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The Europe Live opener saw the Celtics beat the Raptors in front of Andrea Bargnani’s home crowd. Two of Boston’s Big Three looked good; Paul Pierce and his new baldie dropped 21 points and Kevin Garnett posted a 19-16 line, but Ray Allen was throwing up a lot of bricks … Garnett played like he was possessed. On one tip dunk he got so high he could have climbed into the rim … Boston’s X-factor this year, Rajon Rondo, didn’t look bad but didn’t look great either. He handed out 6 assists and made just one turnover, but his 2-for-7 shooting isn’t what the C’s need. And there was a couple times when Rondo over-dribbled and got caught in a trap. Still, consider this is the first preseason game of his second NBA season, played in a strange arena, and he was facing a good Toronto backcourt. We’ll cut Rajon a break for now … The Celtics starters played a lot of minutes for a preseason game — KG, Pierce and Ray each played 30-plus — but that makes sense considering they need to get used to playing with each other … On the other side, Jason Kapono looks like he’s been playing with the Raps for years. He stuck a couple jumpers and blended right in …
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The Italian Job
Celts impress in opening act
Celts impress in opening act – BostonHerald.com
“It was interesting because they wanted to double Kevin down on the post, and I had a lot of open shots – shots that I haven’t had open in a long time,” said Allen, who was off the mark a bit, shooting 4-for-13. “Paul kept his man occupied, so it was definitely a different look. You can tell that they had to respect each one of us on each play.”
Raptors take notice
Raptors take notice – BostonHerald.com
Toronto won the Atlantic Division by six games over New Jersey last season, finishing 23 games ahead of the Celtics. But Ainge’s changes have put some pressure on the Raptors.
“Different teams are at different stages in their overall life cycle, and people were anxious for us to do something in reaction to Boston’s changes because we’re in the same division,” Colangelo said. “We just took the (approach) that we’re going to be patient with what we’ve done. We made some great strides last year, and as we look at tweaking our team and improving our team, we want to keep these young guys together. Last year we had one of the younger, better teams, and we wanted to get better from within more than anything.”
TorontoSun.com – Basketball – K.G. steals spotlight in Celtics win
All-star forward Chirs Bosh finished the game with 12 points and nine rebounds.
More importantly, his left foot, which bothered him most of last year, was fine.
“I’m going to try to play in all the pre-season games, so when the season comes, I’ll be full swing, unlike last year when I was forced to take some time off when I hurt my foot,” Bosh said.
“I feel like I’m going in the right direction.”
Celtics working on transition offense – The Boston Globe
Garnett, a 10-time All-Star, has said Mitchell taught him how to be a professional after entering the NBA out of high school.
Not long after the Celtics acquired Garnett in a blockbuster trade in July, he called Mitchell to tell him how ecstatic he was to be going to Boston. Garnett reiterated those feelings to Mitchell in Italy.
“[Garnett] loves being in Boston, loves his teammates,” said Mitchell, the winner of this year’s Red Auerbach Trophy as Coach of the Year. “He said if he knew the NBA was like this, he would have wanted to be traded a long time ago . . .
“I just think everybody does things a little different and he just enjoys it. When you’ve been in one place your whole career, you forget how other people do things and he’s never seen how other organizations work. I think he’s very impressed with the way Boston treats their players and how they do things.”
globesports.com: Celtics embark on rebuilding phase
The Raptors were in the Celtics’ shoes last season — less the three big stars — and after handing out the name tags in training camp, they started the season 7-14.
Staying largely the same has been welcomed. “It makes a big difference, we know we have a really good thing going here and we’re trying to improve and continue the whole thing,” Bosh said. “I think it’s very good. You have to have chemistry on offence and defence.
“Boston might come in and have great chemistry off the bat, but you can’t rush it. Sometimes it’s not going to be the best situations and people get frustrated with that and tend to ask, ‘What’s going on?’ It happened with us. If they don’t come out and start the season spectacularly, people are going to wonder why.”
TheStar.com | Sports | Celtics’ `Big Three’ creating a buzz in the NBA
Will it be easier him to flourish with the Boston Celtics? Without a doubt, says one of his closest friends in basketball.
“Oh, yeah, without a doubt because he has no ego,” Sam Mitchell said yesterday of Garnett, who makes his debut for Boston alongside Paul Pierce and Ray Allen this afternoon against the Raptors.
“Kevin doesn’t have to take the last shot, he doesn’t have to, quote-unquote, `be the man.’ He’s been the man and he’s always going to be the man to a certain extent because of how good he is and who he is and that’s never going to change.
“But he doesn’t have to feed his ego like that. I know the only thing important to Kevin is trying to win basketball games and compete for a championship.”
Raptors now all friends
TheStar.com | Sports | Raptors now all friends
if there is one prevailing upgrade to this team, it’s the cohesion it should show on the court.
“I like our team. I like the way our makeup is,” Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said yesterday. “We may not have three all-stars we can throw out on the floor, but we’ve got nine, 10, 11 players and over the course of a game we think we can wear people down.”
And nine, 10, 11 players who should each know what the others are going to do.
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