KG dominates as the Celtics beat Raptors



KG slams down an Alley-OOP

 On the 26th of November, the Celtics faced a Toronto Raptors team that they had fallen to earlier in the season. In that game, however, the Celtics were without Rajon Rondo, and KG didn't snag a giant double double. They only lost by one, as well. But, on the 26, the Celtics pleased there home crowd with a win against the Raptors to improve to an astounding 12-4 record, tieing the Orlando Magic for first place.
The first and third quarters were all about Boston’s starters dominating those of the Toronto Raptors. Four of Boston’s five starters, in fact, finished with a plus/minus rating of at least plus-18. The only problem was that the bench simply couldn’t keep up that production.
The C’s built up huge leads in the first and third periods by limiting the Raptors to only 35 total points in those quarters. At one point in the third quarter, the lead had ballooned to 22 points, seemingly putting the game away. But after the reserves came in to start out the fourth, this one became a game again.
It took only 5:07 of the fourth for Toronto to slice Boston’s 21-point lead down to eight, and that’s when Doc Rivers realized he had to bring his big dogs back into the game. Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo returned at the 6:22 mark of the quarter, joining Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Glen Davis on the court, and Toronto’s run stopped almost immediately. The C’s bumped the lead back up to 10 on the first possession after those substitutions.
Much like Sunday’s game in Toronto, however, the Raptors just wouldn’t go away. They cut the lead down to six with 5:30 remaining, making it feel as if this one was going to go down to the wire. But then Glen Davis hit a free throw attempt and Pierce drilled his one and only 3-pointer of the game to drive the lead back up to 10 and put the game away.
Garnett’s box score is jumping off the charts after his monster game Friday night in the TD Garden. He finished the contest with a season-high 26 points, and many of them came with an extra jolt of authority (meaning a THUNDEROUS SLAM DUNK!). He and his guards connected numerous times for alley-oop slams. He also flew around the court to grab a game-high 11 boards to complete his seventh double-double of the season.
On top of the astounding numbers, Garnett was hot shooting the ball. He nailed 10 of his 18 field goal attempts as well as all six of his free throws.

GAME NOTES

In his return to the lineup, Rajon Rondo racked up 14 assists. He also committed eight of Boston's 12 turnovers. OUCH!
Toronto scored only 35 total points in the first and third quarter, but notched 66 in the second and fourth.
Kevin Garnett scored a game-high, and season-high, 26 points to go along with a game-high 11 boards.
Garnett and Jose Calderon (12 points, 15 assists) were the only players in the game to record a double-double.
Four of Boston's starters scored at least 16 points. The fifth, Rondo, scored only four but dished out 14 dimes.
None of Toronto's starters scored more than 12 points.
Linas Kleiza led the Raptors with 18 points off the bench.
Glen Davis tied with Kleiza for the game-high in points off the bench with 18.
The Celtics scored 64 points in the paint, while Toronto scored only 44.
Ray Allen notched eight assists.
Toronto grabbed 17 offensive rebounds.
Both teams grabbed 27 defensive rebounds.
Boston led from start to finish, with the only tie being 0-0
Garnett attempted a game-high 18 shots, and Davis was right behind him with 16.
Shaquille O'Neal had another big night with 16 points and nine boards.

BOX SCORE

TEAM-----1---2---3---4-----TOT
TOR------20--32--15--34---101
BOS------31--27--38--24---110

pic- celtics.com
src- espn.com