No Subject

Boston beans Toronto

                                ROBERT MacLEOD
                                Basketball Reporter
                                Wednesday, November 3, 1999

                                Toronto -- In spite of all the hyperbole about
this being the Toronto Raptors'
                                year to find the promised land of the National
Basketball Association playoffs,
                                head coach Butch Carter preferred to maintain
an even keel.

                                "Pessimistic" was the term Carter used before
the commencement of the season
                                when asked how he felt heading in, claiming
that the exhibition schedule was not
                                an accurate measure of his team's worth.

                                That, plus the fact the Raptors' home opener
last night at a charged Air Canada
                                Centre was against the Boston Celtics
conspired to make the coach a tad queasy
                                heading in. The Raptors smoked the Celtics in
their season debut last year in
                                Boston and Carter figured the Beantowners
would be inspired for a little
                                payback.

                                He was right.

                                The Raptors appeared unprepared to handle to
frenetic pace that a
                                much-improved Boston team presented them last
night as the Celtics laid a
                                103-90 tattooing on Toronto before a
dispirited and somewhat surprising
                                less-than-capacity gathering of 17,711 at the ACC.

                                The Celtics dominated, led for most of the
way, and carried a well-deserved
                                79-65 lead into the fourth quarter, a hole
that the Raptors could not find their
                                way out of.

                                Second-year Boston forward Paul Pierce
shredded the Raptors' defence all
                                evening. He had 20 points by the end of the
first half and finished with a
                                game-high 30. Antoine Walker was also steady,
playing hard-nosed defence and
                                chipping in with 22 points.

                                "He [Pierce] killed us," said Toronto's Tracy
McGrady, who was less than
                                satisfied with just 19 minutes of work and 11
points off the bench. "He was
                                making shots. His confidence was up tonight
and it was tough to stop him."

                                "If we can maintain that consistency that we
showed there's no doubt in my
                                mind that we can be a playoff team," said
Pierce, who buried 12 of his 19 shots
                                from the floor, including three of four from
three-point range.

                                Not to be overlooked was the effort of
6-foot-10 forward Walter McCarty, who
                                was uncanny from three-point range, hitting on
six of six from beyond the stripe
                                to finish with 20 points. McCarty only
connected on 13 three-point shots all of
                                last season.

                                "It just felt good tonight and I was able to
knock some shots in," a modest
                                McCarty declared afterward.

                                "That's probably the most threes he's hit in
his life," said 5-foot-3 Raptor guard
                                Muggsy Bogues.

                                For the Raptors, veteran Doug Christie was
tops with 20 points while starting
                                point guard Alvin Williams added 13. Vince
Carter, who was an ugly 3-for-10
                                from the floor, added 12.

                                <snip>

								The Raptors got off to a horrible, bumbling start that
                                set the tone for the game. They turned over
the ball seven times in the opening
                                quarter and wound up trailing the Celtics 27-18.

                                The Raptors fought back to trail by just three
-- 37-34 -- with 5:30 remaining in
                                the second quarter. But the Celtics reeled off
an 11-2 run after that and were
                                leading 50-42 by the time the half was over.
The Celtics carried a 79-65
                                advantage heading into the final quarter and
were never threatened.

                                "We just can't let games like this slip away
from us," Bogues said. "It's early
                                but we want to stop this bleeding before it spreads."

                                IN THE DRESSING ROOM

                                Raptor forward Tracy McGrady: "They came out
making shots. The first
                                half they shot something like over 50 per cent
and once we got in that hole we
                                couldn't dig ourselves out." 

                                Celtic guard Kenny Anderson: "We remember last
year's loss to the
                                Raptors. We came in here humble. We just
wanted to win." 

                                Raptor centre Antonio Davis: "I could sit here
and give you 50 million
                                excuses. But, bottom line, we didn't get it done."


(How's this for an excuse: you started a 6'9 power forward at "centre?")