Pierce finishes with 18 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, needing only eight shot attempts to complete a remarkably efficient performance to lead the C's.
Four other Celtics finish in double figures — 18 each for Glen Davis and Nate Robinson, 17 for Ray Allen, and 11 for Shaquille O'Neal. A good all-around win for the C's.
Roy Hibbert turns in an impressive 17 points and 14 boards in a losing effort.
The Celtics are off until Wednesday, when they'll take on the Philadelphia 76ers at the TD Garden.
Fourth quarter, 2:18, Celtics 93-83: Paul Pierce has finished his triple-double, getting rebound No. 10 on a missed 18-footer from Roy Hibbert. It's an 18-11-10 afternoon for Pierce, his first trip-dub since 2006.
And what's more, the Celtics are on the verge of their 13th straight win.
Fourth quarter, 2:53, Celtics 91-83: Darren Collison gets to halfcourt and calls a timeout. He looks visibly rattled — the Garden is rocking, and his Pacers are in deep trouble.
Ray Allen just got a steal and a transition bucket to push the Celtics' lead back to eight again. Ray has 17 points after a slow first half. Not a bad day's work.
Fourth quarter, 3:48, Celtics 89-81: The Pacers have Dunleavy, Posey and Granger all on the floor together. It's time for them to start chucking some 3s.
As long as the Celtics keep contesting shots, they'll be in good shape to collect their 13th straight win.
By the way, Paul Pierce now has 18 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. He can almost taste that triple-double.
Fourth quarter, 5:45, Celtics 85-81: Roy Hibbert just rattled the rim with a thunderous dunk. He got to the basket easily, completely untouched.
The Pacers are trailing, but they have two things going for them — their size, and their youthful energy. Sometimes the C's just have off-possessions because they're too old and slow to stop these athletic Pacers.
Hibbert needs a few more easy buckets, and then we'll have a game on our hands.
Fourth quarter, 8:12, Celtics 79-72: Another big shot for Paul Pierce. He's now got 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting. That's efficiency.
The Pacers are running out of time to put a dent in this Boston lead. Once Doc Rivers sends his starters back out there to finish the deal, it'll only get tougher.
Fourth quarter, 9:09, Celtics 75-70: It's just not Mike Dunleavy's day, is it?
The Pacers' swingman just got whistled for a technical by Olandis Poole, and then seconds later he got whistled for a loose-ball foul for hacking Shaq on a rebound.
Dunleavy appears to be losing his composure. That's something you don't see every day.
Fourth quarter, 10:07, Celtics 71-70: The Celtics have encountered a familiar foe — James Posey, who won a ring with them back in 2008. Pose just made a big 3 to cut the Celtics' lead to one, and he then pushed his luck by trying another.
Clang. Shaq with the rebound. The Diesel now has 11 points and five boards.
End of third quarter, Celtics 69-65: The Celtics remain a nose ahead, but the Pacers keep hanging around.
Danny Granger gets to the line for two on the Pacers' final possession, and he makes them both. They're still within just four.
Granger now has 16 points to lead the Pacers, but he's had to work for it. He's 5-for-16 from the field. In fact, the Pacers' top three scorers in this game — Granger, Collison, Hibbert — are a combined 15-for-44. The Celtics are making them earn it.
Paul Pierce now has 10 points, eight assists, six rebounds, four steals and a block for Boston.
Third quarter, 2:02, Celtics 65-61: The Pacers are now scoreless in their last 2:28. A lot of missed jumpers, a turnover and some all-around lazy execution has kept them from getting their lead back.
The C's cling to a four-point advantage as we near the end of the third.
Third quarter, 4:08, Celtics 65-61: Ray Allen is just destroying Mike Dunleavy off the dribble every chance he gets. Another drive for a layup — he's making it look easy.
Ray had zero points after the first quarter and five at halftime. He now has 11.
Third quarter, 5:39, Celtics 62-57: The Celtics storm back in front with a 4-0 run — first Paul Pierce finds Ray Allen in the corner for a baseline drive to the basket, and then Pierce gets a steal and turns it into a transition bucket for Nate Robinson.
Two more assists for Pierce, who now has a 10-8-6 stat line. He's threatening his first triple-double in almost five seasons.
Third quarter, 7:22, Celtics 58-57: The second half looks like the opposite of the first for the Celtics — whereas before, they couldn't get any offense out of their guards, it's now coming entirely from them.
Shaq's in foul trouble, and Big Baby's been fairly quiet so far. So it's up to Nate Robinson and Ray Allen to spark the offense. They've got all of Boston's seven points so far.
Third quarter, 9:37, Celtics 56-52: Nate Robinson continues to be his happy-go-lucky, running, gunning self. He opens the second half with a 3 to help push the Celtics' lead; he's now 2-for-5 from long range. The rest of the Celtics are a combined 1-for-6.
Halftime, Celtics 51-48: Their execution hasn't quite been perfect, but the Celtics' hot shooting has continued, and they lead the Pacers by three at the break.
The C's are shooting 19-for-36 as a team, or 52.8 percent, compared to just 40 percent for the Pacers. That's the difference in the game, as it stands.
Paul Pierce has stood out for the C's in this first half — he's in hot pursuit of a triple-double with 10 points, six rebounds and five assists on the afternoon. (He's also got a steal and a block.) Danny Granger has had 12 points and Darren Collison, 10 for Indiana.
