Jorge Garbajosa insisted that his decision to accompany the  Raptors on their current trip had nothing to do with facing his demons. It was more to do with just being with his teammates before he goes under the knife to have a second surgery on his injured leg, which will be sooner than later, perhaps as early as this coming week.

"It's wasn't like trying to close the circle or to face the nightmare; that's a stupid thing," said Garbajosa, one of the more popular guys on the team. "I love these guys. They are more than my teammates. They are my friends, and I enjoy spending time with them. Going with them on a trip is the perfect way to spend 48 hours."

Garbajosa insisted that there weren't any chills when he walked on to the court yesterday, eight hours before the Raptors tipped off against the resurgent Boston Celtics. Part of the reason for that was that his teammates were cutting the Madrid native absolutely no slack about the fall, which occurred last March 26 when he jumped to try to prevent an layup by Al Jefferson but then fell awkwardly on his leg.

"They joke because it's better to joke about it than to say 'what do you remember?'. That just makes you feel worse," said Garbajosa, who is often compared to a hockey player in Raptorland in terms of how he deals with pain and the fact that never complains about his battered body.