Truth Clutch in Game 3

In case you were wondering, that’s why he’s here.

Paul Pierce’s fingerprints have been all over his Washington Wizards’ first round playoff series with the Toronto Raptors and on Friday night, his biggest moment of the series so far pushed the Raptors to the brink.

Paul has done a little bit of everything for the Wizards in his first season in Washington, particularly in this playoff series with the Raptors, where he has embraced the role of villain and tormented Toronto throughout. In Game 3, he was the closer, pushing the Wiz one step closer to the second round with a 106-99 win.

Not one but twice late in the fourth quarter, The Truth hit Toronto with a backbreaking three. The first, with just under two minutes to go, pushed a five-point Wizards lead to eight. The Raptors rallied to pull within three with 40.9 seconds left, but on the ensuing Washington possession, The Truth dropped the hammer, draining a three with 16.9 seconds remaining to put the game out of reach and give Washington a commanding 3-0 series lead.

The Wizards have a chance to finish the sweep on Sunday evening at the Verizon Center.

Paul finished with 18 points on 5-for-9 shooting including 4-for-7 from beyond the arc, and he added three rebounds and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line in just 27 minutes. He dominated the fourth quarter, with a game-high 11 points in the frame.

But all the numbers will be forgotten, however, and the lasting image of this game will be No. 34 strutting down the court, yelling “That’s why I’m here!” and throwing his arms up to the Verizon Center crowd after nailing the clinching three, basking in the cheers from the rabid fans.

“I’m always ready,” Paul said of his two big threes. “As I said all year long, we feed off what John

[Wall] and Bradley [Beal] do. Those guys do a good job of initiating the offense, John penetrating, getting me open looks and we did a good job just making the extra pass. But I’m readily available for those type of shots, and they trusted me tonight and I was able to deliver.”

The Truth was a factor on both ends of the floor throughout the game, but he was simply incredible in the final stanza, when he literally couldn’t miss. Paul went 3-for-3 in the fourth period—all from three-point land—and made both of his free throws. He scored 11 of Washington’s 25 points in the frame after entering the game for good with 6:49 remaining.

No. 34 alternated between small forward and power forward throughout the game, and many of his minutes came alongside second-year wing Otto Porter Jr., who has had a breakout performance in his first career postseason.

“What you guys are seeing out of Otto Porter, he’s just growing up right before your eyes,” Paul said of Porter, who had 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. “He’s getting the opportunity, you saw him in the last three weeks of the season he got extended minutes, and I think his confidence has really grown. And I think he’s tired of me getting on him, too. I constantly stay in Otto’s ear, pushing him, trying to get him to be the best that he can be. And he’s responded. he’s started to play with a little more fire, and that’s all we’ve been wanting from Otto. We know he’s got the talent, the potential’s there, but when he plays with that edge like you saw tonight on defense, the offense will come. … And what better way to come out like this than in a spotlight like the playoffs. I’m happy for him.”

Porter also hit a pair of late threes while playing alongside The Truth, and the sight of student and teacher side-by-side knocking down shots to ice the game was basketball poetry.

Like each of the first two games in this series, the Wizards trailed after the first period but led by halftime. As Wall, Beal and center Marcin Gortat put up big numbers for the Wizards, DeMar DeRozan had a huge first period for the Raptors with a franchise playoff record 20 points in the quarter.

Paul was quiet in the first half, scoring just two points and serving mostly to space the floor and keep defenses honest. The threat of No. 34 lighting up the Toronto defense as he previously had in the series allowed Beal and Wall more room to operate, so Paul could serve as something of a decoy early in the game.
Late in the first half, the Raptors began focusing on the young guard duo defensively, which meant it was time for The Truth to go to work.

He scored just two points in the first half, but he drained a triple just 37 seconds into the second half to open the scoring and more than double his output thus far. That brought the defenders back to Paul, which opened up the floor for the rest of the Wizards shooters, but Washington suddenly went cold and missed 11 of its 15 shots in the third period after Paul’s trey.

The Wizards carried a two-point lead into the final frame, and they got it as high as five before Toronto whittled it back down to one as Paul re-entered the game at the 6:49 mark.

Immediately after he stepped onto the court, The Truth got things going with a deep triple just 10 seconds after subbing in.

It was a sign of things to come for Paul and Porter, who assisted on the shot. Porter, at just 21 years old, then drained a three of his own about two minutes later to put Washington up 91-88, then he put in another less than two minutes after that to make it 95-90.

Perhaps inspired by his protege, The Truth stepped up next with a three-ball of his own on the following possession to give the Wizards an eight-point lead with 1:58 left.

After the game, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said it didn’t matter where the Wizards played Paul, he was going to do his thing regardless, and having Porter knocking down shots at the same time only made the Wizards that much more dangerous.

