returned to the arena he once called home and played in front of his
college coach. The result was the same.
Paul Pierce scored 17 points and
Kevin Garnett added 16 to lead the Boston Celtics to a 106-90 preseason
victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night at the XL Center.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun was in attendance and received an ovation when he was shown on the large video board above the court.
"I bet you he felt out place," Allen said. "Just sitting there, he could relax."
Allen had eight points, six rebounds
and four assists. He made his only field goal in the opening seconds of
the third quarter and set up Garnett for a jumper that gave Boston its
first double-digit lead, 72-62.
"The whole time I was shooting, I was
just thinking about seeing the student section," said Allen, who went
26-0 in Hartford while playing for UConn. "This is a building in my
mind that was always blue and white."
It was the first time the Celtics
played in Hartford since a preseason game in 1995. Prior to then, the
Celtics played three regular season games a year in the arena formerly
known as the Civic Center.
Glen Davis added 13 points for the
Celtics (4-1), Lester Hudson had 12 points and Kendrick Perkins and
Eddie House each scored 11.
Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo had
six points, four steals and eight assists. He set up Garnett twice with
alley-oop passes midway in the third quarter, including a dunk.
"That was nice," Celtics coach Doc
Rivers said. "Unexpected, actually, because Kevin got kneed in the calf
in the first half, so I didn't think he was running well. And all of a
sudden out of nowhere, he becomes the old Kevin."
Chris Bosh had 21 points for the Raptors (2-2).
After missing a reverse layup early
in the third quarter, Bosh vehemently protested to referee Tre Maddox
after no foul was called. Later in the quarter, Bosh had some words for
referee Jaimie Morales after picking up his fourth and fifth fouls in a
10-second span.
"It was for a moving screen," Bosh
said. "I told them I have to actually move into somebody to get a
moving screen. You know, it is what it is. … It's preseason, it's
practice for everybody."
In the second quarter, Raptors center Andrea Bargnani was assessed a technical foul for protesting a call.
"I'm not getting into the referee's
performance," Rivers said. "They're doing the best that they can do in
a really, really difficult circumstance. It's not like we're going to
change as coaches. We're nuts. We're going to complain and do all that
stuff, and we don't care who it is out there. We're still going to do
that."