Celtics need safety Nets

The Celtics [team stats] silently walked off the floor and took a right turn down the hallway to their locker room last night.

No hoots, no jokes, no outward breaths. They just had won their third straight game, but in truth, there wasn’t any numerical significance to this one.

With defense again a stranger until late and the starters in need of a transfusion from the bench, the Celtics waffled through three mediocre quarters before finally pulling away with a 96-87 win against New Jersey at the Garden.

That’s New Jersey - a 4-45 team free-falling toward the worst record in NBA history.

If not for a late Eddie House wake-up call, the Celts likely would have become only the Nets’ second victim since Dec. 30.

But with House, Glen Davis and Rasheed Wallace coming off the bench to combine for 30 points - and also locking down defensively in a manner that seemed to elude the starters - the Celtics finally rediscovered themselves.

“Lackluster,” Wallace said of last night’s defensive effort. “We didn’t pick it up probably until the six- or seven-(minute) mark in the fourth. But what my high school coach once said was true - winners find a way to win. We dug it out, they kept it close the whole game, and we just pulled it out in the last minute.”

That, right now, is the problem.

A Celtics opponent shot better than 60 percent in the first half for the second straight game, but this time that opponent didn’t have Miami star Dwyane Wade.

Instead, players like Brook Lopez (19 points) and Devin Harris (17) made the biggest threats.

The Nets, despite the supposed drop in frontcourt talent, outscored the Celtics in the paint, 34-32.

House gave the Celtics the necessary range to pull away from Miami in the fourth quarter Wednesday night, and he awakened at precisely the same time against the Nets.

He turned in his biggest game of the season with a 10-point fourth quarter that included two 3-pointers.

Ray Allen, with a game-high 26 points, simply kept matters even until the C’s started making stops in the fourth.

“We just didn’t play well in the first half,” coach Doc Rivers said. “It was a game where we just thought we could outscore them. And we have those games. But all of a sudden with about four minutes left in the second quarter, we missed a lot of open shots. And they kept making shots because we weren’t defending.

“I didn’t say much at halftime. I just said, ‘I don’t think I need to talk. We’re a defensive team, and tonight we want to outscore them.’ And I said, ‘Good luck.’ ”

The reserves, at least, paid attention.

House opened the fourth quarter with his first basket of the game and then drained a 3. In the next 5:48, he followed with two more jumpers, including another trey.

The Nets, finally knocked back on their heels, drew brief life from a Courtney Lee 3. But back-to-back hoops from Kendrick Perkins [stats] and Allen - the latter’s trey gave the C’s a 93-84 lead with two minutes left - finally gave the hosts a cushion.

But there were still inexplicable mistakes, including a shot clock violation, an eight-second violation on Rajon Rondo [stats] and an offensive foul on House while attempting to run down the clock in the last two minutes.

“Our defensive energy picked up,” Rivers said. “That’s why we won the game.”