Paul Pierce scored 27 points and the Boston
Celtics remained unbeaten with a 97-87 victory over the New Orleans Hornets.
Ray Allen tallied 17 points, while Kevin Garnett chipped in 14 points, seven
rebounds and five assists for the Celtics, who moved to 4-0 on the season.
Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace each scored 12 points.
"Give them credit, they made a lot of shots down the stretch," Celtics coach
Doc Rivers said of the Hornets. "I told our guys, so far this year, we've done
a great job of each game building and improving. This was not one of those
nights."
Peja Stojakovic netted 26 points and Chris Paul contributed 22 points and
eight assists for the Hornets, who were coming off a 97-92 home win against
Sacramento on Friday. New Orleans went 13-of-28 from beyond the arc.
"Well, I don't know how good you can feel," Stojakovic said of his
contribution. "It's still a loss. We tried I think we didn't have enough focus
for 48 minutes. Some parts of the game were good for us from both ends of the
floor. But we just didn't have enough consistency."
A three-pointer by Stojakovic tied the game at 74 in the early stages of the
fourth, but the Celtics scored the next six points, capped by a dunk from
Shelden Williams.
Another three-ball from Stojakovic, this one with 6:07 remaining, had the
Hornets within 82-80, but a pair of Garnett turn-around jumpers stemmed the
tide.
David West drained a three-pointer to make it 86-83, but Allen and Pierce
countered with jumpers, extending the margin to 90-83 with 2:34 left.
New Orleans was ahead by as many as five points in the first quarter, but was
trailing, 22-20, moving to the second quarter. Pierce had 10 points in the
period.
A three-pointer by Pierce widened the gap to 41-30 with 3:08 left in the
second and Garnett thrilled the crowd by going up for an alley-oop jam off a
feed from Rajon Rondo a minute later.
Boston carried a 47-38 lead into the locker room, but the Hornets made a late
push in the third. Paul scored seven straight New Orleans points and drew the
visitors within 69-66 in the final minute. Stojakovic drilled a three-pointer
to tie the game, but Wallace's three-ball with 1.1 seconds left had the
Celtics back in front, 72-69, moving to the fourth.
Game Notes
The Celtics, who are 4-0 for the first time since opening the 2007-08 NBA
championship season with eight consecutive victories, head to Philadelphia for
a Tuesday game...The Hornets play at New York Monday...West had 10 points,
while Emeka Okafor finished with 10 rebounds for the Hornets.
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