It takes basketball for a Toronto club to be applauded at the Bell Centre. While the Canadian bowed sharply in Detroit on Friday night, it was a full house and the vast majority of the 21,900 fans gathered in the Montreal amphitheater encouraged the Raptors.
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“Let’s go, Raptors! Let’s go, Raptors!”, could we hear.
Carey Price was notably in the front row, on the edge of the court, with his wife Angela. Paul Byron joined him for the second half. Quebec football player Laurent Duvernay-Tardif also took advantage of this first NBA visit to Montreal since 2018.
In a heated atmosphere, the Boston Raptors and Celtics pushed the show into overtime, with a 127-127 tie after the usual four quarters. Toronto ultimately won 137-134.
“It’s unique for a team to feel the support of an entire country,” testified Raptors player Pascal Siakam, on the sidelines of this game presented at the Bell Center. Some fans come to Toronto to watch games, but not everyone gets that opportunity. We see that people are excited and happy to be there and for us, it’s a joy. For me, as a francophone, to come to Montreal is something good and important.”
Martin Chevalier / JdeM
Pascal Siakam (left).
Unused by head coach Nick Nurse, however, Siakam let his teammates enliven the show on the court in the evening, including OG Anunoby and Scottie Barnes, who scored 32 and 25 points respectively.
A dunk from Khem Birch
Quebecer Chris Boucher, color bearer of the Raptors, was not there, he who is sick in addition to being injured in a thigh. The Toronto team nevertheless counted on the presence of another native player from Montreal, Khem Birch. The latter also raised the crowd with a “dunk”, with just over five minutes to go in the first quarter. The start of the game was a real firework as the Celtics led 36-35 after only one quarter.
After undergoing surgery on his right knee last May, Birch was able to show he was healthy as the Raptors open their regular season next Wednesday in Toronto against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I’m not looking for excuses with the state of my knee, but it’s still a reason why I wasn’t as aggressive last season, recognized Birch, particularly effective in recovering the ball under the basket. Going for rebounds has always been part of my game. It’s nothing new to me. I do it because it’s natural to do it.”
Expensive evening
In the crowd, fans seemed to enjoy the show. So much the better, because some had had to pay a small fortune to obtain tickets from resellers. About an hour before the start of the game, it was difficult to find a pair of tickets under $500, even in the heights of the Bell Centre.
Last August, the day of the sale, all the tickets offered on the Ticketmaster company site had been sold out in less than 10 minutes.
A fueled dream
While commissioner Adam Silver has dismissed the idea of a possible short-term expansion, a preseason game like Friday’s at the Bell Center fuels the dream of seeing an NBA club one day end up at the Bell Center.
“Montreal is a beautiful city. Why not? Siakam also expressed himself on the question. Now I don’t know how it works [pour une expansion]but every time we come here, the support is there.”
– Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, Quebec’s Bennedict Mathurin and the Pacers suffered a 122-114 loss in a preseason game against the Houston Rockets. Despite the setback, Mathurin totaled 18 points during this meeting.