Brooklyn Nets forward Paul Pierce reached another milestone in his Hall of Fame career on Friday night when he became the 18th player in NBA history to score 25,000 points.
Pierce hit 3-pointer with 3:10 remaining in the first half of the Nets 93-88 loss to the Atlanta Hawks that put him over the 25,000 point mark, making him the fourth active player to reach the mark.
The long-time Celtics star joins Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and teammate Kevin Garnett as the active players with 25,000 points.
The game was of much more importance to the Hawks than the Nets, as Atlanta is fighting for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The win kept Atlanta in position to eliminate the New York Knicks from playoff contention, moving their magic number to one.
“We’re trying to win every game,” Pierce said in an AP interview. “I think we really kicked ourselves tonight. I think this game was really about what we did. We didn’t execute properly, missed boxouts and, more importantly, free throws. A lot of these playoff games, they are going to come down to free throws. It’s going to be a lot of close games and we’ve got to do a better job, especially me.”