BOSTON – Paul Pierce finally got some offensive support, though not enough to keep him on the bench for the fourth quarter.
Pierce scored 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Mike James added a career-high 24 points to lead the Celtics to their third straight victory, 126-112 over the Seattle SuperSonics on Wednesday night.
Seattle trailed 99-68 to start the fourth quarter but went on a 25-4 run to pull to 103-93 with six minutes remaining. Pierce, who had been on the bench for 10 minutes, was forced to return and immediately hit two jump shots to increase the lead to 107-93.
“We remembered what happened with Phoenix and that was one of the most disappointing losses I have ever been a part of,” Pierce said of Friday’s game in which Boston blew a 29-point second-half lead. “It is good to have a lead, but there is too much talent in the NBA for teams to lay down.”
The 126 points were a season-high for Boston, which beat its third straight Western Conference opponent after road wins against Denver and Utah.
Flip Murray had 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter for Seattle, which tied a franchise record with 17 3-point field goals. The Sonics were 17-of-41 from beyond the arc and are a combined 38-of-85 over the last three games.
Seattle dropped its fourth straight and has lost eight of 11.
“We went out and made it a helter-skelter game and got back into it,” Sonics guard Antonio Daniels said. “And then they put Paul Pierce back in the game, he hit a couple of jump shots and stopped the bleeding.”
Seattle shot 32 percent in the half and turned the ball over 12 times.
Ansu Sesay and Richie Frahm each had career-highs with 19 and 14 points respectively for Seattle.
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