Celtics beat Raptors 110-101

I guess there was no Thanksgiving Day hangover for the Celtics. Boston avenged a loss to the Raptors less than a week ago with a solid home court victory to improve them to 12-4 on the year.  The Celtics played pretty well for most of the night but did have some lapses that allowed the Raptors to get back into it.

Shaq seems to have found the fountain of youth. The guy has played unbelievably this year. He had 16 points and 9 rebounds on 6-9 from the floor and ran the floor as well as he has in the last 4 years. Garnett looks great as well. His 26 points and 11 rebounds paced the Celtics.  I don't remember a game where I saw so many alley oop dunks, many of them Rondo to Garnett. Those two are an outstanding combination.

Speaking of Rondo,. he had a solid return in his first game back with 14 assists. He turned the ball over a lot with 8 turnovers but I'm okay with turnovers since he is trying to make plays. Ray shot the ball well early, hitting 3 quick threes in the first but tapered off the rest of the game. Big Baby Davis continued his excellent season with 18 points off the bench. Erden contributed another 8 points on 4-4 from the field.

On the other side, this Raptors team isn't half bad and I fully expect them to be a 7 or 8 seed in the playoffs. They don't have any superstars but a bunch of solid NBA rotation players. Their bench totalled 53 points and there really doesn't seem to be much of any drop off from the 1st to 2nd unit. 

All in all a solid victory for the Celtics. They get a few days of rest before a rematch with the Cavs.  I think we should all be very excited about where this team right now, especially without Perk.