H
Celts' grand finale makes Wiz go poof: Poise in fourth key to win

Paul Pierce put together a 26-point, 9-for-18 performance against
Washington.
(Staff photo by Michael Seamans)

By Mark Murphy
Saturday, January 1, 2005

Their time in finishing school is by no means complete.

     But the Celtics, in snapping a three-game losing streak that was
heavy on late-game confusion, got the finer points right in yesterday's
108-103 win over the Wizards.

     Each big shot from Washington - and these quick, athletic Wizards
are a far cry from the plodding Wizards/Bullets of recent memory - was
matched.

     Gary Payton ran the show and his teammates listened. Paul Pierce
[news] had one of his better fourth quarters of the season, even if his
free throw shooting down the stretch still flies in the face of his
.825 percentage from the line.

     Rebounds became everyone's domain. Four starters, led by Mark
Blount [news]'s nine, had five or more rebounds. Six players, led by
Pierce's 26-point, 9-for-18 performance, reached double figures. And a
few bounces strategically rolled their way in the closing minutes as
well.

     The Wizards' Larry Hughes went for 33 points - hitting all six of
his 3-point attempts - and certified Celtics assassin Antawn Jamison
tallied 14 in the fourth, so the C's needed big plays.

     ``The thing I liked about the fourth quarter for us is offensively
the ball didn't get stuck a lot,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. ``The
ball kept moving. And I thought that helped us defensively.''

     For a while, however, the Celtics appeared doomed to previous
behavior. They took the lead five times from the 8:47 mark on in the
fourth, but also lost the lead to a tie or go-ahead hoop four times.

     Once Jamison heated up, the pace accelerated.

     Payton had just hit a runner for a 93-92 Celtics lead with 4:29
left when Jamison converted on a three-point play from the lane.

     The Celtics then pushed out as far as 99-95 on a Pierce trey, only
for Jamison to answer with a jumper from the lane and, after a Pierce
miss, a trey from the top of the circle for a 100-99 Washington lead
with two minutes left.

     A Blount hoop off a Raef LaFrentz pass, followed by a short Payton
jumper, was good for a 103-100 edge before Hughes buried his sixth trey
for a 103-103 tie with 58 seconds left.

     Pierce, who had swung over to Jamison in the defensive end after
the undersized power forward ran LaFrentz through a litany of picks,
successfully up-faked Hughes to draw a foul from 18 feet away.

     The Celtics captain hit only the second of two, however, leaving
Hughes with a solid shot at the lead when he drove the lane. Hughes
missed his open 10-footer, however. The miss was magnified when the
subsequent loose ball hit Jarvis Hayes before rolling out of bounds.

     Jiri Welsch made the Wizards pay with two free throws for a
106-103 edge with 11.5 seconds left. Washington had one last hope in
Jamison, left alone with a corner jumper when Celtics rookie Tony Allen
tripped off a pick and hit the floor.

     Jamison missed, though, leading to two game-clinching free throws
from Ricky Davis.

     ``It's difficult to cover them, because they're real little,''
Davis said. ``It was real hard to get a rotation on Jamison. But
they're good at it. They keep pressure on the other coach. They force
him to make decisions.''