By Andrew Dubowec

The Toronto Raptors and Andrea Bargnani both made a statement last night against the Boston Celtics.

The big Italian had 20 points to go with a career high seven assists, seven rebounds and shot 50% from the field as Toronto won a 114-112 nail-biter over the Boston Celtics. Andrea stayed out of foul trouble and a provided solid one on one defence against a number of Celtics, including Kevin Garnett.

The Raptors, as a team shot 58% overall and 71% beyond the arc. The 114 points scored were the most Boston has surrendered all season. No doubt, the star of the game was Jose Calderon despite early turnovers. The Raptors had Andrea, Jose, Bosh and Parker who scored over 20 points a piece.

VIDEO:  Six Minute Raptors vs. Celtics Recap
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Andrea was not guarded tightly to start the game and Andrea made the Celtics pay. When Boston finally recognized his hot hand, Andrea swung the ball to Calderon and Delfino who responded by hitting open three’s.

                

At half time, Andrea told Leo Rautins that he his overall level of play needs to improve, but that he didn’t want to talk about himself. Talk should be about the team.

After the game, Bargnani pointed to the excellent work of Jose Calderon.  "With him playing hard and attacking the basket so hard they had to do something. They were forced to have a big help on Jose so that left me or Chris open," Bargnani said.

During post game interviews, the media tried to get Andrea to speak about himself. Finally, Andrea relented and said, "I played better but I have to be more aggressive in the beginning of the game and try to get more rebounds and get more in the game doing some of the other stuff."

Sam Mitchell acknowledged that Andrea’s early successes helped his game. "Andrea hit some shots early which puts some pressure on those guys who are going to be guarding you .... Young players if they have some success offensively it helps them.”