Boston Celtics blow out reeling Raptors, 100-64
Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce (34) drives the baseline around Toronto Raptors forward James Johnson (2) as Celtic's Chris Wilcox (44) looks on during the first half of their NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
With Andrea Bargnani sitting out due to a calf injury, the Toronto Raptors looked more like D-Leaguers than a bonafide NBA team Wednesday night at the TD Garden.
The Celtics outclassed the Raptors in every facet of the game, encountering very little resistance as they marched to a 100-64 victory which put Boston above .500 for the first time since January 4th.
Paul Pierce once again took hold of the offense in Rajon Rondo’s absence (Rondo is expected to return Friday), registering eight assists and six rebounds to go along with 17 points. Pierce canned four of the Celtics 12 three-pointers, which tied the team’s season-high for made three-pointers.
Boston shot just as well from inside the arc, establishing a 22-point halftime lead after shooting 62% from the field. With the exception of Chris Wilcox (who hauled in five rebounds), each Celtic player scored at least one basket. Boston assisted on 30 of its 39 field goals, while committing just 10 turnovers.
Holding a 28-point lead entering the fourth quarter, Doc Rivers elected to rest the Big Three and give extended minutes to the bench players. Rookie JaJuan Johnson took advantage of his opportunity, making all five of his shots for 10 points in 10 minutes.
Johnson has a feathery touch from both the post and out to 15-feet, but he lacks the strength to compete on the defensive end. If Johnson can fill out and develop his lower-body strength, he’ll have no trouble cracking the rotation down the road. After all, he was the Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year last season.
Considering the starters played fewer minutes than they are accustomed to, and the Celtics have an off-day on Thursday before hosting the reeling New York Knicks on Friday, Boston seems to be in a good position to avenge their loss in the season-opener. The Knicks have lost nine of their last 11 games, and will be playing the second night of a back-to-back after they host Chicago on Thursday night.
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Boston Celtics, Celtics Blog | Tommy King | February 1, 2012
If Rondo does return, will commit to the Honey Badger defense? I think that is the key to a successful return. If he does this, I think his return could be brilliant, but it means having the humility to accept the implicit criticism of Bradley’s rise, that Rondo’s declining man-to-man defense had become a problem for the team.
It’s been a weird season for Rondo. He’s gone from being the team’s best player to being the odd man out. If he is successful at finding his way back in, I think he could become an even better player.
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paul…how about critiquing the games as opposed to always talking about RR? RR is on the shelf and AB is getting some extremely valuable time (EM, too). That said, I need to rant about the inferior rebounding this group is producing, even though they out-rebounded TOR in the game. Again, they gave up 10 offensive rebs so they are not concentrating on their defensive end. Why can’t they hold the opposing team to 5 offensive rebs per night? That’s about 5 more shots for the Cs then every night and that could make close games not so close. The starters had only 1 offensive reb in the whole game! That’s f’in pathetic. Beating up on weak may make everyone feel good, and use words like “outclassed” in an exuberant fashion, but they should beat up on weak teams and unless they change their methodologies then there are going to be real difficulties when playing the better teams and come the playoffs. Nice win, but I’m not impressed, except for JJ getting time and performing well and AB playing better offensively, and will not be vs the Knicks which should be an easy win. Go Cs…
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