Reformation project

WASHINGTON - For much of last night, the Celtics [team stats] were looking like the health-care reform bill - a good idea on paper months ago at the start, but barely recognizable in the present form.

Finally, however, the Celtics had a fourth-quarter flashback and realized what they were in the nation’s capital to do (fill in your own line about our elected officials). Playing best when it mattered most, the Celts put the Wizards in a vise and squeezed out a 99-88 victory.

“Tonight’s game was much needed,” said Kevin Garnett, who provided a team-high 19 points. “Damn near do-or-die, if you want.”

The Celtics were coming off losses to Orlando, Atlanta and the Lakers, and their followers have been doing swan dives off the bandwagon. Last night, they were able to exhale.

“When you lose three, you need any kind of win you can get,” said captain Paul Pierce [stats], who sat out the last quarter with a sprained left foot.

Said Ray Allen: “When you lose a couple in a row, the next time you win is definitely a relief. It’s exorcising demons definitely for us. You get back to that feeling of winning and finishing out fourth quarters and doing some of the things that you want to do down the stretch.”

The Celtics had fallen into a problematic pattern, getting outscored in the fourth quarter 11 times in 14 January games.

Trailing by four entering the final period last night, the Celts held the Wizards to 10 points on 2-for-18 shooting (11.1 percent) the rest of the way. The visitors made half their shots and gave the ball away just once.

“Honestly that’s what we haven’t done,” coach Doc Rivers said. “Our offense has been sketchy in the fourth and our defense has been worse. Today I thought both things came through for us. I told our guys with five minutes left. I said, ‘OK, if we don’t score again, we’ve got to win the game. Let’s just lean on our defense.’ I didn’t literally mean that, but I thought they had to focus on the defensive end.”

The focus was evident all through the lineup. Allen and Rajon Rondo [stats] put up 17 points apiece, and Rasheed Wallace and Tony Allen came off the bench for 14 and 10 points, respectively. Tony Allen switched onto Caron Butler in the last quarter and delivered the kind of defensive performance that had the Celts thinking it was all right to let James Posey walk before last season.

“(Tony Allen’s) defense was terrific, and we really needed it obviously,” Rivers said.

Glen Davis got into the act in the fourth. Davis fed Tony Allen for a dunk two minutes in to break the scoring ice and, after Wallace followed two Nick Young free throws with a jumper, found Ray Allen for an open 3-pointer that gave the C’s their first lead since early in the second.

The defense held the Wizards without a field goal for the game’s last 3:43 (0-for-5 shooting with two turnovers), while the offense produced 12 of the game’s last 14 points.

After four games in five days, the Celtics went home happy. Sort of.

“Looking back on the three losses,” said Rivers, “three of them came down to a couple of possessions. You know, you have a couple of (successful) possessions and we’re probably 3-1 in these last four. Instead we’re 1-3 and the sky’s falling - and it really isn’t.”