BOSTON (AP) -- Last season, Antoine Walker was routinely booed. Now, he's gaining the fans' admiration by simply driving to the basket.

	Walker scored 32 points and hit 16 of 18 free throws.

Walker posted his seventh consecutive 20-plus point game, scoring 32 and grabbing 13 rebounds to lead Boston to a 105-98 win over Cleveland on Monday night in the Celtics' inaugural game on their new parquet floor.

"It was different, but it's fun," Walker said of the cheers. "I like it."

Last season and earlier this year, fans were apprehensive when Walker fired up shots. Now he's going inside more, carrying Boston's offense.

"With me going to the basket, we're playing good halfcourt basketball," he said. "That's what we need to improve on. I'm just trying to be inside as much as possible."

Paul Pierce had 17 points and Kenny Anderson 16 for the Celtics. Adrian Griffin and Vitaly Potapenko added 12 points apiece as Boston's starters scored all but 16 of the team's points.

Shawn Kemp led the Cavaliers with 23 points and nine rebounds. Lamond Murray equaled his season high with 22 points.

"He's learning," Kemp said of Walker. "He's sticking to his game plan of drawing fouls. He's more aggressive than when we last saw him."

Walker, who was four points shy of his season high set Dec. 15 against Utah, hit 16 of 18 free throws, both career highs.

"I think that (Walker's game) is as good as it gets from a power forward, for the whole year or maybe his whole career," Boston coach Rick Pitino said. "When you go to the line 18 times as a power forward, it epitomizes a power forward's job."

Cleveland took a 72-70 lead on Murray's jam with 5:17 left in the third quarter before Boston closed the period with a 17-6 run. After Murray's dunk, Walker keyed an 8-0 run with two free throws, a twisting layup and made a nice feed to Potapenko for a short jumper.

"Antoine Walker had a heck of a game," Cleveland coach Randy Wittman said. "He was hard to handle."

The Celtics pushed their lead to 93-80 on Walker's two free throws 2:39 into the final quarter, but Cleveland scored 14 of the next 17 points to cut it to 96-94 on Cedric Henderson's layin with just over three minutes to play.

Anderson's jumper and Danny Fortson's free throw gave Boston a 99-94 edge, and Cleveland was never closer than four points in the final two minutes. Griffin helped seal it with a pair of free throws and a breakaway dunk 10 seconds apart.

The teams were tied 58-58 at the half.

Boston retired its fabled parquet floor, which was in place for all of the organization's 16 NBA titles, after its final game of 1999, Dec. 22 against Atlanta. The new floor is a replica of the one the Celtics played on for 50 seasons.

Notes
Ten seconds after the opening tap, the game was delayed for 21 minutes due to a power outage caused by a surge from an outage on a high-voltage line approximately 40 miles away in Millbury, Mass. ... Murray made his first five shots en route to a 14-point opening quarter. ... Boston's Dana Barros, who did not play, left the bench midway into the opening quarter and was sent home with the flu. ... A big roar went up at halftime when the scoreboard showed a news brief that included a report that New England Patriots coach Pete Carroll was fired.