With their best winning strike in over 14 years, the Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors on Sunday 90-77. Paul Pierce scored 18 points, while Kevin Garnett scored 16, and brought the Atlantic Division leader the 9th consecutive victory this season.

The home team ended their four-winning strike this season, and lost to a defensive Celtics who is most proud in its defensive stance: “That’s going to be our staple pretty much all year long. We take pride on the defensive end. Regardless of who’s out there, that’s going to be the make-up of our team,” said Pierce.

The Celtics, currently NBA leaders in terms of opponents’ scoring and scoring differential, opened the game with a 6-0 run and headed for a 40-19 lead in the second quarter. By the end of the first three quarters, the Celtics were ahead of the Raptors 71-54 and heading for a record-breaking victory.

The forth quarter started with a good 7-0 run for Toronto, but with Garnett back on the floor and Pierce making an 8-2 run, Boston was back on track 80-63 almost six minutes before the end of the game.

Chris Bosh, who scored 17 points and had 13 rebounds for the Toronto Raptors, said about the winning team: “their defense is very aggressive. They are very long and athletic and the plays we usually make just weren’t there.”

The raptors did have something to learn from this game: “what we need to take from this game is to see how they play defense,” also said Bosh.  

The Celtics won their ninth-in-a-row victory with guard Ray Allen in Boston, where he was receiving treatment for his sore right ankle, but he is expected to be back on the team on Wednesday, when they will face Detroit.

In other games, the Pistons beat Warriors 109-87, with Prince scoring 23 points, Trail Blazers beat the Nuggets 116-105, with Brandon Ray scoring 26 points in the Denver match, and Lakers finished 113-92 ahead of the Clippers.