Rajon Rondo remains out, resting his sore ankle and about two dozen other maladies. So what does Paul Pierce do? He puts together a 12-assist triple-double to help lead the Boston Celtics over the Indiana Pacers 99-88 on Sunday, giving the defending Eastern Conference champions their 13th straight win.
NBA Scores And More: Celtics Beat Pacers To Win 13th Straight Behind Paul Pierce’s Triple-Double
Paul Pierce’s triple-double carried the Celtics past the Pacers. In other action, the shorthanded Phoenix Suns knocked off the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Pierce had 18 points (on just eight shots), 10 rebounds and those 12 assists, his highest total in a game in three years. It was Pierce’s sixth career triple-double, and his first since late in the 2005-06 season. Those are just simple indicators that Pierce, age 33, is in fact playing as well as ever.
Boston's non-Rondo Big Three really do put the Orlando Magic's weekend trades for Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson into sharper focus. The Magic will be paying Arenas and Turkoglu -- not exactly two bastions of stability -- into their 30s. Boston, meanwhile, continues to shell out huge clams for Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, all deep into their 30s. It's working out in Massachusetts, and that's what the Magic want to replicate.
The Celtics haven't lost since Nov. 21. Should Boston take care of the resurgent (or perhaps insurgent) Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, they'll head into a Christmas Day match-up with those rebuilt Magic looking for Win No. 15, and a statement victory over Orlando's answer to the Big Three and <insert whatever they are calling the Miami Heat these days>.
It's worth noting that in the championship 2008-09 season, the Celtics reeled off 19 consecutive wins leading up to Christmas, where Boston lost to the Lakers. Last year, Boston had an 11-game winning streak that was ended just before Christmas.
I implore you to enjoy this clip of Shaquille O’Neal jumping just high enough to finish a picture-perfect Pierce alley-oop.
Indy Cornrows credited solid effort from the Pacers throughout; Celtics Blog notes that injuries have forced Doc Rivers into some unconventional line-ups.Suns 113, Thunder 110
The Oklahoma City Thunder still have problems regaining the defensive composure they had last season, and there's no one better suited to point that out than Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns. The Suns dropped 113 points in about 95 possessions thanks to ridiculously hot shooting (57 percent). Big advantages for the Thunder in turnovers and offensive rebounding couldn't make up the shooting chasm, and the Thunder dropped to 10-5 at home.
With Jason Richardson off to Orlando and Vince Carter not yet dressed, Grant Hill and Nash had to carry the load for Phoenix. Hill scored 30 and had 11 rebounds, his first 30-10 game since 2000, when he still wore a Detroit Pistons jersey. (Hill, in fact, had 20 30-10 games in Detroit, zero in Orlando and now one in Phoenix.) Kevin Durant scored 28 points for the Thunder, but his shooting -- 8-19 -- was indicative of the Thunder as a whole. Russell Westbrook shot 5-17, and if you take away Nick Collison's weird and wonderful 8-10 night, the rest of OKC shot just 37 percent.
The Suns are 13-13, and it appears very much that they will be dueling for the eighth seed with Portland and perhaps Houston and Memphis.
Bright Side Of The Suns puts away its white flag after the big win. For Thunder reaction, tune into Welcome To Loud City.
In other action:
Nets 89, Hawks 82: Joe Johnson's back -- he surprisingly returned Friday, in case you missed it, only two weeks after an elbow surgery that was supposed to keep him out six weeks at minimum -- but he's not back, if you know what I mean. He's 9-30 in two games, including Sunday afternoon's loss to New Jersey. This was Atlanta's fourth loss in six games, and the Hawks are now just a half game ahead of the Knicks for the No. 6 spot in the East.
Lakers 120, Raptors 110: Who needs defense? Not the Raptors, who allowed the Lakers to drop those 120 points in 98 possessions, which means the Lakers scored more than 1.2 points per possession while league average is down around 1.08. The Lakers hit more than half their shots; when they didn't, Toronto gave them easy access to the glass for offensive rebounds. Andrew Bynum had five such caroms in his best game since returning from injury, totaling 16 points and seven boards in less than 18 minutes. Yes, friends, this dude is important to the Lakers' hope to three-peat.
Pistons 111, Hornets 108 (OT): How did the Pistons knock off the Hornets? With two huge defensive plays. First, Tayshaun Prince at the end of regulation.
Then, Jason Maxiell to preserve and extend the Pistons one-point lead with overtime drawing to a close.
That final turnover by Trevor Ariza was his fifth in the game, to go with 2-11 shooting. That may have also had something to do with the loss. The Hornets started 11-1, but have won just five of their last 15 games.
Rockets 102, Kings 93: Houston took out the Kings for the second time in five days, which is not really an accomplishment. I would like to point out that DeMarcus Cousins likes corned beef on rye and has post moves for days (team-high 19 points), and that Samuel Dalembert will now present his definition of "got banged on."
All set up by Tyreke Evans dribbling off his knee, just like the playbook calls for.
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