The Celtics Do Not Enjoy Canada, Luckily They Don't Have To Go Back There This Season

One of the biggest riddles of this season for the Celtics is how they could smoke the Raptors twice but then lost the last two times they played them in Toronto.

This weird season series ended tonight with the Raptors (21-39, 12-19) topping the Celtics (34-25, 13-16 away) 84-79 at Air Canada Centre.

You can't make sense of how Boston beat Toronto by 23 and 36 earlier in the season before losing to them twice and not scoring 80 in either of those contests. Therefore I won't spend much time on this forgettable stinker.

Another reason to move on is that this was the start of the Celtics' only back-to-back-to-back scenario of 2011-12 (every team has one). Spread out, it's four games in five nights.

DeMar Derozan scored a game-high 22 points (13 for 13 from the line) for Toronto and Linas Kleiza had 17 points and eight rebounds off the bench. I know the Celtics mailed it in since something called Alan Anderson scored 12, Amir Johnson had 10 points and nine rebounds and Aaron Gray grabbed 10 rebounds.

Boston didn't have Ray Allen but that's trumped by Toronto missing its two best players: Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon.

Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 18 points and eight rebounds. Avery Bradley scored 15 points, Kevin Garnett had a modest 13 points and 10 rebounds, Brandon Bass added 10 points and Rajon Rondo reached double-digit assists for the 20th straight game with eight points, 12 assists (0 turnovers) and four steals. Normally I wouldn't complain about nice numbers like that but when Rondo faces a nobody like Ben Uzoh (that's his real name), he needs to produce way more.

After leading 20-13 after one quarter and 36-30 at halftime (high school basketball style), Toronto rocked Boston with a 27-11 third quarter. The C's recovered in the fourth (32-27) but it was too late. They were down 66-51 and cut it to 80-77 but Pierce badly missed a 3 and that was that.

In their tour of shitbums around the Eastern Conference, the Celtics next visit the New Jersey Nets tomorrow night. After this nightmare, a loss then is completely unacceptable. Boston needs to win that one.

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Any Big East fan could have told you, Luke Harangody is a beast

Earlier in the week, I made a mistake when I referred to Celtics guard Von Wafer as the last guy on the bench. I neglected to mention rookie guard Avery Bradley and rookie forward Luke Harangody, two college players that came out too early (Bradley) or seem to be undersized and without a position in the NBA (Harangody).

With Kevin Garnett out the last five games, Harangody has been playing more minutes and last night was his first real solid performance as he put up 17 points and 11 rebounds (in a career-high 27 minutes) that fueled a 122-102 win over the Toronto Raptors at the TD Garden.

Anyone that pays attention to college hoops could tell you that both, particularly Harangody can ball. You don't play four years in the Big East at Notre Dame and dominate like he did when you're a stiff.

Clearly, it'll be hard for him to find minutes on a championship contender like this one but he seems to have the ingredients to be a solid role player in the Ryan Gomes, Leon Powe mode.

Since the Raptors (12-24) don't play any semblance of defense, it should be no surprise that the Celtics (28-7) usually own them, save for one weird choke job in Toronto earlier this season.

Paul Pierce led the Cs with 20 points, Ray Allen scored 17, Glen Davis had 14 points and Shaquille O'Neal added 12 points. Nate Robinson regained his scoring touch, putting up 15 points off the bench.

Rajon Rondo had nine points and seven assists in 26 minutes (with six turnovers) as Doc Rivers tried to limit the starters minutes in the first night of a back to back stretch and three games in four nights.

DeMar Derozan paced Toronto with 20 points, Andrea Bargnani and Linas Kleiza both added 17 points, Jose Calderon had 11 points and nine assists while Amir Johnson scored 10. Off the bench, Leandro Barbosa scored 15.

The Raptors must possess as many foreigners (four played last night) as almost any other team, fitting since they're in Toronto which is a very diverse city, especially for Canada. It also makes sense that they don't have any interest in stopping anybody on the defensive end.

Boston was up 34-22 after one quarter and 67-45 at halftime (their most first half points this season). The Raptors cut into the deficit a bit in the third quarter (32-27) but it didn't matter as the Celts closed it out (28-25) and sent everyone home happy.

It was the second straight outstanding shooting display by Boston (57.5%) and Toronto wasn't shabby either (50.6%). The Celts made five more 3-pointers (11-6), three more free throws (19-16) and had 12 more rebounds (43-31). Boston had six more assists (31-25), three off their season-high while Toronto had four more steals (8-4) and five more blocks (7-2).

Thanks to Rondo's carelessness, the Cs had five more turnovers (16-11) and half the amount of fastbreak points that the Raptors had (14-7). The Cs did pound it down low with 10 more points in the paint (54-44).

Boston is in Chicago to face the Bulls tonight. Derrick Rose seems to always play well against the Celtics and this has developed into one of the Cs bigger rivalries over the past few seasons.