Kevin Garnett had 19 points and 16 rebounds in his Celtics debut and Boston ruined Andrea Bargnani's homecoming with an 89-85 preseason win over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday.
Paul Pierce added 21 points for Boston, while Ray Allen had an off night with only 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
The start of the NBA Europe Live tour marked the Celtics' first game since Garnett and Allen joined the team. Along with Boston veteran Pierce, the Celtics may have one of the most improved teams in the league this season.
"It was good to finally get out there and get our feet wet," Pierce said. "It was the best first game since I've been with the Celtics."
Boston coach Doc Rivers left both Pierce and Garnett in for 32 minutes, while Allen played 31.
"Doc told us we're not going to play a lot of minutes tonight, but he wanted us to go really hard," Garnett said. "We had a lot of energy tonight."
Bargnani, last year's top overall draft pick by Toronto, played his first game in his hometown in an NBA jersey and scored 13 points in less than 15 minutes.
"Andrea was pretty good. I probably could have done a better job at getting him back in, but I wanted to keep him fresh for tomorrow," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said.
T.J. Ford and Anthony Parker started at guard for the Raptors, with Chris Bosh and Jason Kapono at forward and Bargnani at center.
Ford led the Raptors with 15 points.
The other Celtics starters were Rajon Rondo at point guard and Kendrick Perkins at center.
The Raptors were scheduled to play Roma yesterday, then travel to Spain to face Real Madrid. The Celtics meet Garnett's former club, the Minnesota Timberwolves, on Wednesday in London.
"We did some good things and we need to work at some other things," Mitchell said. "We play again tomorrow and we'll try to clean some things up."
The sold-out crowd of 11,118 at Rome's Palalottomatica gave Bargnani a standing ovation when he came out for warmups and grew even louder when he scored six of the Raptors' first eight points, including a 3-pointer on his first attempt from the field.
The Celtics had a slow start as Toronto's international cast of Carlos Delfino, Jose Calderon, Jorge Garbajosa and Rasho Nesterovic sunk a series of perimeter shots to open up a 34-22 lead.
The Celtics finally got going midway through the second quarter when Allen hit a three to pull Boston within 40-34. After missing a series of midrange jumpers, Garnett picked up a rebound off a Pierce miss and dunked to put the Celtics in front 42-40, their first lead since the opening minutes of the first quarter.
Garnett added a free throw to conclude a 12-0 run for the Celtics and make it 43-40 for Boston at halftime.
Garnett was given a technical foul for hanging on the rim after a dunk that tied the game at 52. It appeared he was trying to avoid landing on some players beneath him and the Celtics argued the call to no avail.
Ford's perimeter shooting for the Raptors kept the game close in the third quarter, which ended with the Celtics leading 70-68.
Reserve guard Gabe Pruitt sealed the game with a free throw for Boston in the final seconds of the game.
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