ATLANTA, Georgia: Rajon Rondo notched a triple-double and Paul Pierce scored 26 points on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) as the Boston Celtics erased a 15-point half-time deficit to post an 89-81 NBA victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Pierce scored 17 points in the third quarter, when the Celtics out-scored the Hawks 33-9.

“We wanted to bring the fight to the Hawks in the second half,” Pierce said. “We were kind of bickering with each other at halftime about what to do defensively and I just reminded our guys that the fight isn’t against us, it’s against the other team.

“Once we remembered that, we stepped up and played the kind of bas-ketball that we’re capable of playing.”

Rondo contributed his second triple-double of the season—14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists —for Boston, who won their second straight.

Atlanta’s Lou Williams scored a game-high 28 points, but had just seven points in the second half as the Hawks were unable to respond to the increased pressure from Boston.

“We put together a good first half, as I told our guys at halftime, this Celtics team has no quit in them,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said. “These are veteran guys that have been in this situation before of being down double- digits.”

The Hawks connected on just seven-of-28 from the floor and committed 13 turnovers in the second half.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love has broken a bone in his right hand, the same hand that was broken during the NBA pre-season.

An MRI exam on Saturday showed a break in the third metacarpal — one of the two bones that he broke during the pre-season in October, when Love said that he was hurt doing push-ups on his knuckles as part of his training regimen.

The most recent injury to his shooting hand apparently occurred during the third quarter of Thursday’s 101-97 victory over the Nuggets in Denver.

The team had initially thought Love had just suffered a sprain.

The Timberwolves said Love’s injury will be evaluated later this week by New York hand specialist Andy Weiland.

Then they’ll know more about how long they’ll be without Love, who leads the team in scoring with 18.3 points a game and in rebounding with 14 a game.