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BOSTON — The Toronto Raptors should have — could have — simply been happy to be there.
As in happy to have survived their own careless ball-handling and porous rebounding and still have a chance to take the lead in the dying seconds of their thrilling 114-112 win last night against the Boston Celtics, the NBA's midseason champions.
But they weren't happy enough with that. So they came out of a timeout with 15 seconds left and a plan.
Anticipating that Celtics defensive mainstay Kevin Garnett would stick close to Raptors star Chris Bosh, who had already scored 10 of his 23 points in a brilliant fourth quarter, the call was for Spanish point guard Jose Calderon to turn hard around a Bosh screen and either go all the way to the basket or find one of Toronto's red-hot perimeter shooters.
Jamario Moon, right, and head coach Sam Mitchell of the Toronto Raptors celebrate at the buzzer. (Elsa/Getty Images)
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- Boston Celtics
- Toronto Raptors
- Ray Allen
- Andrea Bargnani
- Chris Bosh
- Jose Calderon
- Carlos Delfino
- Kevin Garnett
- Anthony Parker
- Paul Pierce
"I saw [Garnett] try and deny [Bosh] the ball," Calderon said. "So I knew it was my opportunity to turn the corner, so I go all the way."
Count the basket. Count the clutch free throw, too. And count the Raptors' first win in four tries — five if you count an exhibition-season loss in Rome — against Boston (33-7), as Toronto (23-19) became only the fourth team to beat the renewed Celtics on their home court this NBA season.
It wasn't textbook. There were those 19 turnovers contributing 29 points to the Celtics' cause.
And then there was the 16-4 edge in offensive rebounds Boston enjoyed, a big reason why it finished the game with a 56-16 advantage in points in the paint.
And there was the Raptors' defence — nothing to write home about there either, as Boston made 49.4 per cent of its shots.
Just moments before Calderon's game-winner, Celtics guard Ray Allen — the same guy who hit the game-winner in overtime against Toronto back at the Air Canada Centre in the third game of the season — had put Boston up by a point after he corralled a long rebound off a wide-open three-point shot missed by Eddie House.
And now there was Allen again, somehow working his way into the paint to come down with another offensive rebound off another wide-open three missed by House. But this time Allen couldn't convert a tough turn-around in the lane and, suddenly, the Raptors were enjoying a rare victory celebration in Boston.
Hitting all 19 free throws and converting 15 three-pointers on 21 attempts will do that for a team, as will shooting 58 per cent from the floor.
"These are the teams we have to beat if we want to do something in the second half of the season," said Bosh, who scored his 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting, somewhat off-setting his seven turnovers. "We're coming in with a fresh focus. We're trying to move up in the Eastern Conference and to do that you're going to have to beat good team and we did a good job tonight."
But not that good.
"I don't know if our defence was any good," Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell said.
"It was good enough but they shot [better than] 48 per cent, we gave up 16 offensive rebounds, we turned the ball over 18 times, which we don't usually do. We overcame a lot of mistakes tonight and beat a good team on their court."
There are fixes to be made, but that's what practice is for.
In the meantime, there was plenty to be encouraged about.
Once again, Calderon made his case for an Eastern Conference all-star berth as he scored 24 points and dished 13 assists, although he did make an uncharacteristic four turnovers.
In addition to his game-winning three-point play, Calderon had put the Raptors up with 31 seconds left by drilling a pair of free throws earned as he drove to the basket along the baseline.
Perhaps most encouraging was the re-emergence of a player resembling Andrea Bargnani, the heralded former rookie who had spent most of the past six weeks cloaked in sophomore disappointment.
Bargnani scored 10 or his 20 points in the first quarter, helping the Raptors avoid the early blowouts that had characterized their last two games against Boston, as Toronto trailed 29-28 after the first quarter and led 57-55 at the half before digging out of a 91-84 hole to start the fourth.
He also delivered seven rebounds and a career-high sevens assists while playing some engaged, passable defence.
"I just want him to keep going," Bosh said. "If he can get two good [games] in a row, he can really start to build on it and get his confidence back."