Second quarter, 2:53, Celtics 47-43: Paul Pierce has a shot at a triple-double in this one — he's already got eight points, five rebounds and five assists in the first half. Keep an eye on that.
Pierce hasn't had a trip-dub since March 8, 2006. Rajon Rondo is the only Celtic to record one in the Big Three era (and he has five).
Now's as good a time as any.
Second quarter, 4:18, Celtics 45-43: The Pacers stole the Celtics' lead for about a millisecond, but Ray Allen came back and quickly drained a 3 to put the C's back on top. Ray now has five points after a silent first quarter.
The Celtics have survived a second quarter in which they've mostly looked stagnant offensively. They're getting just enough transition points and Ray jumpers to stay ahead.
Second quarter, 6:46, Celtics 38-37: With Shaquille O'Neal going to work in the low post and demanding a double-team, that forces the Pacers to make some adjustments defensively. Usually it means helping off of Marquis Daniels, who's the least potent Celtic on the floor offensively.
This is an opportunity to Daniels to step up and hit a couple of shots. He's a serious threat if you leave him wide open.
Second quarter, 8:30, Celtics 34-33: The Celtics have infused their second unit with a little veteran savvy, sending Shaquille O'Neal and Ray Allen into the game to pack a little extra scoring punch. They've needed it.
Ray puts the Celtics back in front with his first two points of the game. The C's are just barely surviving an onslaught of Pacer jumpers.
Second quarter, 10:47, Celtics 30-29: A couple of Mike Dunleavy 3-pointers have changed the complexion of this game in a hurry.
The Celtics' second unit might want to wake up and play some defense. Giving up open jumpers is killing them.
End of first quarter, Celtics 30-23: As quickly as the Celtics give away their early first-quarter lead, they get it back even quicker. A 9-0 Boston run toward the end of the quarter, fueled by five points from Nate Robinson, puts the C's comfortably back in front.
Just another streaky Sunday afternoon ballgame. If you expected to get a full 48-minute effort from either team, you might want to lower your expectations.
Shaq still leads all scorers with 11 points in this game; Roy Hibbert has eight, but he's attempted nine shots.
First quarter, 2:33, 21-21: The Pacers have rallied for a quick 6-0 run. The Celtics look a little bit sluggish offensively with Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett off the floor.
When they can't get any offense inside, they've got to keep moving the ball to get open shots. They can't settle for contested jumpers.
Their guards haven't given them much yet. Ray Allen, Nate Robinson and Marquis Daniels are a combined 0-for-4.
First quarter, 4:13, Celtics 21-15: Kevin Garnett keeps chucking those long twos, and they somehow keep falling. He's now 3-for-3 from the field — six points, three boards, two assists is a solid first quarter for the Big Ticket.
The Celtics as a team are shooting 9-for-13. The challenge will be to sustain the lead once their numbers start to slip.
First quarter, 5:54, Celtics 17-11: We're going to see a lot of Shaq nights like this one. He starts, he drops 11 points early, and then he gets winded and comes out after six minutes.
You've got to take the bad with the good. Luckily for the C's, the good has been very, very good.
First quarter, 7:10, Celtics 14-9: Shaquille O'Neal is making it look easy. Perhaps because against Roy Hibbert, it is.
Hibbert's a good player, but he's too skinny and lanky to put up a fight against the humongous Shaq. The big man has eight points early.
As I type this, make it 10. With a three-point play attempt coming up.
The man is a beast.
First quarter, 9:13, Celtics 10-4: The Celtics have had a few Sunday afternoon letdowns over the last couple of years, where they forget to bring their energy to work in the morning.
This doesn't look like one of those games. The C's are pushing the tempo, moving the ball, getting good shots and draining them. Doc Rivers has to be happy with the way the C's have executed so far.
KG and Shaquille O'Neal have four points each.
First quarter, 11:21, Celtics 4-0: We're underway, with a bang. Paul Pierce drives through traffic and gets to the basket for a score on the Celtics' opening possession, and Kevin Garnett follows that up with a thunderous dunk in transition.
The C's are off to a tremendous start.
12:20 p.m.: Welcome to the TD Garden, where Doc Rivers was surprisingly cryptic when introducing his starting lineup for Sunday afternoon's game against the Pacers.
"One of the O'Neals will play," Rivers said. "I'll let you guess which one."
Doesn't take a master sleuth to figure this one out — he means Shaquille O'Neal will return Sunday from his recent calf injury. Expect to see Shaq in the C's starting five.
The other O'Neal, Jermaine, is still working on getting over his knee ailment. J.O. will probably make a comeback sometime later this week.
8 a.m.: The Indiana Pacers will be looking for a big road win on Sunday afternoon. But that's nothing they haven't pulled off before.
On Nov. 22, the Pacers barged into South Beach and ransacked the Miami Heat on their home floor, 93-77. A week later, they went to Los Angeles and beat the defending champion Lakers, 95-92, to put another high-profile notch on their belts. But can they beat the Celtics, winners of their last 12 games and consensus NBA Finals favorites, on their home floor too?
The Pacers are 12-13 this season, struggling to make themselves known as a serious contender in the Eastern Conference. A win in Boston would be a huge step for them.
The C's and Pacers tip things off at 1 p.m. Sunday.
