The score was tied early in the third quarter and all the Celtics’ hard work in the first half was gone. They had built a lead on defense and an unexpected burst of offensive firepower from Chris Wilcox, but now the situation called for Paul Pierce.

Pierce was having a solid floor game, running the Celtics offense in the absence of Rajon Rondo, but he was 3-for-12 and if the Celtics were going to pull off a win in this back-to-back they were going to need their best offensive player. Doc Rivers called a timeout because he didn’t like how the offense was functioning.

“I think he was a little upset the way we started out the third,” Rivers said. “We were sloppy. We stopped executing. We got rejected twice in a row on pick-and-rolls. Some of that was on Paul and I thought he took that to heart and then he went out and showed great leadership. He did everything right.”

Pierce hit a 3-pointer. He found Avery Bradley ducking in for a layup. He drove for one of his own. Suddenly the lead was back to 11 and the Celtics were back in control. Pierce made six of nine shots in the third quarter and scored 17 of his 28 points to go with 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Celtics held off Indiana for a satisfying 94-87 win.

“He’s almost assessing the game,” Rivers said. “You can feel that. But he’s just competitive and now he’s in shape.”

Pierce said that he’s at “83.7” percent, which raises the question of how effective he’ll be when he gets all the way back.

“Hats off to Paul Pierce,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “He turned back the clock, obviously playing like one of the best players in the league again, carrying the load for them.”

Over the last four games, Pierce has scored 105 points, dished out 35 assists and grabbed 29 rebounds. Not coincidentally, the Celtics have won all four. Most of those wins have come without Ray Allen and all of them have happened without Rondo. The Celtics’ resurgence isn’t all about Pierce – Kevin Garnett has been playing inspired defense and the bench pieces are starting to come together into something that resembles a coherent group – but Pierce is the connective tissue.

"I'm getting there," he said. "I'm really getting used to the soreness of playing. I'm getting used to the back-to-backs. A few weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to play in this game -- in the fourth game in five nights -- because of how my body was feeling after these games, but I'm really getting used to the conditioning for these games where it's not really affecting me. And Doc is doing a great job of giving us rest in these types of situations."

Pierce has had such an amazing turnaround that it’s almost difficult to remember the hesitant, turnover-prone player he was just last week. He’s not just carrying the scoring load, he’s also running the team without Rondo and the Celtics have simplified the offense so that everything runs through Pierce when he’s on the floor.

“I have to make more plays now that Rondo’s out,” Pierce said. “Usually I’m the recipient of a lot of Rondo’s passes, but with him out I’m taking on some part in that role and you know, it’s just up to me to be responsible. When to know when to find guys and have a balance on when to score.”

Having a revitalized Pierce changes everything for the Celtics. While he was playing his way into shape, their offense was essentially limited to Rondo creating offense with dribble penetration and the occasional jump shot from Allen. There was no flow, no rhythm and scoring points, which is tough for this team to begin with, became almost an impossible chore.

This was no offensive masterpiece against the Pacers. The Celtics shot 46 percent and had 21 assists on 38 made shots – good numbers, but not up to their lofty standards. But it’s enough with the way they’ve been playing defense. 

Thanks to Pierce, Garnett and some inspired play from the likes of Brandon Bass, Mickeal Pietrus and Wilcox, the Celtics are once again a .500 team and the cries to blow the team up have subsided to the point where they are just background noise.

They won’t go away entirely, certainly not until the trade deadline passes in March, but now the focus has shifted to the open-ended possibilities for a veteran team in what figures to be a wide-open Eastern Conference after Miami and Chicago. Beyond those two formidable opponents is there anyone else in the East that scares you in a seven-game series?

The Sixers are obviously good and probably the third-best team, but they may not have enough offensive firepower. The Pacers represent a formidable test with their height, but now the Celtics know they can beat them. The Hawks? We’ve seen that act before. And the Magic, well, the Magic have issues as the Celtics exposed this week.

All of those teams are good and any of them could beat the Celtics in a playoff series, but would any of them now line up for the chance? No way.
Things will change quickly in this NBA season. It’s barely been a month and the Celtics have gone from old and decrepit to grizzled and dangerous.

"We finally got to sea level, so now we're trying to get our heads above water," Pierce said. "We're in a good groove right now. It starts on the defensive end regardless of how we play offensively, and I think we're getting comfortable with what we're doing."

No one seems more comfortable doing what he’s doing than Pierce.