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The question of whether the Boston Celtics actually miss guard Ray Allen (out with an ankle injury) is up for debate; however, they didn’t seem to be too affected as two of the Big Three – Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett – helped Boston hold off a persistent San Antonio Spurs squad 93-91 Monday night at AT&T Center.

Dominated by the Spurs for the first half and trailing 53-43 at halftime, the Celtics began the third quarter with a 17-4 run to take their first lead of the game, 56-55, off Pierce’s fast-break dunk with 8:24 left in the period; Rajon?Rondo scored 12 points in the period – including 8 straight – for the Celtics, but Boston was down by 2 going into the final quarter.? San?Antonio led 70-68 after three quarters and extended their advantage to 79-72 on Robert Horry’s 3-pointer with 8:04 left; Tim Duncan would soon follow with a pair of highlight reel blocks against Boston’s Pierce and Eddie House before Pierce led a 9-2 Celtics run to bring Boston to within 83-81 with 3:11 left in the game.

House’s trey made it 85-84 San Antonio with less than 2 minutes remaining; Boston’s?Sam Cassell then hit a 3 to give the Celtics the lead.? Rondo grabbed an offensive rebound then hit 2 free throws with 16.6 seconds left; the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili made a pair of free throws after being fouled by the Celtics’ Pierce to bring San Antonio to within 2 with 11 ticks left on the clock.?

The Spurs trailed 93-89 after House drained a pair of free throws with 9.6 seconds left; the Spurs’ Tony Parker then made an easy basket.? But with 2 seconds on the clock, Bruce Bowen stole the ball from Garnett and passed to Horry, who would miss the 3-point attempt, allowing the Celtics to escape with the win.? Boston’s leading scorer was Pierce with 22 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a blocked shot, while Garnett scored 21 with 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot; Rondo added 20 with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

San Antonio was led by Ginobili, who returned to his sixth man role, with 32 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists; Parker scored 17 with 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot, while Duncan had a relatively poor effort, scoring only 10 while grabbing 8 rebounds, dishing out 2 assists and blocking 3 shots.? Boston (53-13) now makes the short trip to Houston to take on the Rockets Tuesday, while San Antonio (44-23) travels north to Chicago to face the Bulls on Thursday.