Boston, MA -- (Sports Network) - Paul Pierce scored 27 points and the Boston Celtics remained unbeaten with a 97-87 victory over the New Orleans Hornets.

Ray Allen tallied 17 points, while Kevin Garnett chipped in 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Celtics, who moved to 4-0 on the season. Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace each scored 12 points.

"Give them credit, they made a lot of shots down the stretch," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of the Hornets. "I told our guys, so far this year, we've done a great job of each game building and improving. This was not one of those nights."

Peja Stojakovic netted 26 points and Chris Paul contributed 22 points and eight assists for the Hornets, who were coming off a 97-92 home win against Sacramento on Friday. New Orleans went 13-of-28 from beyond the arc.

"Well, I don't know how good you can feel," Stojakovic said of his contribution. "It's still a loss. We tried I think we didn't have enough focus for 48 minutes. Some parts of the game were good for us from both ends of the floor. But we just didn't have enough consistency."

A three-pointer by Stojakovic tied the game at 74 in the early stages of the fourth, but the Celtics scored the next six points, capped by a dunk from Shelden Williams.

Another three-ball from Stojakovic, this one with 6:07 remaining, had the Hornets within 82-80, but a pair of Garnett turn-around jumpers stemmed the tide.

David West drained a three-pointer to make it 86-83, but Allen and Pierce countered with jumpers, extending the margin to 90-83 with 2:34 left.

New Orleans was ahead by as many as five points in the first quarter, but was trailing, 22-20, moving to the second quarter. Pierce had 10 points in the period.

A three-pointer by Pierce widened the gap to 41-30 with 3:08 left in the second and Garnett thrilled the crowd by going up for an alley-oop jam off a feed from Rajon Rondo a minute later.

Boston carried a 47-38 lead into the locker room, but the Hornets made a late push in the third. Paul scored seven straight New Orleans points and drew the visitors within 69-66 in the final minute. Stojakovic drilled a three-pointer to tie the game, but Wallace's three-ball with 1.1 seconds left had the Celtics back in front, 72-69, moving to the fourth.

Game Notes

The Celtics, who are 4-0 for the first time since opening the 2007-08 NBA championship season with eight consecutive victories, head to Philadelphia for a Tuesday game...The Hornets play at New York Monday...West had 10 points, while Emeka Okafor finished with 10 rebounds for the Hornets.