BOSTON, March 8 (Ticker) -- The Boston Celtics continued to go on the offensive.

Two nights after their highest-scoring effort in over five years, the Celtics rode the hot hands of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker 24 to their third straight victory, 117-92 over the Detroit Pistons.

Pierce scored 31 points and Walker added 24 as the Celtics -- who routed Orlando, 130-110, on Wednesday -- scored at least 100 points for the third straight contest.

Pierce netted eight points and Walker seven as Boston outscored Detroit, 27-15, in the decisive third quarter to take an 80-63 lead.

NBA TV highlights from Pistons-Celtics: 56k | 300k

"They kicked our (butt)," said Detroit's Jerry Stackhouse, who was held to 12 points on 3-of-12 shooting. "We came in here and hit a team that's been playing well offensively. We put up a pretty good defensive number in the second quarter, but after that they just picked it up."

Boston shot 54 percent (45-of-83) to cool off red-hot Detroit, which came in winners of nine of its last 11.

"The effort certainly wasn't where it had to be to even be competitive tonight," Pistons coach Rick Carlisle said. "My biggest concern is we're getting into a trend where the first half we're giving up 50 points on over 50 percent shooting. That can't happen with us; we don't have that kind of margin for error in the rest of our games."

The loss leaves the Pistons 1 1/2 games ahead of the Celtics in the race for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Detroit leads the Central Division but trails conference-leading New Jersey by four games.

"We're still trying to hold down home-court advantage for the playoffs, so this was a good win," Pierce said.

Kenny Anderson scored 15 points and dished out six assists and Walter McCarty added 15 points for Boston, which held a 42-37 rebounding edge and committed 11 turnovers while forcing 16.

"If you got five guys who can all shoot the three, who can all drive the ball, and four of the guys can post up, you can get good looks at the basket. And that's what we did the last two games," Boston coach Jim O'Brien said.

Trailing 54-53 after Detroit's Chucky Atkins started the third quarter with consecutive 3-pointers, Boston went on a 17-3 run. Pierce scored eight points in the burst, which Walker capped with a 3-pointer for a 70-57 lead with 4:57 left.

"When we run the ball and we pass it and look for each other, it opens up a whole lot of things for us, so we can run up the scoreboard," said Pierce.

Pierce shot 12-of-18 from the field and had six rebounds, five assists and three blocks to complement his 24th 30-plus point game of the season.