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Wednesday, Mar. 1 7:00pm ET
Toronto won third consecutive game | |||||
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BOSTON (AP) -- Vince Carter found another way to get it done. On his second chance to win the game, Carter hit a fadeaway 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a 28-point performance and lead the Toronto Raptors to a 96-94 victory over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.
"I've never played with anyone who puts on a show like Vince. He gets the job done," said Raptors guard Tracy McGrady, who had 18 points and 11 rebounds and found Carter on an inbounds pass with 3.2 seconds left to set up the game-winner. "I'm used to it," McGrady said. "After seeing the 51-point performance (on Sunday), nothing is going to surprise me about him. Nothing." Carter scored 16 points in the first half but then struggled, shooting just 3-of-12 in the second half before the final shot. He took the pass from McGrady on the right side of the basket, dribbled once with his left hand, went between his legs and dribbled once more with his right before shooting. "When I caught the ball, I looked at the clock and just tried to get the best shot," Carter said. "The only thing I realized was the time on the clock and what I needed to do to get the ball in the basket." Carter won the NBA Slam Dunk contest on All-Star weekend and on Sunday scored 51 points in a 103-102 victory over Phoenix -- the most in the NBA this season. "This is sweeter," he said. "It's fine to accomplish new things, but this feels good." The game-winner sent his teammates into a frenzied celebration and even drew cheers from the Boston fans. Celtics coach Rick Pitino praised his team for their hard work and blamed the fans and media for having excessive expectations of a young team unable to improve because of the NBA's salary cap. "Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door," Pitino said. "And if you expect them to walk through that door, they're going to be gray and old. What we are is young, exciting, hardworking and going to improve. "I wish we had 90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can't. The only thing we can do is work hard, and all this negativity that's in this town (stinks). And I've been around, and when Jim Rice was booed. I've been around with (Carl) Yastrzemski booed. And it stinks. It makes the greatest town, greatest city in the word, lousy." Doug Christie added 21 for Toronto, which won its third consecutive game. Antoine Walker scored 27 points, Paul Pierce had 22 and Vitaly Potapenko had 11 rebounds for Boston. The teams traded leads 13 times in the final 3:42 before the Celtics went ahead 94-93 on Kenny Anderson's jumper with 24 seconds left. Potapenko stopped Charles Oakley at the other end, but then knocked the ball out of bounds with 7.6 seconds left. Toronto called a timeout. Boston called a timeout. Toronto called another timeout. Finally, the ball came in to Carter at the left side of the lane, but Pierce had him well-guarded and his bank shot rolled off the rim Potapenko grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 3.5 seconds left. The Celtics center, who made just 2-of-8 free throws in the game, missed both. Carter grabbed the rebound of the second, calling timeout before he hit the ground and allowing the Raptors to set up the winning play. Carter has led the team in scoring the last 12 games -- he set the team record with 13 in a row from Dec. 3-28 -- and 43 times this season. Walter McCarty made one of two free throws with 3.9 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 66-65 and match Boston's biggest lead of the game to that point.
Game notes | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Toronto Clubhouse Boston Clubhouse Pitino frustrated in post-game comments after loss to Raptors
RECAPS Toronto 96 Boston 94 AUDIO/VIDEO   Rick Pitino wants the city of Boston to stand behind its team.wav: 433 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6   | |||||
