Paul Pierce scored 23 points and Ray Allen hit the go-ahead basket as the Boston Celtics notched an 89-83 victory over the host Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
Nenad Krstic added 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting for Boston (46-15).
Brandon Jennings scored 23 points and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute added a season-high 19 points for Milwaukee (23-38).
The game was tied at 82-82 before Allen hit the tiebreaking basket with 2:35 to play. Kevin Garnett hit a turnaround jumper with 38.5 seconds left to give Boston a four-point lead.
A three-point play by Pierce gave the Celtics a six-point lead with 17.9 seconds remaining.
Garnett had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Allen scored 13 points for Boston.
The Celtics led 72-65 after Sasha Pavlovic’s 3-pointer with 10:19 remaining in the game. But Milwaukee went on a 12-5 run and tied the score at 77-77 on Jennings’ 3-point play with 5:57 left.
Milwaukee led by as many as 10 points in the first half with Keyon Dooling’s 18-footer jumper capping a 17-4 run to give the Bucks a 41-31 lead with 4:52 left.
Boston | Milwaukee | |
Paul Pierce 23 | Scoring | Brandon Jennings 23 |
Rajon Rondo 8 | Assists | John Salmons 6 |
Kevin Garnett 11 | Rebounds | Jon Brockman 9 |
Paul Pierce 6 | Free Throws Made | Brandon Jennings 4 |
Kevin Garnett 3 | Steals | John Salmons 4 |
Kevin Garnett 1 | Blocks | Chris Douglas-Roberts 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Boston | 89 | 51.5 | 5-10 | 14-15 | 23 | 33 | 3 | 11 | 18 |
Milwaukee | 83 | 41.2 | 8-21 | 9-13 | 20 | 39 | 2 | 11 | 18 |