I’m sure you’ve heard by now the cliché, “The truth shall set you free.” Well, The Truth (see Paul Pierce’s) did free the Washington Wizards from a near collapse against the Atlanta Hawks early Saturday evening at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

After blowing a 20 point lead with about 7 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Wizards seemed unorganized, unsure of themselves, and unable to handle the pressure down the stretch without their superstar John Wall to help save the day. However, enter the wily ole veteran Paul Pierce, who has been in the league for 17 years, and has definitely had his fair share of game winners as well as memorable moments in playoff history. He added another one to his Hall of Fame career résumé Saturday.

On the final play of the game, coach Randy Wittman called a play the team added to its offense just a day earlier where it would look to its experienced veteran in Pierce to take the final shot. Pierce received the ball towards the top of the key, took a dribble to his left, did a step back, and with three defenders around him, hit the shot off of the glass. Game over. ESPN’s Chris Broussard interviewed Pierce after the game and asked if he called bank on his game winning jumper, and Pierce responded, “I called game.” That was it. The game and the interview were over. Pierce finished the game with 13 points and 7 boards.

Yes, Pierce helped save the day for the Wizards, but Nene responded to the APB that was put out on him for the first two games of the playoff series. After only producing two points in Games 1 and 2, Nene finished Game 3 with 17 points and 7 rebounds for the Wizards, who were without John Wall for a second consecutive game, and there are reports that Wall might be out for the rest of this series and possibly the rest of the playoffs should Washington continue to advance. Bradley Beal contributed 17 points and 8 assists, Otto Porter poured in 17 points and grabbed 9 rebounds off of the bench, and Will Bynum gave the Wizards some big minutes off the bench and scored 9 points.

The Truth hurt the Hawks in the end, but the Hawks didn’t play well for most of the game. Their offense wasn’t flowing the way it did during most of the regular season. Their shots weren’t falling, and without one of their key players. Paul Millsap not at full strength with the flu, things didn’t flow cohesively for Atlanta. The knock on this team was that their wasn’t a go to superstar player that could bail them out of them trouble when needed, and it seemed that narrative reigned true again. Their bench was the catalyst for their huge fourth quarter comeback, but unfortunately, they ran out of time and had too much of a hill to climb.

It’s on to the next one for Washington, who have a 2-1 lead in this best of seven series against the number one team in the Eastern Conference. Game 4 is Monday night at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Tip time is slated for 7pm on TNT.