Charlotte is sweet to Celtics

Those numbers were not by accident. A day after coach Doc Rivers lamented his team's inability to go to Pierce down the stretch, there was no mistaking where the ball went last night. Pierce got the ball almost every possession.

"That's what Doc wants. That's the way it is," said Gary Payton, who had 8 points and 6 assists.

"I'm our best player," Pierce said matter-of-factly. "I command attention. If they collapse on me, I can find a guy who can make a play. They made an effort to look for me. That's what most teams do. They go to their best player and expect him to make plays."

Pierce scored 8 straight points, 6 from the line, and that allowed the Celtics to overtake their callow hosts, who made things worse by missing 12 of 22 free throws (they're 28th in free throw shooting for a reason) and by allowing 8 second-chance points in the fourth. The Pierce run gave the Celtics an 84-82 lead with 4:58 left. A free throw by Ricky Davis (11 points) and a Mark Blount jumper (after the Bobcats couldn't rebound a missed free throw by Davis) made it 87-82 with 3:29 left.

The Bobcats, who've lost nine straight and 15 of 16, got within 3 on several occasions. The Celtics countered each time, whether it was Pierce (free throws and a big jumper in the lane) or Al Jefferson, who hit a gutsy spinner with 1:45 to play that made it 91-86.

"That bucket was huge," Rivers said. "He has a lot of confidence offensively. When he gets the ball, I'm always pretty confident he'll do something good."

Jefferson had 8 points and 6 rebounds with a very sore right hip in 20 minutes. Raef LaFrentz added 12 points.

Charlotte got a spirited game from Emeka Okafor, who had 20 points, all in the second half, to go with 12 rebounds and 5 blocks. Primoz Brezec had 18 and Kareem Rush 17. Coach Bernie Bickerstaff had said before the game that he could add five victories to the team's win total if it just made free throws. Last night might have been No. 6.