Al Jefferson was happily watching the final seconds of garbage time from the Boston bench when Delonte West gave him a piece of advice.
"We've got nothing to celebrate," Jefferson recalled after Boston ended its franchise-record losing streak at 18 games by beating the Milwaukee Bucks 117-97 in Boston. "We should feel good about it. But don't run off the court like we won the championship."
Paul Pierce scored 32 points and Gerald Green had 21 in 20 minutes on Wednesday night to lead the Celtics to their first victory since Jan. 5 and send them into the All-Star break with a sigh of relief. After the break, Boston embarks on a five-game road trip — four of them against teams in playoff position.
"I thought that if we could win this game, it gives us a fighting chance out there. That's all we want," coach Doc Rivers said. "The guys are in there taking monkeys off each others' backs and all that stuff. It's just a relief to get it done."
The half-filled house, winnowed by the first major snowstorm of the winter, gave the Celtics a standing ovation for the final minute as they picked up their first victory since Jan. 5. The Celtics won just two of 24 games when Pierce was out with foot and elbow injuries, breaking the franchise record of 13 straight losses and heading for the league record of 24.
But they took advantage of the Bucks' own woes, rallying from a 15-point deficit to go ahead in the second quarter and opening a double-digit lead in the third.
"We could have easily ended up in that zone with NBA-record losing streaks," Pierce said. "We definitely eyed this game. Milwaukee had a lot of pieces missing, so we wanted to take advantage of that."
WIZARDS 92, 76ERS 85: At Philadelphia, Gilbert Arenas finished with 22 points despite another poor shooting performance, and Washington took a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and held on for its second win in six games. Arenas extended a run of bad shooting with an 8-for-26 performance heading into the All-Star break.
SPURS 90, PISTONS 81: At Auburn Hills, Mich., Tim Duncan scored 23 points and Francisco Elson added 12 points and a career-high 18 rebounds as San Antonio snapped Detroit's seven-game winning streak. The Spurs were playing the finale of an eight-game road trip, but looked like the fresher team as they won at the Palace for the first time since Game 5 of the 2005 NBA finals.
RAPTORS 120, NETS 109: At Toronto, Chris Bosh had 25 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Toronto added to its lead over New Jersey in the Atlantic Division. Morris Peterson added 18 points and five others reached double figures for the Raptors, who shot 59 percent and moved 4 1/2 games ahead of New Jersey with their eighth straight home win.
PACERS 114, GRIZZLIES 104: At Indianapolis, Jermaine O'Neal scored 23 points, Danny Granger added 21 and Indiana pulled away in the fourth quarter. Marquis Daniels added 18 points off the bench as the Pacers overcame a poor start, caught the Grizzlies in the third quarter and led by as many as 16 points midway through the final quarter.
BOBCATS 100, BULLS 85: At Charlotte, Gerald Wallace scored 32 points, Emeka Okafor added 15 points and 21 rebounds and Charlotte snapped a four-game losing streak by beating travel weary Chicago. Wallace, who scored 30 or more points for the second time in three games, added seven rebounds.
MAGIC 103, TRAIL BLAZERS 91: At Orlando, Hedo Turkoglu scored 24 points and Dwight Howard had 20 points and 16 rebounds to keep Orlando (27-26) one game over .500 heading into the All-Star break.
TIMBERWOLVES 99, NUGGETS 94: At Minneapolis, Mark Blount scored 24 points, including eight in a row in the final 2:30, to lift Minnesota over Denver.
HORNETS 110, KINGS 93: At Oklahoma City, Desmond Mason scored 18 points and David West had 16 to lead New Orleans Hornets. Mason scored 10 points and West had 12 during the opening half when New Orleans used a late surge to take control.
WARRIORS 120, KNICKS 101: At Oakland, Stephen Jackson scored 21 of his season high-tying 36 points in a fantastic first half, and the Warriors blew most of a 31-point lead before holding off New York.
SUPERSONICS 114, SUNS 90: At Seattle, Ray Allen scored 31 points and the SuperSonics handed injury-depleted Phoenix its worst loss of the season.
HAWKS 96, CLIPPERS 93: At Los Angeles, Joe Johnson scored 27 points to lead Atlanta past L.A.