It took a little pushing from their captain Paul Pierce, but the Boston Celtics ended a two-game losing streak on Wednesday night.

Paul showed no ill effects from a knee injury suffered last Friday and scored a team-high 19 points, grabbed four rebounds, dished two assists, picked off a steal and even contributed a block as the Celtics downed the Warriors 109-95.

Paul driving on Golden State's Corey Maggette (Getty Images).

The Truth not only led the Cs in points, but he also motivated the team as only the Captain can. No. 34 gave his teammates a halftime pep talk that brought the Celts charging out of the locker room to turn a one-point lead into a rout, as the Boston Globe reports:

"The Celtics made their stand following a halftime talk by captain Paul Pierce. Early in the third quarter, the Celtics stopped the Warriors (3-8) on seven successive possessions, holding them without a field goal for 6:01.

"We had one of those conversations that every team has," said Kevin Garnett (15 points, seven rebounds). "And we just know we’re a better team as far as being solid and consistent. The captain sort of pulled everybody together and just talked to us about what we needed to do to go out in the second half. We followed his lead and followed what he said to us and took it to heart."

The Celtics went on a 12-0 run. Paul made a key three-pointer and the Cs defense held the Warriors to 0-for-7 from the floor and forced three turnovers. By the end of the third quarter, in which Boston scored 31 points, the Celts had a commanding 13-point lead.

THE GAME PLAN
After trading Stephen Jackson earlier this week and losing guard CJ Watson, who is out with Swine Flu, the Cs knew that depth would be an issue for Golden State.

So Paul and Celtics put a strategy in place: take advantage of the Warriors being shorthanded and outmuscle them, as quoted by the CelticsBlog:

"That was the focus of the game", said Paul Pierce, "you know try to get the ball inside, knowing how small they were and undermanned so we wanted to take advantage of that, get the ball to Kevin (Garnett) and Perk (Kendrick Perkins) as much as possible in the post and they were able to score inside and make plays."

TRUTH PASSES ZEKE
Paul's 19 points didn't just help the Celts win their ninth game of the season, they also helped No. 34 pass an all-time great on the scoring list, as noted by the CelticsBlog:

"Paul Pierce scored 19 points tonight, and passed Isiah Thomas for 48th all-time in scoring, at 18,824. If Pierce can score eight points on Friday night against the Orlando Magic, he will pass Chet Walker for 47th all-time."

NEXT UP
The Celts will have a day of rest and then host Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic on Friday night. Howard was the NBA Defensive Player of the year in 2009. The game airs nationally on ESPN at 8 p.m. EST.

RELATED STORIES
Live Blog: Celtics vs. Warriors (NESN.com, Nov 18, 2009)
http://www.nesn.com/2009/11/live-blog-celtics-vs-warriors.html
The Morning Dump… where Paul Pierce rallies the troops (Red’sArmy.com, Nov. 19, 2009)
http://www.redsarmy.com/home/2009/11/the-morning-dump-where-paul-pierce-... troops.html
Third quarter saves Celtics from Warriors (Celtics Blog, Nov 19, 2009)
http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/11/19/1164143/third-quarter-saves-celtic...
Rondo comes up big as Celtics end slide (The Associated Press, Nov. 19, 2009)
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=297081&ac=PHspt
Celtics man up for win (The Boston Globe, November 19, 2009)
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/11/19/celt...

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