With the game on the line Thursday night, Paul Pierce and the Boston Celtics were determined to not have a repeat of their last outing against the Los Angeles Lakers.

In another closely contested game, No. 34 and his teammates escaped LA with an 87-86 victory over the Lakers at the Staples Center.

The Captain had 11 points, six rebounds, and four assists in 41 minutes of action.

With the trade of Eddie House, J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker to the New York Knicks for Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry, the C’s bench was awfully short during the game.

The 41 minutes of play on the hardwood was the most Paul had played since a 96-94 loss at Orlando on Jan. 28, as WEEI.com reported:

"The Robinson trade went down so late that the Celtics played this game with just 11 players, not that it mattered too much to Rivers who wasn’t going to take any chances.

Lacking a backup point guard Rajon Rondo played 44 minutes. With Marquis Daniels handling those minutes and Tony Allen injuring his ankle, Paul Pierce had to log 41."

This was crucial because it was helped set the place for Boston to build momentum for a strong finish to the season:

"Rivers coached this game like it was important and it certainly was. Not just because it was the Lakers and not even because the Celtics haven’t won many games against the elite of the NBA.

It was important because the Celtics have to begin to build momentum somewhere and to some extent the time for experimenting is also over.

Rivers credited his defense, including Paul locking down on Ron Artest, with limiting the Lakers high-powered offense.

"I thought it was good defense. It’s funny, people complain sometimes when it was a low-scoring game and they never give those guys credit for playing so hard. I thought both teams played hard, I thought they were physical and both teams made it difficult to get a good shot."

NEXT UP
Paul and the C’s look to continue their winning streak on the West Coast road trip with a game against the Portland Trail Blazers tonight in the Rose Garden. Tip-off is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. EST, and is televised nationally on ESPN.

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