Indianapolis ? Just when Dirk Nowitzki and Germany were making things a little too hairy, Paul Pierce saved the United States from what could have been a historic loss.

In a game that stayed close for the better part of three quarters, former Kansas University standout Pierce scored eight of his 24 points in a 46-second span Friday night to spur the U.S. team to a 104-87 victory at the World Championships.

The United States improved to 55-0 when using teams of NBA players in international competitions.

“I’d like to thank Germany for giving us a tough test,” said U.S. coach George Karl. “I have a feeling we’re going to have two, three or four more of these types of games.”

The Americans looked bad at times in their halfcourt offense, couldn’t defend Nowitzki on simple pick-and-rolls and were the less aggressive team for the first 29 minutes.

Germany led 67-65 after a three-pointer by Marko Pesic with 3:27 left in the third quarter. That’s when Pierce took over.

He scored on a drive with 3:02 left in the third to erase Germany’s final lead, then put on a show by scoring eight points in the final 46 seconds a pair of foul shots, a three-point play off a drive to the basket and a steal at midcourt that led to a buzzer-beating three-pointer from 35 feet for a 77-67 lead entering the fourth.

Pierce had 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals in the quarter.

“I wanted to give my team some confidence,” Pierce said. “It gave us a lot of momentum going into the fourth, and the rest of the way we just fed off of that.”

Ben Wallace provided the finishing touch and it was not a soft one. With the Americans ahead by 12 points with 8 minutes left, Wallace went up and soundly rejected a dunk attempt by Nowitzki.

Michael Finley scored the next eight U.S. points on a pair of three-pointers and a breakaway layup as part of a 28-5 run that gave the Americans a 93-72 lead.

Nowitzki finished with 34 points and 10 rebounds. Finley scored 21, Baron Davis added 13 and Jermaine O’Neal 11 for the United States, which finishes first-round play tonight against China. The second round begins Monday.

“Ten years ago, I said it would take 50 years to happen. Maybe I was wrong at that time,” German coach Henrik Dettmann said.

The U.S. team quickly opened a double-digit lead as Pierce hit his second three-pointer to make it 12-2, but the pace soon slowed as the Americans kept getting whistled for fouls.

l Box score on page 11C