A rim-rocking dunk from Paul Pierce awoke the Barclays Center crowd Friday night, and it catalyzed a crucial Game 3 victory for the Brooklyn Nets in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

No. 34 finished with 18 points on an efficient 5 of 9 shooting en route to a 102-98 Brooklyn win over the visiting Toronto Raptors. As he was in Game 1 of the series, Paul proved clutch for his team late, hitting a pair of free throws with 14.9 seconds remaining.

Those crucial points saved the Nets from a monumental breakdown late, extending Brooklyn’s lead to 100-96. As he told the Associated Press after the game:

“It feels good to win, but at the same time you know you can be a lot better,” Pierce said. “‘I’m looking for down the road, I’m looking for when it’s like that Game 6 or 7, if we’re ever in that situation with this team, it’s going to come to those little things and we can’t afford those small mistakes.”

THROWDOWN

Paul doesn’t dunk often, but when he does, he does it with authority. He posterized Toronto’s Tyler Hansbrough with 1:29 left in the first half.

MILESTONES

The Truth is approaching several playoff milestones, and might reach them Sunday. As reported by NBA.com:

Pierce needs to play nine minutes to move  past Elgin Baylor into 28th place on the NBA’s all-time playoff minutes list.

Pierce needs to score 27 points to move past Sam Jones into 25th place on the NBA’s all-time playoff points list.

NEXT UP

Brooklyn returns to its home floor Sunday for Game 4 (7PM ET, TNT).