics currently in such positioned (3 key players out) that I doubt they can take healthy Mia in 7-game series.
Also, if they do get play Mia I hope the first 2 games of the last year match will bear some weight on the refs and make them to open their eyes...

AK