Projo Sports Blog

-- The Celtics survived a late rally by New Orleans, defeating the Hornets, 97-87, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,624 at the TD Garden.

Paul Pierce led all scorers with 27 points. He scored 20 of them in the first half.

Kevin Garnett scored 14 points and 7 grabbed rebounds and Ray Allen added 17 points.

Not to be outdone, Kendrick Perkins had 12 points and 7 rebounds, and Rajon Rondo (6 points, 10 assists) held his own against New Orleans All-Star Chris Paul (22 points, 8 assists).

New Orleans erased an 11-point first-half lead and tied the score at 74-74 on a Peja Stojakovic 3-pointer with 10:17 remaining in the game.

But the Celtics were not going to be denied.

A Marquis Daniels free throw, followed by a Rasheed Wallace 3-pointer and a Shelden Williams dunk gave the Celtics an 80-74 advantage and forced New Orleans to call a timeout to try to stop Boston's momentum.

It did.

Stojakovic buried another 3-pointer, but Daniels answered with a layup. Stojakovic came right back with another 3-pointer to cut Boston's advantage to 82-80 with 6:03 left.

The Celtics called a timeout and went to Garnett after the break. He delivered with a turn-around jumper in the post. So they did it again. And he scored again to give the Celtics an 86-80 cushion.

David West cut Boston's lead in half with a 3-pointer, but Ray Allen answered with a three of his own which was followed by a Paul Pierce 7-foot jumper which increased Boston's lead to 90-83 with 2:33 remaining.

A Pierce 3-pointer with 1:16 left iced the game for the Celtics.

Stojakovic led the Hornets with 26 points and 4 rebounds.

 Tags  Boston Celtics Celtics New Orleans Hornets Rob Lee Robert Lee

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