National Basketball Association

Pierce has best game of the season in Celtics win

Published Jan. 22, 2012 8:56 p.m. ET

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Paul Pierce had season highs with 34 points and 10 assists and tied his season-best mark with eight rebounds to lead the Boston Celtics to a 100-94 victory over the Washington Wizards on Sunday.

The Celtics won for the second time in three games despite playing most of the game without a pair of starting guards. Point guard Rajon Rondo was out for the second straight game with a sprained right wrist, and Boston lost starting guard Ray Allen as well when he jammed his left ankle in the first half.

Pierce stepped in and made up for their absence, going 10 for 15 from the floor and 12 of 15 from the line. His three steals were also a season high.

Kevin Garnett scored 17 points, Mickael Pietrus tied a season high with 14 and Brandon Bass had 13 for the Celtics.

John Wall scored 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Wizards. Nick Young scored 19 points and JaVale McGee added 13.

Allen left after being fouled by Jan Vesely with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter. Allen was slow to get up off the floor after the foul, limped to the bench and did not return. Allen had seven points on 3-for-5 shooting.

Boston led by 15 points with 7:49 left in the third quarter, but the Wizards rallied back. Washington tied it at 75 with 9 1/2 minutes to play on a fast-break alley-oop pass for a dunk from Wall to Trevor Booker. The Wizards took a 84-83 lead with six minutes to play after a three-point play by Nick Young.

That would be the last time Washington held the lead. Pierce scored 14 of the Celtics' last 25 points and Garnett put an exclamation point on Boston's victory with an emphatic dunk down the lane with two minutes left to give Boston a 95-90 lead.

The two teams were almost even for the first 1 1/2 quarters before Boston pulled away for a 49-40 halftime lead, scoring the last seven points of the half. Pierce scored 14 of the Celtics' 29 points in the second quarter.

The Wizards' only offense for the last part of the second quarter came from Wall, who scored Washington's final 10 points of the half despite being on the bench for the last minute before halftime.

NOTES: Boston coach Doc Rivers said the team wanted to be cautious with Rondo's injury. ''He's close, but we've just got to get it right,'' Rivers said. ... G Keyon Dooling (sore left knee) was out for the sixth straight game and F/C Chris Wilcox (sore left calf) missed his fifth straight game. ... Before the game, Wizards coach Flip Saunders said he'd talked with starting F Andray Blatche about the boos Blatche has heard from the home fans in recent games. Saunders said he wouldn't consider changing his lineup based on the jeers Blatche has gotten. ''He's a big boy. He can deal with it,'' Saunders said. ''We're not going to make a decision whether he starts or not based on what the fan reaction is.'' With a large number of Celtics fans in the Verizon Center on Sunday, the boos were muted when Blatche's name was announced before the game.