 Richard Hamilton lifts himself and the Wizards above the Celtics. Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty Images from Celtics-Wizards: 56k | 300k |
"When you look back, it wasn't Michael Jordan scoring 44 points," Jordan said. "It was everybody collectively stepping forward, taking shots, playing solid defense, coming up with loose balls and playing their top scorers pretty good. These are the types of games we can win and learn from and hopefully keep moving in the right direction. This is a big step for this team."
Jordan has found rough going in his third stint as a player. The points have been tougher to come by and the wins are few and far between. The superstar guard never lost as many as eight straight games with the Chicago Bulls.
During the skid, Jordan kept shooting and scoring while the Wizards kept losing. He eclipsed 30 points five times but could not lift Washington to a win.
It was more of the same in this one. As the Wizards squandered a 76-61 lead over the last six minutes of the fourth quarter, the 38-year-old Jordan forced shots and did not involve his teammates as he seemed intent on settling a score with Celtics forward Paul Pierce.
Jordan finished with 17 points but just two in the fourth period and overtime. The extra session belonged to Laettner and Hamilton, capable players who have been obscured by Jordan this season.
"Tonight was definitely a team effort," Hamilton said. "That's how we won the game at the end. When it was time to make plays, nobody was surprised because they were already involved through the whole game."
"We found a way to win and it was very positive," Wizards coach Doug Collins added.
Laettner opened overtime with a jumper and gave Washington the lead for good at 86-84 when he made a 15-footer from the left side.
The Celtics called timeout and had rookie Joe Johnson inbound at mid-court. Hamilton perfectly timed his jump, deflected the pass and corraled the loose ball. He was fouled and made both free throws with 6.8 seconds to go.
After a basket by Antoine Walker, Hamilton made the clinching foul shots with five-tenths of a second to go.
Laettner scored 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting and Hamilton added 16, eight rebounds and six assists. Jordan was just 7-of-24 from the field but collected 11 rebounds and six assists.
"He was very tired," Collins said of his superstar. "He played 45 minutes, but I was trying to keep his minutes down."
Walker scored 24 points and Pierce added 23 for Boston, which has lost four in a row.
For the second straight meeting, Pierce clearly got the better of Jordan, blocking his shot three times. In the summer, Pierce declined Jordan's invitation to work out with him in Chicago as he prepared to return to the NBA after a three-year absence. On November 7, Pierce blocked a pair of Jordan's shots in the final minutes of Boston's 104-95 win.
"If this was an individual sport like boxing, you could say that I'd be 2-0," Pierce said. "But it's not, it's a team game, and right now we're 1-1. Individual play doesn't get you into the playoffs."
"Right now, I'd give him 2-0," Jordan said. "I'm not going to argue with that."
Pierce's defense impressed his coach.
"Paul has become a pretty darn good defensive player," Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said. "He recognizes that in order to be considered one of the top players in the league, it's got to be at both ends."
Jordan's last basket came with 6:37 left in the fourth period and gave Washington a 76-61 lead. Boston closed the quarter with a 17-2 spree that featured three straight baskets by Milt Palacio, who scored 19 points.
"Paul said in the timeout when we were down 13 with six minutes to go, 'Let's come back and win the basketball game,'" O'Brien said. "I think that's tremendous leadership, and that's what we get from Antoine and Paul. It's a credit to them, but it's got to be something that permeates every core of every player on our team."
Pierce blocked a jumper by Jordan and drilled a 3-pointer over him at the other end, pulling the Celtics into a 78-78 tie with 50 seconds to go. After Hamilton missed a jumper, Pierce missed a drive but harassed Jordan into a miss at the horn.
"I'm playing more with my hands up," Pierce said. "I learned from the first time and from watching him through this season that he likes to ball-fake a lot. When he went up, I just wanted to go up as high as I can to try to alter his shot. He can get you with a lot of up-and-under moves. I just didn't want to bite on them because he can make you look foolish when you bite."
"He hit some big baskets and I did not," Jordan said. "I was just trying to do the things I could do at that time (down the stretch), which was rebound the ball and try to get everyone organized."
After rookie Kedrick Brown's first NBA basket made it 82-82 with 1:25 remaining, Jordan turned it over and Pierce shot an airball on a 3-pointer.
Popeye Jones had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Jahidi White had 10 and nine for the Wizards, who shot 40 percent (36-of-90) and held a 50-43 advantage on the glass as they won for the first time since November 3 vs. Philadelphia.
"Collectively, we gave a good effort tonight," Jordan said. "Down the stretch, we didn't really maintain the same offensive focus that we did to get to 12, 14, 15, but this is a type of win we can build on."
The Celtics shot 36 percent (32-of-88), including 6-of-27 from 3-point range. Pierce and Walker combined to shoot 15-of-40.
Jordan missed seven of his first eight shots but found a rhythm in the second quarter, when the Wizards opened a double-digit lead before settling for a 44-39 halftime advantage.
Repeatedly settling for jumpers, Boston scored just 13 points in the third quarter and trailed, 65-52, entering the fourth period.
"The main thing for us is our energy level and passion for the game at the start of the game," Pierce said. "It only comes when we get down, and it can't be like that."