ROME — It was an exhibition game, it meant nothing.
Right.
Tell it to Kevin Garnett. The 32-year-old started his 13th NBA preseason last night but looked like a hyper rookie.
He was skipping and bouncing in place at the back of the lay-up line before he launched his Celtics career with a ferocious attack on the rim, much to the sold out crowd's delight.
The Celtics' Kevin Garnett, top, finishes off a monster put-back dunk over the Raptors’ Chris Bosh during the exhibition opener for both teams Saturday in Rome. The Celtics won 89-85. (Giampiero Sposito/Reuters)
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- Minnesota Timberwolves
- Toronto Raptors
- Ray Allen
- Chris Bosh
- Jose Calderon
- Carlos Delfino
- T.J. Ford
- Jorge Garbajosa
- Kevin Garnett
- Jason Kapono
- Rasho Nesterovic
- Anthony Parker
- Kendrick Perkins
- Paul Pierce
- Scot Pollard
- Gabe Pruitt
- Rajon Rondo
Two hours later he was on his feet on the bench as a bunch of no-names finished an 89-85 Celtics win that he started with a tidy 19-point, 17 rebound effort.
Tell it to Andrea Bargnani, who was playing his first NBA game in his hometown of Rome and managed 13 points and four rebounds despite playing just 15 minutes due to foul trouble.
Tell it to the crowd — splashed with Boston Celtics jerseys and even a few Toronto Raptors jerseys — who were loud and enthusiastic and well-versed about who they were watching and why it was relevant.
Tell it to Raptors president Bryan Colangelo who acknowledged that on this night, Game One of the exhibition season meant something.
"I'm interested to find out what Boston as has put together," he said, referring to the off-season moves that brought Garnett and fellow perennial all-star Ray Allen to Boston to join incumbent Paul Pierce. "Tonight what you see is not going to be a finished product by any stretch. All you have to do is look at us last season. [We were] 7-1 preseason and that meant absolutely nothing when we got off to a 2-8 start.
"But it did give us a starting point and a platform to build with and I think Boston is looking to establish something quick here, and they're probably anxious to see what they have. Until you throw that ball up in a competitive situation, you have no idea."
So a bigger deal than opening up against, say, Sacramento?
"100 per cent," Colangelo said. "This is our first look at what figures to be a division rival that we're going to have to be very concerned about throughout the season."
With good reason. In the first half of the first quarter, The Big Three demonstrated why many experts think the Celtics might be the best team in Eastern Conference.
Garnett scored in the post easily on Chris Bosh and then zoomed by Bargnani for a dunk and a helpless foul by the second-year Italian.
"Doc [head coach Doc Rivers] told us we weren't going to play a lot of minutes so he wanted us to go really hard, extremely hard, like it was a real game," Garnett said. "It was a hot gym a great atmosphere for basketball — thank you Rome — and I just came out with a lot of energy.
"I wanted to come out and be aggressive, whether it was diving for lose balls, going to the basket, pretty much being aggressive all game and I had a lot of energy to do that."
The Raptors had to pay so much attention to Pierce, Garnett and Allen that speedy point guard Rajon Rondo was able to get himself to dangerous positions with the ball at will, though he converted only one of his first five shots.
Still Boston jumped out to a quick 11-5 lead and looked confident and engaged.
But Toronto kept their poise, as befitting a group that is in its second-year together.
Bargnani answered Garnett's dunk by drawing a foul on his own dunk attempt and followed up with a jumper to draw Toronto to within a point.
"I played a bit better than the last time when I was in the Rome with the national team," said Bargnani, who struggled in his debut with the Italian national team this summer.
"It was quite tiring," he added, referring to the burden of being the centre of attention in Rome. "But it was not a problem."
By the time the bulk of the first unit subbed out with four minutes to play in the first quarter Toronto was leading 20-13.
But where the Raptors' visions of defending their Atlantic Division title looked most promising was when the second units were on the floor.
The Raptors put out Jose Calderon, Carlos Delfino, Joey Graham, Jorge Garbajosa and Rasho Nesterovic and benefitted against a Boston group that was still learning each other's names.
"You pretty much know what Rasho and Garbo and Jose and those guys are going to give you," said head coach Sam Mitchell. "I think we went up 10 or 12 with that group."
Toronto pushed it's advantage to 37-27 on the strength of a Delfino triple, but as the Celtics went back to their stars — all three played at least 19:30 in the first half, reflecting perhaps Boston's desire to get them acclimated as quickly as possible — they managed to take a 43-40 lead into the half.
And Garnett's first moments in anything other than a Minnesota Timberwolves uniform? Eleven points and 10 rebounds in his first 20 minutes.
In the pregame the star of the show was clearly Garnett, as he earned the biggest roar from the crowd when introduced, though native son Bargnani was close.
But despite the buzz in the Palalotomattica beforehand Mitchell allowed that while he wanted to win the exhibition contest, it wouldn't be at all costs.
"You try to win every time you play, so we're going to try to win the basketball game, but if I think a guy is done for the night, I'm not going to put him back in just to win the game," said Mitchell.
It might have been tempting to change that plan in the third quarter as Boston jumped out to 64-57 lead with Pierce banging his way to a three-point play with five minutes to go in the quarter.
"When they're moving around and their throwing balls into Paul Pierce and KG and then you have guys like Eddie House and Ray Allen on the weak side that makes it kind of tough," said Bosh, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes. "To have success you're going to have to play really good one-on-one defense and that's not easy when you're playing three all-stars."
The intensity didn't wane. After Bargnani impressed his home crowd by scoring seven points in the first four minutes of the third quarter, he got tangled up with Garnett after the whistle, earning Garnett's ire and the Italian a spot on the bench with his fourth foul, effectively ending his night.
While Mitchell said he was generally pleased with his team's effort, his one regret was he didn't play his second-year forward more.
But the crowd of 11,118 still got good value. A moment later Garnett tipped a ball from Bosh and no less than five players hit the floor after it, led by Bosh and Garnett.
Mitchell did stick with Bosh, Ford and Parker for most of the third quarter and was rewarded as Toronto came back and trailed just 70-68 heading into the fourth.
And then just as quickly, it was over. The stars and starters sat, their minute quotas filled.
"I asked Sam if he was going to take his guys out, and he said yeah," said Rivers. "So that was nice. I like it when it works out like that."
The Raptors, who shot 57-per cent for the first quarter, shot 45 per cent or the game. T.J Ford was their leading scorer with 15 points. Pierce led Boston with 21 points as the Celtics shot 46 per cent but were hampered as they shot just 3-of-20 from the three-point line.
The fourth quarter looked very much like an ordinary NBA exhibition game, with players working get in shape, working to get in rhythm or soon to be looking for work.
The first 36 minutes? That was different.
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