When they needed it most, Paul Pierce helped kick-start a fourth quarter comeback for the Boston Celtics on Sunday night.

The Captain put together a solid performance against the Washington Wizards with 17 points, two rebounds and two steals as the Celtics rallied from a late deficit to come away with an 86-83 victory. But it was Paul's late play, draining two crucial jumpers, that drew acclaim, as the Boston Herald reported:

"After a timeout at 6:10, during which Rivers told his team it pretty much had to pitch a shutout on defense, the C’s arose.

Paul Pierce hit two jumpers, and Allen dunked in a 10-0 run that wobbled the Wizards."

Teammate Kevin Garnett agreed that offensive outbursts from the Truth as well as sharpshooting teammate Ray Allen were a great asset for the team, as he told ESPN.com:

"A huge weapon," Garnett said when asked about Allen’s scoring potential. "You know him and [Paul Pierce] can put up a lot of points in a hurry. That’s big. We have to get them open. You know our job is to get them open."

Though offense was the story in the late game run, after the win, the Captain said he believed that team defense was what led to success, as he told ESPN.com:

"We should have played with that intensity all game," said Celtics captain Paul Pierce. "Once our defensive intensity picked up, it changed the whole ballgame for us, getting up on guys, making them do things that they didn’t want to do."

Paul said it was in stark contrast to the way the Cs had played through the first three quarters:

"We gave them the shots that they wanted to shoot. It can’t be that way. I was happy with the way that we dug in there because a lot of these games this year we let go, when we saw we have been down 10 minutes with three or four minutes left to go, we haven’t been able to pull those games out. Tonight, we saw something that I like to see at this point in the season, coming down the stretch. We saw the Celtics that we are used to seeing."

WIN STREAK REACHES FOUR
The victory helped Boston complete a weekend sweep of the nation's capital city teams, past and present, on the back of a 96-86 Celts win over the Sixers in Philly on Friday.

Paul scored seven points and secured five rebounds in the win as his team picked him up on offense and the Truth got it done on D:

"It's not about me," No. 34 told ESPN Boston. "We're not a team centered around one player scoring all the points. Guys step up every day. ... I try to do other things, like defending [Andre] Iguodala, one of the better players, slow him down and try to keep him limited. I can help in that area."

But coach Doc Rivers notices that the Celtics also need Paul to be a part of that high-octane offense for Boston to be successful. It's no coincidence that the Celtics had lost three of their last four when Paul came back on March 2 and are 4-0 since:

"You can see Paul starting to assert himself again," said Rivers. "We have to re-establish him as our go-to guy, and I think he's healthy enough to do that.

"The leadership is easy. We're trying to re-establish him as an offensive guy, get him back to 20-whatever points per game. We gotta make sure everyone gets back in a rhythm ... but we really need to try to re-establish him again."

They did just that on Sunday and the result was a big comeback to extend their winning streak to four games.

UP NEXT
Paul and the Celtics travel to take on the Milwaukee Bucks in the Bradley Center on Tuesday night, where they'll attempt to make it a handful with five straight victories since Paul's return.

The game can be seen on CSNHD or listened to on WEEI. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.

RELATED STORIES
Celtics star in late drama (Boston Herald, March 8, 2010)
http://bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1238...
Ray Allen saves Celtics from themselves (ESPN.com, March 8, 2010)
http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/columns/story?columnist=forsberg_ch...
Paul Pierce: It's not about me (ESPNBoston, March 6, 2010)
http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/columns/story?columnist=forsberg_ch...

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