Celtics on good side of blowout, beat Raptors, 112-88
BOSTON — Hey, the Celtics aren’t so bad when they actually show up to play.
Fresh off a 100-74 thumping at the hands of the NBA’s worst, Charlotte Bobcats, the Celtics – including Paul Pierce this time – returned to the TD Garden in style Wednesday night.
There would be no back-to-back letdown losses for the C’s, as the C’s took the lead for good early in the second quarter and beat a slip-sliding-away Toronto Raptors team, 112-88.
And speaking of Pierce, he led Boston for most of the night, finishing with 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in just 24 minutes. Kevin Garnett added 12 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes as well. Both players had milestone nights, as Garnett moved into the top 15 all-time in career points, passing Jerry West, and Pierce moved into 20th, passing Charles Barkley.
Jeff Green scored a team-high 20 points of the Celtics’ 58 bench points. The C’s will have two days off before welcoming those very same Bobcats to the Garden on Saturday.
What they’ll be saying: The great thing about the NBA – compared to the NFL – is that you can forget terrible games rather quickly. In the Celtics case, they most likely forgot about the Bobcats by the time they boarded their plane out of Charlotte. Boston turned a 24-point loss on Tuesday into a 24-point win on Wednesday. It’s that type of turnaround and short memory that goes a long way down the stretch and into the postseason. Doc Rivers said prior to Wednesday’s game that he expects to sit both Garnett and Pierce at later dates as the regular season winds down. If that’s the case, then Boston’s bench will have to play more like they did tonight than how they did against Charlotte without Pierce.
