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TORONTO — That it was this good, this early, between the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics, leads one to wonder how good it might become later in the NBA season, when the games gain significance and perhaps result in a playoff matchup.
The retooled Celtics led most of the way at the Air Canada Centre yesterday afternoon, and yet they needed Ray Allen's seventh three-pointer of the game, with 2.6 seconds left in overtime, to defeat the Raptors 98-95 before a sellout crowd of 19,800.
The Raptors, who tied the score on T.J. Ford's three-pointer with 4.4 seconds left, still had time for a desperation shot that fell short in a bid to force a second overtime.
Not a bad way to start for a couple of teams that have high hopes for the new season and will meet three more times in the regular schedule.
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It was the first loss in three games for the Raptors, who were coming off a big road victory on Friday over the New Jersey Nets, who eliminated them from the first round of the playoffs in May.
The Celtics, who made themselves contenders when they added Kevin Garnett and Allen in the off-season to augment Paul Pierce, have won their two games.
Allen led the game with 33 points. Garnett scored 23 points, with 13 rebounds and six assists. Pierce scored 13 points, with six assists.
Ford scored 32 points, with five assists, to lead Toronto, and Chris Bosh recovered from a two-point first half to score 19.
The term playoff intensity came up in some discussions.
Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell said that did not surprise him. "No," he said. "I'm surprised we actually had a chance to win, shooting 36 per cent."
That was the Raptors' shooting percentage, which was boosted in the overtime. The Raptors shot 27.3 per cent in the first half and were behind only 38-31 and shot 33.3 per cent in regulation time and were tied 78-78.
They can thank the play of Ford, their point guard, for giving them a chance to win.
"T.J. played spectacular," Bosh said.
"He kept us in the game. He found a lot of guys. He made it easy for us."
Bosh, who missed some preseason time because of a knee injury, came back stronger after the first half yesterday and played a total of 44 minutes, although he admitted that he "just kind of ran out of gas towards the end.
"I tried to hang in there," he said. "I think I just did a good job of staying in the game. I didn't let things early on in the game frustrate me."
Ford said he sensed that it was going to be the kind of game where he would have to put up quite a few shots because of the way the game was going.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win, even though we shot a bad percentage," said Ford, who shot 12-for-21, with three three-pointers.
"It went into overtime with a chance to go into double overtime until Ray hit a three. I think we left it all on the court, even though some guys didn't play as well, but our confidence is there."
"We couldn't make our shots and that's going to happen some nights," Bosh said.
"The thing I'm most proud of from this team is that we didn't let the game get out of hand and we still had a chance to win the game. … We played decent defence, we didn't make things easy for them and we kept ourselves in the game."
The Celtics played without coach Doc Rivers, who left the team after his father died in Chicago. Associate coach Tom Thibodeau stepped in and took his place.
Raptors forward Joey Graham did not play. He was listed as day-to-day with a strained quadriceps.
Pierce, with his ninth point of the game, passed Sam Jones (15,411 points) to move into sixth place on the Celtics' career scoring list.
