Paul Pierce and the Washington Wizards had one last game at home before a tough four-game trip out West, and hosting one of the Western Conference’s top teams, they made sure they locked in a victory before hitting the road.

The Portland Trail Blazers came to town and The Truth and the Wiz showed that they’re finally hitting their stride. Paul contributed 16 points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist to lead D.C. to a 105-97 victory over Portland.

“It feels good just to get a great, quality win,” The Truth said Monday night. “We feel like we’ve been playing well as of late. We feel like we’ve turned a corner at this point in the season, in our play on both ends of the court. It’s satisfying, especially when you’ve got a big road trip coming up, going out West. You want to be playing well at that point.”

Portland Trail Blazers v Washington Wizards

Paul did the little things that Washington needs from him, such as going 6-for-8 from the free throw line when the rest of the team went a combined 10-for-18. The Truth turned it over just once in his 32 minutes of action, keeping with the Wizards’ theme of ball security—the entire team turned it over just seven times all game.

This a big change from the team that turned it over 19 times while losing to the cellar-dwelling Minnesota Timberwolves by 20 just a few weeks ago. Paul said after Monday’s game that the Wizards might have just now gotten over the midseason hump, albeit it a bit late.

“Maybe earlier, when we lost all those games, we hit that midseason wall,” the future Hall of Famer said. “It’s a long season, guys play with injuries. I feel like we’re playing with more energy now, we’re playing with more defensive effort. Like I said from the beginning, from day one, we’re a defensive team first, and what you saw over the last week, week and a half, we’ve been defending at a high level.”

Portland Trail Blazers v Washington Wizards

The Wizards defense was exceptional on Monday, holding the high-powered Blazers offense to 97 points on just 40.4 percent shooting. For the season, Portland averages 102.8 points per game on 44.6 percent shooting. Paul held his man, Nicolas Batum, to just 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting, and point guard John Wall held his counterpart, Damian Lillard, to 14 points.

No. 34 played an enormous role in the win, but The Truth deferred credit to Wall after the game. Wall, who fell one rebound shy of a triple-double with 21 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals, has stepped his game up this season and is taking on more of a leadership role with each passing game, perhaps not coincidentally in the same season that the 17-year veteran and NBA champion joined the roster.

“He’s everything. He’s the franchise guy, we go as he goes,” Paul said of his star point guard. “That’s why he’s an All Star starter, that’s why he’s one of the best players—not only one of the best point guards, one of the best players—in this league. When he’s playing well and getting guys involved, we sort of fall in line. We feed off his energy on defense, we feed off how he creates for others…It’s even better when he has the other guys contributing, but as I said before, we go as he goes.”

Sacramento Kings v Washington Wizards

The Truth played a secondary role early in this game, focusing mostly on defense and facilitating while letting his teammates get a rhythm going. Washington jumped out to a 27-20 lead after the first quarter, then stretched it to 60-40 at halftime.

However, as has become a pattern in recent weeks with this Wizards team, they let the Blazers get back into the game.

Portland outscored Washington 34-21 in the third quarter behind Arron Afflalo’s 10 points and Lillard’s seven, but No. 34 drained a few shots to keep his team afloat. Paul swiped a Batum pass on the first play of the quarter, then he scored seven points, grabbed a pair of rebounds and dished out an assist while playing the entire third.

His biggest contribution in the period, however, came on a single play just a few minutes into the second half. After No. 34 hit a layup, the Blazers brought the ball down the court and Lillard drove in for a shot at the basket.

Center Marcin Gortat swatted the shot away, Paul hustled to the corner to secure the loose ball, then all in one motion turned upcourt, raised the ball over his head and launched a two-handed outlet pass all the way down the court. His pass found a streaking Nene, who—despite his 6-foot-11, 250-pound frame—had outrun everybody else in transition.

The Brazilian big man needed just one dribble from where he caught the perfect outlet, then he threw down an incredible one-handed reverse dunk that shook the Verizon Center and got the crowd on its feet.

The sensational play put Washington up by 25, its largest lead of the game, and forced Portland to use a timeout. Though that was perhaps the most exciting play of the game, and the best highlight, it was not the most important play.

That came late in the fourth quarter, after the Blazers went on a remarkable run to get back in the game.

With Washington up by just six points and a little more than two minutes remaining on the clock, Wall made an outstanding play to block Lillard’s layup, LaMarcus Aldridge scooped up the loose ball and missed a midrange jumper, then Wall grabbed the rebound and headed upcourt.

One of the fastest players in the league, Wall sprinted past the slower defenders, then drew the remaining ones toward him as he entered the paint.

The point guard rose up, seemingly about to attempt a contested layup with no teammates around to grab a potential miss, then somehow found The Truth, who had come out of nowhere to position himself in the corner. Paul reeled in the pass and calmly drained the corner three-ball to give Washington a nine-point lead at the two-minute mark.

It was one of those moments that the Wizards and their fans were unspeakably glad to have the sure-handed veteran taking the big shot, and The Truth is starting to take charge late in games. His performance recently has been exceptional, and he’s averaging 14.1 points on .515 shooting through seven games in March despite playing just 25 minutes per game. He’s also found his range once again and has made multiple threes in seven of the last eight games; the only exception was the game against the Charlotte Hornets in which he only played 18 minutes.

NEXT UP

The Wizards begin a four-game Western Conference road trip on Wednesday that will have an enormous impact on where they finish in the standings.

The first game up is in Utah where they will face the red-hot Jazz, who have won six straight games and are playing the best basketball of any team after the All Star break. After the game in Salt Lake City, Paul and the Wiz travel to Los Angeles for a game against the 42-25 Clippers, then to Sacramento to do battle with the Kings, and finally to Golden State where they will take on the Warriors, owners of the best record in the NBA at 53-13.

It is about as difficult as a road trip can get, and they’ll play all four teams in just six days.
For the first game, however, the Wizards will have their hands full with rising stars Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert. Paul will likely be tasked with limiting the damage the young forward out of Butler can do, but the hot-shooting Hayward has put up 20.3 points per game in March and is shooting .414 from downtown.

The game is scheduled for a 10:30 p.m. ET tip off and can be seen locally on Comcast Sports Net.

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