Celtics make it 14 straight, beat Hornets 94-82

BOSTON(AP) James Posey got his championship ring before the game. The Boston Celtics walked away with all the spoils after it.Paul
Pierce scored 28 points and Kevin Garnett had 19 points and 10 rebounds
on Friday night to lead the Celtics to their 14th consecutive victory,
a 94-82 win over their former teammate and the New Orleans Hornets."We
will always be forever linked with him,'' Garnett said of Posey, who
was the leader of the Celtics bench when they won their NBA-record 17th
title in 2007-08 before signing with New Orleans in the offseason.
"It's a business, and once the ball is jumped, then that's what it is
until summertime.''Chris Paul had 20 points and 14 assists for
the Hornets, while David West had 23 points and 14 rebounds. Posey
scored seven points with seven rebounds and a steal while committing
five fouls and contributing to a defense that forced the Celtics into
17 turnovers that led to 25 points."He's up to those same
tricks,'' Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "Last year, I loved what he
did, setting flops, charges, grabbing, holding, getting away with
hitting on the arm. Today I think I complained about Posey the entire
game. He's a pain in the butt; he really is. Now I know why I loved him
on our team.''The Celtics held a brief ceremony before the game
to award Posey with the championship ring he won with Boston last
season. Posey got a big cheer from the crowd, hugs from his former
teammates and a tribute from Rivers, who dropped his pregame game face
to call Posey a "special player, special person.''Citing the
team's motto of "ubuntu,'' a phrase favored by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
that translates roughly to "I am because we are,'' Rivers said, "We
couldn't be all we could be unless James Posey was all he could be.''The
Hornets, who were within one win of the Western Conference finals last
season, left Boston with the knowledge that they don't yet measure up
to the league's elite."Pose is a big loss, I'm glad we've got
him. But we felt like we could have got this one,'' Paul said. "I'll
tell you right now that I'm not about any moral victory. We played
hard. You win or you lose, and we lost.''New Orleans was without
center Tyson Chandler because he showed up at the morning shootaround
with a stiff neck. Hilton Armstrong started, playing 25 minutes and
scoring eight points on 3-for-9 shooting with four rebounds."If
we had one more guy tonight that would have been able to step up, then
we would have had a better opportunity,'' coach Byron Scott said. "We
missed him big time tonight.''The defending champs took the lead
with a 17-4 run early in the third quarter and never trailed again
while improving to a league-best 22-2 this season. The winning streak
is the team's longest since it won a franchise-record 18 in a row in
1981-82."It all goes out the window if we don't win the championship,'' Pierce said.Kendrick
Perkins had nine points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots, and Eddie
House hit two of his three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.The
Celtics, playing for the second consecutive night after arriving from
Washington early Friday morning, fell behind by eight points in the
first quarter, went ahead by six in the second and increased it to 11
in the third. After trailing by as many as 14 points in the fourth
quarter, New Orleans cut it to 89-82 before the Celtics put it away,
thanks in part to an alley-oop from Ray Allen to Garnett that made it
an 11-point game with 1:43 left.Notes: The Celtics had 11
turnovers in the first half that led to 21 of the Hornets' 40 points.
... The Celtics have won 32 of their last 34 home games, including
playoffs. ... Paul reached double digits in assists for the 16th time
in 19 games. ... It was the first time in 63 games that Peja Stojakovic
did not make a 3-pointer. He went 0-for-2 from beyond the arc and had
just two points.