Paul Pierce scored 29 and helped shut down LeBron James for much of the second half to give Boston a three-games-to-two lead in the best-of-seven series. James scored 23 of his 35 points in the first half and was mostly quiet in the second before scoring six in the final 3 minutes, 26 seconds of the contest.

Cleveland cut an 88-77 lead to six points with two minutes left and made it 91-87 on two free throws by St. Joseph's product Delonte West with 46 seconds to play. But Garnett got the rebound of his own miss, and Pierce hit five free throws in the last 16 seconds as the Celtics ran down the clock.

The Celtics have yet to win on the road in these playoffs. At home, however, Boston was 4-0 against Atlanta to beat the Hawks in seven games. The Celtics are now 3-0 vs. the Cavaliers at home.

Cleveland took a 43-29 lead in the second quarter thanks to eight straight points from James.

But Rondo hit back-to-back three-pointers as the Celtics scored 14 of the last 17 points in the first half, then took the lead with the first four points of the third quarter. The Celtics sank nine of their first 11 shots in the second half.

Ainge honored. Danny Ainge, who engineered the trades for Garnett and Ray Allen that helped the Celtics post the biggest turnaround in league history, was given the Sporting News NBA executive-of-the-year award last night.

In the voting by executives from all 30 teams, Ainge received 18 of the 47 votes. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak had 14 votes, and Hornets general manager Jeff Bower had 12.

Spurs vs. Hornets. Just as Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs appeared to be hitting their stride and gaining momentum, they are down again, their march toward consecutive NBA titles very much in doubt.

The defending champions face elimination tonight in Game 6 at the hands of the New Orleans Hornets, who have the lead in the Western Conference semifinals. David West led the Hornets to a 101-79 win Tuesday in Game 5, with 38 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.

"We've got a chance to close out the defending champions," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "Obviously we know it's going to be a very, very tough game to do that, especially in San Antonio."