Game of the Day | No KG, but Celtics still jangle Spurs

BOSTON — Tim Duncan beat Glen "Big Baby" Davis a couple of times in the first quarter, and the disappointment on the rookie's face showed.

"We had to remind him that Duncan is really good. That's going to happen," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Sunday after Boston beat the San Antonio Spurs 98-90. "You can't get frustrated."

Filling in with Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins injured, Davis had nine points and eight rebounds for Boston. Paul Pierce scored 35 points, Ray Allen had 19, and Rajon Rondo had 12 assists and 11 rebounds as the Celtics won their third consecutive game and improved to 16-0 against the Western Conference.

Duncan had 22 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, and Manu Ginobili scored 21 for the Spurs, who lost for the first time in five games. San Antonio got three behind with 1:13 left, but Michael Finley's three-point attempt went in and out.

Twice in the final minute Ginobili was forced to take off-balance, heavily guarded three-point attempts; neither one was close.

"We have an opportunity and a great shot by Mike that rattles in and out to tie the game down the stretch," Duncan said. "Then two turnovers in a row and they get two offensive rebounds. Just too many mistakes that bit us down the stretch there."

The Celtics improved to 5-2 since Garnett went out with an abdominal strain, and they'd better get used to it: Rivers said after the game that his big man — the leading All-Star vote-getter — won't be back before the Feb. 17 exhibition in New Orleans.

"He's out until after the All-Star break, I think including the All-Star Game," Rivers said. "That I haven't talked to him about, but I assume so."

Subs Eddie House, who scored all of his 10 points in the second quarter, and James Posey, who had five of his seven rebounds in the fourth, also came off the bench to pitch in.