The Celtics bounced back from their loss in Brooklyn Thursday night to handle the Raptors, 107-89, Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.
Helping key the Celtics' win was Rajon Rondo, who returned to the lineup after missing the game against the Nets due to a right ankle sprain. Rondo extended his streak of 10 or more assists to 33 games, finishing with 20. The point guard played a team-high 32 minutes.
Carrying the lead from early on in the first quarter, the Celtics were able to limit the minutes of many of their starters. Kevin Garnett finished with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor in just 17 minutes, while Paul Pierce played 25 minutes, managing 19 points. Jason Terry led all scorers with a season-high 20 points, making seven of his 10 shots from the floor.
Off the bench, rookie Jared Sullinger had one of his better games as a pro, netting 12 points to go along with 11 rebounds.
Toronto did manage to close the Celtics' lead to two points (63-61) with 3:30 left in the third quarter. But the C's closed out the third by going on a 13-3 run to leave little doubt the rest of the way.
For what went right (and wrong) for the Celtics, click here. [1]
For more Celtics news, go to the team page at weei.com/celtics [2].
Links:
[1] http://greenstreet.weei.com/
[2] http://weei.com/celtics
[3] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/celtics