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TORONTO - Home sweet home didn’t change anything for the Raptors.
They were still the same banged-up, injury-riddled team they were on a three-game post Christmas trip.
Worse, the visiting Boston Celtics arrived in Toronto expecting to be without both starting point guard Rajon Rondo and power forward Kevin Garnett.
At least that would have evened things up a little, until Rondo and the Celtics decided seven games without its starting point guard was more than enough and activated the key to the Celtics offence to start.
Rondo’s return saw see him play for the first time since Dec. 15. He had been out with a sprained left ankle. He led the NBA in assists with 13.8 per game heading into Sunday night’s game.
For the Raptors, Jose Calderon was able to play as he did in Houston on Friday, but still out were his backup Jerryd Bayless, starting small forward Sonny Weems, Reggie Evans and Andrea Bargnani.
Even Calderon’s status remains day to day.
“It’s the type of injury that flares up after he plays on it,” head coach Jay Triano said. “He’s playing through a lot of pain so he needs a day after that to recover. We’ll find out this week how we’ll deal with the back-to-backs.”
That could be problematic with Bayless’ status up in the air. He tried to play Friday but after eight minutes decided he could not go further.
The Raps are in Chicago on Tuesday, Cleveland on Wednesday and round out the road trip and the season series with the Celtics with a game on Friday in Boston.
