TORONTO -- Jason Terry scored only two points. Still, he made a big contribution to Boston’s latest win with a pep talk before the fourth quarter.
Kevin Garnett scored a season-high 27 points with 10 rebounds, Paul Pierce had 12 points and 11 rebounds, and the Celtics won their fifth straight game by beating the Toronto Raptors 99-95 on Wednesday night.
Courtney Lee added 15 points, Leandro Barbosa had 14, Avery Bradley 11 and Brandon Bass 10 as the Celtics remained unbeaten since losing guard Rajon Rondo to a season-ending knee injury.
Garnett scored 11 points in the fourth quarter as the Celtics rallied from a 10-point deficit to snap a two-game skid in Toronto. Boston had lost three of its last four in Canada.
"We’re fighters," Garnett said. "We’re a team that’s going to compete for 48 minutes. It’s not always pretty. We’re not perfect, we’re human beings. But we play hard, we do our best to go out and try to perfect the game plan."
Boston’s turnaround came after Terry harangued his teammates for their sloppy play through three quarters.
"His message was simple," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "’The ball will find the open guy. You don’t have to dribble around and create your own shot. We’ve got enough scoring. Space the floor and play together.’ And I think that’s what we did."
Terry teamed with Garnett, Pierce, Barbosa and
"It felt like we didn’t have the pace we wanted all game long until that fourth quarter," Pierce said. "Once we picked the pace up we got the lead and were able to win the game."
The victory also ended a three-game road losing streak for the Celtics, who had dropped 11 of 14 away from home.
"This is a good win for us because we didn’t have it at stages," Rivers said. "We just kind of kept looking for the right lineup, the right group."
It was Rivers’ 400th win with Boston, making him just the third Boston coach to reach that mark. Only Tom Heinsohn (427) and Red Auerbach (910) have more victories with the Celtics.
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