The scene was set for the New Jersey Nets last night, they had a big lead going into the fourth quarter and the team looked certain to take an all-important two games to one lead in Boston. The Nets jumped out to a quick start to lead by 15 points after one quarter, 20 at the half, and 26 points with three minutes gone in the third quarter, and with Paul Pierce having an off night nothing could stop them winning. Or so we thought.
Led by Pierce and inspired by the words of Antoine Walker between the third and fourth quarters the Celtics found their groove, Pierce scoring 19 points in the quarter while the Celtics as a team compiled 41 to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. The defeat for the Nets, writes Liz Robbins of the New York Times, marked the worst fourth-quarter collapse in NBA playoff history. Not once in 171 games has a team trailed by 19 or more points and three quarter time and had been able to come back and win.
"We blew the game," Nets coach Byron Scott said, almost emotionless. "That's all it is, it's one loss."
"Heck no," added Nets forward Kenyon Martin in disgust. "I don't care what they all say. It's worse than that. We blew an opportunity."
Through the first three quarters Kerry Kittles harassed Pierce into 2-of-14 shooting for only 9 points, New Jersey?s ploy to double team him frustrating him. But the fourth quarter saw rookie Richard Jefferson guarding him and Pierce immediately went to work, scoring 7 points in the Celtics 9-0 run to open the term. Jason Kidd then tried to guard Pierce over the final four minutes, but by that time the momentum was certainly with the Celtics.
"You kind of see it in their eyes," Pierce said. "It didn't seem like anybody wanted to shoot the ball for them. As we got closer to them, as we got more aggressive, as we started feeding off the crowd."
So what was it that Walker said during the break to spark the team in the way that he did? According to Celtics coach Jim O?Brien Walker spoke emphatically to his teammates, challenging Pierce to take over and carry the Celtics, and for the team to attack, attack, attack.
According to Pierce Walker also said "that the New Jersey bench was laughing at us. He said no matter what happens in the fourth quarter, win or lose, we will go down fighting. We are not going to be embarrassed tonight."
"At the start of the fourth quarter, we just wanted to fight and make a statement for the next game that we were going to be a team to be reckoned with," said Pierce, who scored 19 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter. "And I think we made more than a statement.
"We feel like now we have control of the series. I think we can gain momentum from this."
"It wasn't anything he did," Martin said of Pierce,. "It was us. We knew he was going to be aggressive."
"Any time you lose a ballgame the way we did, it hurts. But we just have to go back over it and see what we can fix," said Kidd.