Boston ? The Glove came out, and just in time.
Gary Payton saved his biggest contribution for last, going scoreless over a complete game for the first time in 10 years but stealing the ball from Jalen Rose in the final seconds to help the Boston Celtics hold off the Toronto Raptors 91-89 Friday night.
“I’ve played him a lot in my career. I knew what he was going to do,” said Payton, a 15-year veteran and nine-time all-defensive team selection. “It was an ugly game. We played defense; that was the one thing we did well.”
Mark Blount, who had 22 points, hit the go-ahead basket with 34 seconds left, and Paul Pierce added two free throws to give Boston a four-point lead with 24 seconds to play. But Donyell Marshall scored from underneath to cut Toronto’s deficit to 91-89.
Boston’s Tony Allen missed two free throws with 16.5 seconds left, but the rebound was knocked out of bounds by the Raptors and, when Pierce was fouled, he missed another pair. Vince Carter missed a driving layup underneath the basket in traffic, and the rebound resulted in a jump ball with five seconds left.
Marshall tipped the ball to Rose, but Payton knocked it out of his hands. Raef LaFrentz grabbed it for Boston while the buzzer sounded.
“Gary made a great defensive play,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “He became ‘The Glove’ on that last possession.”
Payton was 0-for-6, he did not shoot a free throw and had just one rebound to go with his five assists over 33 minutes. He went scoreless once last season with the Lakers in a game when he was ejected in the first quarter; the last time he failed to score in significant minutes was Nov. 17, 1993, for Seattle against Portland.
LaFrentz had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Pierce scored 20 for the Celtics, who have won three in a row.
Rose had 19 points for the Raptors. Carter was 5-for-17 from the floor while being guarded by Pierce, and Rafer Alston was 1-for-9 with six missed 3-point attempts and was called for one of two technical fouls that helped the Celtics erase a nine-point, third-quarter deficit.
“We were playing well, moving the ball, and we had semi-control of the game,” Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. “Then two of our players’ immaturity showed up. I didn’t even want to look at them. It was inexcusable how they conducted themselves.”
Alston and Loren Woods were whistled for technicals in the final minute of the third quarter, helping Boston to a 12-3 run that tied the game. Pierce made just one of the technical foul shots.
“I let the emotions get the best of me,” Woods said. “I lost it, and I lost the game for us.”
Mitchell left the two on the bench for the rest of the game and said they would stay there for Saturday’s game against Cleveland.
“We could have used them both, but I wasn’t going to let either one of them back in the game,” Mitchell said. “These guys cannot conduct themselves like that in front of 19,000 people and get rewarded by playing.”
Alston said he was going to take some time to think about whether he’s a good fit for the team and the league: “I may not even play the rest of the season,” he said.
The Celtics trailed by 14 points in the second quarter and were behind 65-56 with 4:47 left in the third before scoring 10 of the last 13 points in the period. They tied it 68-all with 11:34 left in the game, and Ricky Davis hit a 3-pointer with 8:53 left to give Boston its first lead at 73-72.
Blount gave the Celtics an 89-87 lead when he put back Pierce’s miss with 33 seconds left.
It was the Celtics’ first game since Pierce had a brief but intense shouting match with coach Doc Rivers when Pierce was benched for not hustling late in Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Rivers put Pierce back in and he hit a big 3-pointer that helped Boston win 101-100.
“He’s the coach,” Pierce told reporters a day after the spat. “Whatever he says goes, and that’s it.”
But the two didn’t meet until Friday morning.
“It was a five-minute conversation. It wasn’t anything that was really deep,” Rivers said before the game. “I think all this kind of stuff makes you closer and just builds your team.”
