Three cheers for Patriots at TD Garden

Celtics forward Amir Johnson dunks on his former teammates during the first quarter Friday night.Barry Chin/Globe staff

Although the Celtics and Raptors played a mostly entertaining game on Friday, perhaps the loudest cheer of the night was reserved for Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and his made-for-TV moment.

During a second-half timeout, Patriots running backs LeGarrette Blount and Dion Lewis and wide receiver Brandon LaFell were shown on the scoreboard video monitor in their courtside seats. Then a camera flashed to Edelman, who was with a group of people in a box in an upper level of the arena.

Edelman raised a can — presumably of beer — tilted his head back and poured the drink into his mouth as if it were coming from a fountain. Then he crushed the can and dropped it on the ground as the crowd went wild.

The Patriots defeated the Dolphins on Thursday night, 36-7.

Johnson missed in Toronto

Celtics forward Amir Johnson spent six seasons with the Raptors before signing with the Celtics this summer. Before Toronto's 113-103 win on Friday, his former team made it very clear that he is missed.

"It's emotional, because you go through so many wars with the guy that you get to know him real well, the good and the bad," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "But there's a lot of good about Amir that we'll miss. He's such a great person as well as a hell of a competitor that you always have a fond, soft spot in your heart for."

Johnson spent six seasons with Toronto and helped the Raptors win division titles in each of the past two seasons. He signed a two-year, $24 million contract with Boston this summer.

Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry said it was strange going through training camp without Johnson.

"We definitely miss him, personally as a friend, as a teammate also," Lowry said, adding later, "I don't think you could replace what Amir did for us on the basketball court."

Lowry joked that if he tried to talk trash to Johnson during the game he could not do it with a straight face, so he would stay away from him instead. Casey said the Celtics are fortunate to have Johnson on their side now.

"They're getting a great, great person. A great competitor, a hard worker, great teammate, every adjective you want to give as far as Amir is concerned," Casey said.

"He came into this league as a young high school kid, learned from some of the best in Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace and those guys in Detroit [in 2005-06], and came and gave some of that knowledge to our young guys over the last four, five years."

Hunter still waiting

When Celtics rookie R.J. Hunter missed Wednesday's season-opener because of food poisoning, some of the veterans joked that he was simply too nervous to play.

But in reality, Hunter was frustrated that the night he had waited so long for would be delayed one more game.

He took the opportunity to gather intelligence as an observer in the Celtics' comfortable win over the 76ers.

"That was my first time kind of sitting back and watching," Hunter said.

"I haven't done that yet, so just kind of observing and watching everybody's body language and how the guys carried themselves."

Hunter's father, Ron, was at the Atlanta airport on his way to Boston for Wednesday's game when R.J. called him and said he was sick.

So Ron Hunter, who is Georgia State's men's basketball coach, went home. But the father was able to catch a last-minute flight to Boston on Friday. He was planning to return to Georgia in time for the Panthers' practice Saturday. Unfortunately, the trip was for naught, as Hunter did not get off the bench.

With Hunter activated, second-year forward James Young was on the inactive list for the second consecutive game, joined by rookie forward Jordan Mickey.

Olynyk returns

Forward Kelly Olynyk returned after serving a one-game suspension for his hard foul on Cavaliers' forward Kevin Love in last season's playoffs. Olynyk's arrival gave the Celtics another offensive weapon while also making it even more of a challenge for coach Brad Stevens to distribute playing time. Olynyk scored 11 points in 16:36 of action . . . The Celtics officially exercised their 2016-17 third-year options on Young and guard Marcus Smart and their fourth-year option on Olynyk . . . Tyler Zeller was the odd man out in the opener, playing just 11 minutes after starting the game. But Stevens has no concerns about how Zeller will bounce back. "He's great. He's a pro," Stevens said. "He's a really good guy. I'm certainly empathetic to it. But I'm not worried about his response at all." Zeller started again Friday and played 16:29. He scored 10 points and accumulated three fouls.