| Raps Take Care Of Wounded Celtics Authored by Barak Falkovitz - January 13, 2007 - 9:50 am
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As was the case Wednesday night against Milwaukee, the Raptors took advantage of an undermanned team, this time against the depleted Boston Celtics.
With injuries occurring left and right all over the league, Boston has been one of those teams greatly affected by the bug. They were without five players from their regular rotation against Toronto, including Paul Pierce, Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and Tony Allen, who is done for the season with two torn ligaments in his left knee.
Despite Boston’s short handedness, it took Toronto nearly the entire game to pull away from the Celtics. Toronto looked highly apathetic all game long, and Boston unexpectedly kept it close until late in the third quarter.
“We weren’t playing the way we wanted to,” Bosh said of Toronto’s lackluster first half. “Shots weren’t falling for us and in the third quarter we kind of regrouped. We just looked everybody in the eye and we just really needed this game,” added Bosh, who scored 27 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. He also got to the free throw line 16 times, and made 13 of his attempts.
Bosh got some help from Anthony Parker, who was most efficient, as he scored 18 points and needed only nine field goal attempts to do it. Parker also had 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
The Raptors started the fourth on an 8-0 run, to get their lead to seventeen, a margin too large for Boston to overcome. The Celtics did make it interesting, though, with a late push to cut Toronto’s lead to as little as five, but it wasn’t enough, as the Raptors held on to win, 95-86.
The Celtics showed their youth and inexperience by committing a total of 22 turnovers (8 in the first quarter), and Toronto capitalized with 23 points off those miscues. Boston head coach, Doc Rivers, however, was satisfied with his team’s effort, but ultimately, their mistakes cost them.
“Overall, I’m really happy with the effort of our guys, and obviously, we have to get more out of our key offensive guys to have any chance,” said Rivers.
Boston made their late surge playing with three point guards, in Sebastian Telfair, Allan Ray and Rajon Rondo. Rondo contributed 23 points and 4 steals for the Celtics.
The Raptors haven’t exactly played great basketball over their last two games, but the fact that they’ve won both has Chris Bosh encouraged. “It gives us a boost, because if we know we can win the bad games, I think that will give us more confidence when we’re playing great,” said Bosh. “When we start playing good I think we can give teams a lot of trouble.” |
