For three minutes at the end of Saturday night's 89-86 win against the Washington Wizards, the Boston Celtics found themselves defensively. And they needed to.
Washington Wizards forward Kevin Seraphin, left, of France, battles for the ball against Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012, in Washington. The Celtics won 89-86. The discovery came with a scare, but the Boston Celtics found themselves defensively, at least for the final three minutes of an 89-86 win against the Washington Wizards Saturday night.
Kevin Seraphin, blessed Saturday by Zeus, Hermes or whoever is the Greek god of 88.9 percent field goal shooting, scored his final bucket of the night with 2:56 remaining, putting the Washington Wizards ahead of the Celtics 86-84.
It was Washington's first lead, an improbable one considering that the Celtics opened a 26-12 margin in the first quarter and initially looked ready to knock the Wizards to the mat with devastating force. It would also be Washington's final lead; it lasted just 22 seconds before Paul Pierce seized back an 87-86 advantage with a long 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:34 left. The Wizards never scored again.
The Celtics made just three field goals in the final eight minutes. During that span they did not attempt a free throw until Jason Terry drilled a pair with two seconds remaining. Their offense, despite many good-to-great looks, went silent in the game's most pivotal moments. But for those final three minutes their defense resembled the championship unit of yesteryear -- not unexpected given their history, but still decidedly different from their effort in either of the season's first two games.
Washington's second-to-last chance to steal victory came with half a minute left. Down 87-86, Seraphin, who hit 8 of his 9 attempts and finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, posted up Kevin Garnett. Garnett had been the victim of several Seraphin buckets, but he metaphorically put his hand over Seraphin's mouth to disallow him from breathing. The Wizard quickly realized he would do nothing against a fully engaged Garnett and whipped a pass to nobody in particular, giving the ball back to the Celtics.
Washington had one more chance while trailing 87-86, this time in the form of a sidelines out of bounds play with four seconds left. Head coach Randy Wittman designed a set with five or six screens, all of which the Celtics defended perfectly. The last screen left wing Martell Webster running toward the corner. He would have been alone except Garnett switched onto him expertly, forcing a terrible fadeaway 19-footer that had minuscule odds of falling. It missed badly. After Terry was fouled and hit both of his free throws a moment later, and Jannero Pargo missed a last-second half-court heave, the Celtics had survived.
The win wasn't pretty enough to earn the title of prom queen. Heck, it wasn't even pretty enough to find itself a prom date. But when the Celtics needed to summon their old identity, defense came running back to them. And Garnett, as usual, played a prominent role.