A handful of free throws by each team later and Kyle Lowry brought the Raptors back within four with a difficult baseline floater, which only came after an errant pass by Porter. The Truth then covered for his expected eventual replacement by knocking down a pair at the charity stripe to make it a six-point game with 47.1 seconds showing on the clock.

Lowry, who had struggled all game and for most of the series, was starting to feel it and pulled up for a 30-footer in transition that hit nothing but nylon and made it a one-possession game with 40 seconds left. The Wizards ran out some clock, knowing if they could waste almost the entire shot clock and get a bucket they would be a few free throws away from a win.

Wall ended up with the ball in the corner near halfcourt and the shot clock winding down, turned on the jets and sprinted by Lowry toward the lane. The entire Raptors defense gravitated toward the speedy point guard, and Paul, noticing an opening on the wing, cut out to the perimeter away from the defense.

Wall found the future Hall of Famer open on the wing and made the feed. Toronto big man Patrick Patterson read the play and made an excellent close out on Paul, but The Truth hit him with one of his patented pump fakes to send him flying. Lowry then got close enough to disrupt the shot, but it didn’t matter.

No. 34 was never going to miss that shot.

From a step behind the line, Paul drained the nail-in-the-coffin jumper, the shot clock buzzer sounding as the ball kissed off the back iron and swished through the net. Washington went up 105-99 with just 16.9 showing on the clock. Like he’s done so many times in his legendary career, The Truth put the team on his back and pulled out a hard-earned win.

The Raptors missed a couple of three-point attempts on the next possession, then Porter split a pair of free throws to set the final margin, but the game was over as soon as the ball left No. 34’s hands.

For the second time in this series and the fourth time in two years, Paul Pierce broke Toronto’s heart late in a postseason game.

He loves winning every game, of course, but Paul said after the game that nights like Friday night are even more special to him given the context.

In his 17th NBA season and at 37 years old, No. 34 is fully aware he is near the back end of Hall of Fame career, and he doesn’t take these moments for granted.

“Right now I don’t know how many more I got left,” Paul explained, when asked why this game, and this postseason run, was so important to him. “I know I see the light at the end of the tunnel, so that appreciation goes up. When you first make the playoffs, you’re like ‘Man, this is exciting time.’ You get the chance to be amongst the loudest crowds and enjoy the moment, but now at this point in my career, I’m savoring these moments because I don’t know how many more of these moments I’m going to have. That’s what’s making this special, nights like tonight and moving forward.”

NEXT UP

The Wizards have a chance to clinch the series and earn a first-round sweep, despite coming into the series as the underdog, when they host the Raptors in Game 4 on Sunday evening.

The Truth got some attention for yelling about not wanting to go back through customs on his way into the tunnel after the Wizards won Game 2 in Toronto, and after pulling out the Game 3 win in D.C., Paul reaffirmed that sentiment.

“The mindset was ‘protect our home court,’” he said. “We have to establish something here on our home court, it was something that I said on Day 1 when I got here in September. … When you win a game like this—a team has little hope coming into this game—but when you win a game like this it pretty much diminishes a team’s hope when you go up 3-0 and you have two more games at home. So our focus right now is to not go back through customs.”

All season long, Paul has not only been one of the on-court leaders by hitting big shots such as the two he hit Friday night, he’s all been the biggest team leader off the court. A former NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP, he brings the talent and experience every team wants in the postseason.

As confident as he is, not only in himself but also the team as a unit, Paul also respects how difficult the task at hand is. He went through it as a member of the Boston Celtics for 15 years, then as a Brooklyn Net for one, and now he’s showing the young Wizards team how to do things the right way.

“I explained to [the rest of the team] after the game, this is going to be the hardest thing that you are going to do: the sweep and the closeout,” Paul said Friday night. “You thought tonight was hard, it’s going to be even harder in Game 4. Since I’ve been in the league, I think I’ve only swept a team one time. So I’m telling them, just be ready to get [the Raptors’] best punch. You got a good punch tonight from them, you’re going to get their best punch come here in Game 4 and we’ve just got to be ready to respond like we have been.”

The game is set for a 6:30 p.m. ET start and will be nationally televised on TNT.

RELATED LINKS

• Paul Pierce carries Wizards to 3-0 lead in home playoff debut (ESPN, April 24, 2015)
• Paul Pierce postgame interview (Monumental Network, April 24, 2015)
• The Truth shows why the Wizards brought him to DC (The Washington Post, April 24, 2015)
• Pierce has the “It” factor (ESPN, April 25, 2015)
• Different year, same result for Paul Pierce (USA Today, April 25, 2015)
• Game 3 clinched on triples by The Truth (CBS Sports, April 25, 2015)
• Porter learning from Pierce, as Wizards hoped (CSN Washington, April 25, 2015)