BOSTON, Jan. 9 (Ticker) -- Not even a power outage could stop Steve Smith from lighting up.

Smith scored 13 of his 19 points over the final 6 1/2 minutes as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Boston Celtics for the eighth straight time, 93-90.

The Spurs led, 89-86, after Antonio Daniels hit a runner with 2:36 left, but Paul Pierce and Kenny Anderson made baskets to give Boston its last lead at 90-89 with 1:28 to go.

Smith then hit a fadeaway jumper with 1:10 to go, and after Pierce missed two jumpers down the stretch, Smith converted a pair of free throws with 14.5 seconds left to close the scoring.

"I was feeling pretty good," said Smith, who was 5-of-6 from the arc, including 3-of-3 down the stretch. "They put a lot of pressure on Timmy (Duncan) and I was able to get some open looks."

"Smitty was great," Duncan said. "Steve Smith stepped up and hit big shot after big shot. He got to those corners and when the ball rotated to him, he put it up there and put it in."

Smith is on pace for the best 3-point percentage in NBA history. He is 66-of-116 for a .569 mark.

Antoine Walker front-rimmed a potential tying 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

"We were fortunate to get one person hot down the stretch and that was really the difference in the game," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I thought Boston was great. (Celtics coach) Jim O'Brien has done a hell of a lot better job with his team than I have with ours."

The TV lights above the court at FleetCenter went out with San Antonio ahead, 65-59, with 5:08 remaining in the third quarter. Play was stopped for 23 minutes.

San Antonio was paced by Tim Duncan's 25 points and 12 rebounds. The Spurs have not lost to the Celtics since January 8, 1997.

Pierce tallied 31 points and Walker had 21 and 12 rebounds for Boston, which has not beaten San Antonio since January 8, 1997.

"That's a tough one (to lose)," Pierce said. "We look at this game and say this could be a big win for us. This is a game we could actually pull out down the stretch. We kept it close and we put ourselves in a great position to win the game. It just came down to their execution down the stretch and they hit the big baskets."

"Shot for shot, Paul Pierce was incredible," said Duncan. "He's always played well against us. He's having an incredible year and he was great in that fourth quarter."

Pierce scored 21 of his 31 points after the delay. He scored at least 20 points for a league-leading 28th time. Duncan has tallied 20 points or more 27 times.

The Celtics outrebounded the Spurs, 47-38, and outscored them in the paint, 38-24. But San Antonio converted 33-of-40 from the line, while Boston managed just 13-of-18.

"Discrepancies in the number of foul shots really hurt us," said O'Brien. "We defended well and we defended hard."

The Spurs played much of the game without defensive-minded swingman Bruce Bowen, who broke the middle finger on his right hand two minutes into the contest and did not return.

"I thought we made stops when we needed to make them and that was nice to see," Popovich said. "With Bruce Bowen gone, he's usually the guy who is in that situation for us. That's a big loss for what we've been trying to do with this team."

"We just adjust, and I think we do it all the time," Duncan said. "Guys step into roles real well. It's a big loss for us, but people will step up and you don't know who it is but there are a whole bunch of guys who can."