Paul Pierce Saves Washington Wizards from Collapse in Pivotal Game 3 vs. Hawks

Paul Pierce doesn't sweat the big moments—he lives for them. 

After Derrick Rose kept the bank open past regular operating hours Friday night, Pierce extended that window with a patented fade-away jump shot as the final buzzer sounded to give the Washington Wizards a 103-101 Game 3 win over the Atlanta Hawks, and a 2-1 series lead to boot.

In vintage Pierce fashion, the 37-year-old capped off his single-handed salvation of the Wizards by dropping a line that reminded us The Truth would be a master craftsman of AND1 t-shirts:

"

Reporter: Paul, take us through that last sequence.

Pierce: You know, coach drew the play up for me. I've been in that situation millions of times. Caught the ball in my sweet spot, and I just wanted to make sure we got the last shot with no time on the clock. I was able to get it off. 

Reporter: I saw you looking at Bradley Beal—like I thought it might be for him—were you trying to get him to give you some space, or what?

Pierce: Yeah, I was just telling him to get out. I had a small guy on me, I had it at the elbow, what more can you ask for with the game on the line?

Reporter: Did you call bank?

Pierce: I called game.  

"

He's never caved when the pressure's mounted, and as NBA.com and ESPN Stats & Info explained, his resolve has never been shaken by a dwindling clock:    

While Pierce's one-liner will live on forever as perhaps the greatest quote reflecting his unabashed sense of self-confidence, his heroics shouldn't have been necessary in the first place.

Washington entered the fourth quarter with a 19-point advantage and built that lead to 21. By all accounts, the Wizards were in the clear. Atlanta's waving-the-white-flag group consisting of Dennis Schroder, Shelvin Mack, Kyle Korver, Mike Scott and Mike Muscala entered, the benches all but cleared.

Then the switch flipped.

The Hawks went on 17-0 fourth-quarter run buoyed by seven straight defensive stops and erased Washington's 21-point lead entirely after Muscala drained a game-tying three with 14 seconds to play. 

In three quarters' time, the Wizards' confidence had seemingly sky-rocketed. They were doing what appeared improbable—controlling the flow of the game, drilling threes at a high clip and sharing the ball beautifully without John Wall (hand, wrist). 

But as Atlanta outscored Washington, 35-18, in the fourth quarter, disaster nearly struck. After 36 minutes of downright dominance, the Wizards were in danger of collapsing entirely and allowing a new set of questions regarding Wall's absence to crop up. 

Without Pierce, the life would have been sucked out of them and they'd be wallowing in a pool of self pity. 

But those shots are why they brought him to the nation's capital, and head coach Randy Wittman knows it, according to ESPN.com's Ohm Youngmisuk:   

As Wall watched from the sideline nursing five fractures in his left hand and wrist, the Wizards' offense stalled. Their worst fear was on the verge of being recognized. 

Bradley Beal—who bravely commanded the offense by tallying 17 points and a game-high eight assists—couldn't stabilize the team as it rapidly descended downward toward a seemingly inevitable fate. Nene and Otto Porter, each of whom matched Beal's 17 points, also faded into the background.

For the postseason, Washington's now getting outscored by a playoff-worst 36 points in fourth quarters. Now, some of that staggering figure can be chalked up to garbage time ball against the Toronto Raptors that relegated starters to the bench, but the fact remains that Washington needs to find sources of balance with Wall out.     

At times, that didn't look like it would be a problem. Nene scored more points than he had in the previous three games combined. Porter was flying from end-to-end with his usual exuberance off the pine. As a team, the Wizards drilled 35.7 percent of their threes and assisted on 27 of 37 made baskets. 

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Without a star, they embraced the formula Atlanta had used to perfection all season long—make extra passes, find open targets, exploit the most glaring mismatches, rotate soundly on defense and generally play selfless ball. 

But the fourth quarter revealed a crack in the team's armor. Even a few minutes of complacency sans Wall can doom the Wizards, and now they know it. It was nearly a lesson learned the hard way, but they have Pierce's ice-cold bloodstream to thank for teaching them which practices will and won't be acceptable in the games ahead.

The near-catastrophe also brought something else into clear view: Atlanta will not go quietly. 

Although historical trends indicate the Wizards have an 81.8 percent chance of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals now that they have a 2-1 series lead, according to WhoWins.com, the Hawks have the depth and ammo necessary to withstand one uninspiring outing.

Hell, they almost won by playing one exceptional quarter that masked three inept ones.

So yeah, this thing's far from over. 

The Wizards still have plenty of problems to solve, and the Hawks are due for some progression to the mean.

Once again, the Hawks couldn't knock down the myriad open looks they freed up, evidenced by their final mark of 38.9 percent shooting on uncontested field goals, according to SportVU player-tracking data. That's even more absurd considering they drilled 48.9 percent of their contested attempts. 

Bleacher Report's Dan Favale noted how futile Atlanta's efforts on clean looks have been all series long: 

Now Game 4 (7 p.m. ET on TNT) looms large as a test of resiliency. 

Either the Hawks are going to prove they have the competitive mettle necessary to withstand Pierce's deflating heroics and send the series back to Atlanta all square, or the Wizards will ride The Truth's leadership and composure toward the promised land. 

And if the man who called "game" has any say, the Wizards' survival will ultimately hinge on his ability to come through in the clutch. 

All statistics are current as of May 9 and courtesy of NBA.com unless noted otherwise. 

Alec Nathan covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AlecBNathan.