TRUTH’S TOP 5: NO. 1

Last summer, Paul Pierce joined the Washington Wizards in one of the marquee moves of the 2014 NBA offseason. Throughout his 17th NBA season, Paul provided the budding young D.C. squad with some marvelous performances that allowed them to advance into the playoffs, where he continued to shine. This offseason, we’re looking back at his Top 5 performances of the season.

Topping the list is another performance that will end up in The Truth’s lore: a clutch 20-point outburst in front of a venomous Raptors crowd in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

NO. 1—APRIL 18, 2015: PAUL RIPS THE RAPS IN GAME 1

The Washington Wizards’ season on paper looks much like their previous one did—both ended in the same game of the same round to the same seed in the playoffs—but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Perhaps the best game to serve as a microcosm of the season was the team’s postseason opener, when Paul Pierce led the Wiz to a 93-86 road win over the Toronto Raptors immediately after calling the Raptors out for not having the “it” factor.

“We haven’t done particularly well against Toronto, but I don’t feel they have the “it” that makes you worried,” The Truth told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan a few days before the series kicked off. “There isn’t a team I look at in the Eastern Conference that makes me say, ‘They are intimidating, we don’t have a chance.’”

Paul pledged to bring toughness, confidence, swagger, leadership and more to the Wizards, and he more than held up his end of the bargain; Game 1 in Toronto was the ultimate proof.

After much build-up between The Truth and the Raptors, Paul delivered with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting to go with four rebounds, a block and a steal as Washington stunned the Raptors in Toronto with a 93-86 win.

No. 34 entered Air Canada Centre to a chorus of boos, and the jeering only got louder when he missed his first two attempts from the field.

Despite the ongoing trash talk between the two parties, The Truth humbly admitted the Toronto fanbase is among the best he’s seen in his time in the NBA, which is no small praise coming from the 17-year veteran.

“I’ve been in a lot of tough environments,” he said following the game. “This is right up there at the top. Even last year when we won the series I didn’t want to come back to Toronto and be in this environment. It’s a tough place to play in. …It was one of the best crowds I’ve ever been a part of on the road. It’s something that drives me. I enjoy going and getting a win on the road more than I do at home.”

Though he started with two early misses and a scoreless first period, it turned out the legendary small forward was only getting started. Paul told reporters after the win that he actually enjoys the booing, which distracts and disrupts many players.

“You’ve just got to embrace it,” he said of playing the villain. “It’s not that I’m a bad guy. Everybody knows I’m a good guy, I mean off the court. That’s just the role you portray to media on the court, on the road. Everybody is booing you. No one likes you. I embrace it. It fuels me, truthfully.”

The Truth led by example, seemingly willing the chants and taunts into points. Upon entering the game for the second time—at the 7:14 mark of the second period—he was intent on destroying the Toronto fans’ morale.

Less than a minute after taking the floor, No. 34 began his tear.

He absolutely lost defenders left and right with highlight-reel pump fakes, first hitting a step-back three, then feigning a triple and driving in for a shorter jumper. He later drove into the heart of the defense, stopped on a dime and pulled up for a tough fadeaway with a man in his face, but not even defenders were any match for the former NBA Finals MVP. Totally feeling it at that point, he implored his teammates to get him the ball, and when they obliged, he rewarded them with a straight-on three-ball.

When the first half finally drew to a close, mercifully so for the Raptors, Paul had put up 10 second-quarter points in less than six minutes while draining all four of his shots. He helped turn a four-point deficit to start the period into a four-point lead to end it, and he made sure the Toronto crowd carried no momentum into the break.

The Raptors surely thought a basket and an early stop—and a controversial screen that temporarily slowed the future Hall of Famer—would get the home crowd back in the game, but The Truth had other ideas.

“He got screened and hit pretty hard,” Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal said of the play. “He likes contact, so I know when I see him on the ground—that is not happening often—he is going to be upset about it. I was kind of scared for Toronto because when Paul gets going, he gets going.”

He canned a midrange jumper to open the second-half scoring, discouraging the Raptors and deflating the fans. Soon after that, he added another from beyond the arc that extended the Wizards’ lead to a then-game-high nine points.

Washington ran up the lead to as many as 15, but the Raps made a run in the waning minutes of the game behind a raucous crowd, and a Greivis Vasquez three-ball with 25.9 seconds was enough to send the game to overtime.

Playing in Toronto, with all the momentum against them, the Wizards could have easily crumpled and let the Raptors run away with Game 1 in overtime. Early in the extra frame, it looked as though they might do just that.

Instead, No. 34 kick-started his team once more, burying a deep three to open the overtime scoring.

“He was really big,” Wizards head coach Randy Wittman said. “I thought the three he hit to start the overtime was big

[for] momentum.”

That would turn out to be more points than any other player scored after regulation ended, and Paul’s five overtime points were more than double what anybody else managed.

Between the trey and the pair of free throws he converted in the final seconds, The Truth singlehandedly outscored the Raptors—a remarkable accomplishment at any time, especially on the road in the playoffs against a higher seed—and it quickly became clear that his well-documented mind games had played out just as he had hoped they would.

That game crushed the Raptors’ upstart spirit, and soon the Wizards were on their way to a four-game sweep of the series and an extra break before they took on the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks.

“We give him a lot of credit, he’s got big balls, that’s the reason he’s The Truth,” Vasquez said later. “What else can I tell you? Good for him. He’s a Hall of Famer. I love his game, good for him. I’ve got a picture of him. He’s an idol, that’s it. But we’ve got to play. You can stop asking questions about Paul Pierce.”

The early-series road win proved to be an important benchmark for the Wizards heading into the second round against Atlanta, where they again won Game 1 on the road. It also gave the Wizards confidence to run as many crunch time plays as they wanted for Paul, who delivered time and again when Washington needed him most.

“It’s a unique situation having a guy like him,” Wittman said. “If I don’t take advantage of having a guy who’s going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and pick his brain, then I’m not doing a very good job.”

RELATED LINKS

• The Truth backs up his talk, helps Wizards to 1-0 lead (ESPN, April 18, 2015)
• Paul Pierce postgame interview (Monumental Network, April 18, 2015)