TORONTO — It’s a good thing Michael Finley didn’t have anything else in his suitcase.
Finley made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and finished with 14 points Wednesday night as the Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors, 115-104.
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Finley nearly didn’t play after he strained his back picking up his luggage at the team hotel.
“That’s when you know you’re old,” Boston Coach Doc Rivers joked.
Boston trainer Ed Lacerte loosened the 37-year-old Finley up with a massage, and Finley had 11 points in the fourth.
“If the game had started at 3 o’clock I probably wouldn’t have played,” Finley said. “Ed worked on me before the game, I went and shot around, and it was better so I was able to play.”
Rajon Rondo led Boston with 21 points. Paul Pierce added 20.
Kevin Garnett scored 19 points and Ray Allen had 18, including 10 in the final quarter as the Celtics won their eighth straight over Toronto, sweeping the series for the second straight year.
“Our shooting won the game for us,” Rivers said. “When Ray and Michael get it going at the same time and they’re both on the floor, that makes us really good. We can still pound the ball down low and affect the other team’s ability to take the low-post game away because they’re so worried about the guys out on the perimeter.”
Sonny Weems scored a career-high 21 for the Raptors, who played their first game since Chris Bosh suffered two facial fractures Tuesday at Cleveland.
Things got worse for Toronto when Hedo Turkoglu left late in the first after bumping heads with Tony Allen of Boston. Turkoglu sustained a nasal contusion and was taken to a hospital for a CT scan.
“When it rains it pours, I guess,” Toronto swingman Antoine Wright said. “We’re dropping like flies right now.”
The Raptors’ doctor, Paul Marks, said Bosh is expected to need “weeks” to recover from surgery.
Andrea Bargnani, Jarrett Jack and Wright scored 17 points, and DeMar DeRozan had 14 for the Raptors, who have lost three straight.
Weems scored 17 in the first half but made just one field goal after the break.
Rondo shot 6 of 7 in the second half and scored 16 points.
“We told him to be more aggressive and attack,” Rivers said. “In the second half we used Rondo as our attack weapon.”
Finley hit two 3-pointers in the fourth to give the Celtics their biggest lead, 98-85, with 6:53 left.
“I feel like he’s one of the best shooters still in the game,” Rondo said of Finley. “He definitely has the best form.”
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