[recap] [box score]
Another night, another double-digit assist game for Boston's point guard.
"Wait a minute," you're saying. "Didn't Rajon R-ndo sit this one out?" Indeed; the sixth-year point's back seized up on him after that hard fall he took Tuesday night in New York, and so he sat this one out amid a stretch of 23 consecutive games with double-digit assists. And while it was Sasha Pavlovic who took his spot in the starting lineup, it was Paul Pierce who filled his role on the court. Pierce had 11 assists in the first half on the way to a career-high 14 for the game. There aren't many small forwards in the league who can score 43 points one night and then come back the next night and run the offense and get everyone involved the way Pierce did in the first half. Those who can -- James and Anthony -- are considered among the best in the game. Pierce doesn't have the legs to bring it as consistently as those young guys do, but it's stretches like this one that remind the rest of the league of what we as Celtics fans already know: that Pierce is one of the best players of his generation -- and one of the most under-appreciated, too.
The 14 assists from Pierce was something we'd never seen before, but the fourth quarter was oh-so familiar. Faced with a scrappy Magic team that simply wouldn't go away, Pierce scored seven of his game-high 29 in the final 2:47, draining a huge jumper over old friend Glen Davis with seven seconds left, then sealing the game with two free throws -- his tenth and eleventh of the game, giving him a two-night mark of 28 for 30 from the stripe.
Pierce had help: Avery Bradley made ten of 14 shots on the way to 23 points; Brandon Bass had 21; Kevin Garnett chipped in with 15 points and nine rebounds. But the Celtics clinched a share of the Atlantic title and no worse than a four seed, and they did it on the back of the Captain and the Truth.
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