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Wall's late three sends Wizards over Celtics

Jan 23, 2011 - 5:47 AM Washington, DC (Sports Network) - John Wall hit what turned out to be the game-winning three-point shot with just under a minute left as Washington rallied to defeat Boston, 85-83, at the Verizon Center.

Wall finished with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists while Rashard Lewis scored 18 and yanked down 11 boards for the Wizards, who halted a brief two-game slide.

Washington earned just its second win in the last nine meetings with Boston, who played without center Shaquille O'Neal after he injured his right leg and hip in Friday's win over Utah.

Kevin Garnett scored 17 points while Paul Pierce supplied 12 points and eight caroms but missed a potential game-winning shot with less than two seconds to go in the game for the Celtics, who had a five-game win streak snapped.

Ray Allen totaled 16 points and five boards and Rajon Rondo contributed 13 points and nine assists in defeat.

Trailing 63-54 in the third quarter, the Wizards ran off eight straight points to narrow their deficit to one before the visitors scored five in a row to extend the lead back to six.

An Andray Blatche jumper evened the game at 70 with 26.9 ticks to go in the stanza prior to a Nate Robinson jumper 23 seconds later that gave Boston a two-point edge heading into the final period.

Washington's JaVale McGee hit 1-of-2 at the line to knot the score at 77 with 4:49 remaining and the Wizards took their first lead of the game at 81-79 on a driving layup by Wall with 2:35 to go.

Glen Davis tied the game with a layup with 1:21 to play before Wall banked in his trifecta from about 27 feet with 57.7 seconds left to give the hosts the lead for good.

"I didn't call it," Wall said of the bank shot. "I knew it was going to hit the backboard, but it thought it was going to be a hard brick. It could have broke the backboard, but luckily it went in for us."

Garnett's layup trimmed the lead to one 17 seconds later before Rondo stripped Wall with the shot clock winding down. Pierce missed a pull-up jumper from the left of the foul line and Wall hit 1-of-2 at the line with less than a second left to seal the win.

The Celtics shot a scorching 15-of-22 from the floor to take a 35-20 lead after the first quarter.

After trailing by as many as 16, the Wizards whittled the lead to 49-42 on with three minutes left in the half.

Boston took a 56-46 lead at the intermission.

"When we had them down we should have extended the lead, but we didn't," Garnett said. "We'll learn from this."

Game Notes

Wall made 7-of-12 from the floor and committed five turnovers...His triple was the only one made by the Wizards in nine tries...Washington signed guard Mustafa Shakur to a 10-day contract on Saturday and he scored five points and handed out five assists in his NBA debut...Davis finished with nine points and six boards while Semih Erden, filling in for O'Neal, scored six points and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds...The Celtics were 4-of-15 from long range.