The Celtics know a little something about haymakers being thrown at a once powerful NBA heavyweight that's seen its better days. Of course, the last time the C's were involved in something like that, they were the ones on the receiving end.

Last night, however, Paul Pierce made sure the Celtics and Jazz continued traveling in different directions, scoring 17 of his 36 points in the last quarter to lead the C's to a 98-92 victory at the FleetCenter.

While the Celtics improved their record to 16-8 by winning for the 11th time in 13 games, Utah slipped to 12-15 - rather unseemly stuff for a club that came into this season looking to make another run at the NBA Finals.