Wizards’ Paul Pierce returns to Toronto as public enemy No. 1

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The first playoff series victory for the Toronto Raptors since 2001 stood just beyond that basket in the final second of Game 7, if only it would fall. Instead, Paul Pierce stood in the lane, his arms raised like a fortress, and Kyle Lowry's desperate shot bounced right off of him. Toronto's season was over.

A devastated Lowry fell to the floor, his face in his hands, and was consoled by backcourt mate DeMar DeRozan. The ostentatious Pierce bounded across Toronto's Air Canada Centre floor, pumping his fists in celebration for a series win by the Brooklyn Nets.

Fast forward one year, and the NBA playoffs begin in Toronto on Saturday, along with a shot for the Raptors to exorcise that Round 1 exit. Fittingly, they immediately face Pierce again, but he's no longer a Net. The 37-year-old future Hall of Famer won't be the best player in the opening-round series between the fourth-seeded Raptors and fifth-seeded Washington Wizards, but the brazen veteran of 148 playoff games is once again cast as its No. 1 villain.

The outspoken 10-time NBA all-star nicknamed The Truth made his mark on that series a year ago. There was his remarkable fourth-quarter scoring push to help win Game 1, after which he tossed his headband up to booing Raptor fans as he ran out the tunnel. He griped about a Toronto paper calling him a "dinosaur" and schooled the media on what it's like to possess that certain clutch ability needed to be a big-time performer in the playoffs. This week, before the series has even begun, Pierce injected it with some electricity by saying of the Raptors: "I don't feel they have the 'It' that makes you worried."

Lowry's reaction to that was an abrupt "Yes, we do."

DeRozan said when he was growing up in California, he watched Pierce play in college and the pros, admiring a guy whom, like him, was from the L.A. area. But the high regard hasn't blinded DeRozan to Pierce's gamesmanship.

"I have the utmost respect for him and it's cool to now be competing against him," DeRozan said. "He's got you guys asking me questions about him, so obviously he's doing something right."

Pierce has averaged 20.3 points a game during his 11 trips to the postseason (although last year's 13.7 for Brooklyn was his lowest). His career may be winding down, but his lengthy list of memorable playoff moments lives on in lore, from a 41-point game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2008 Eastern Conference final, or the massive late-game comeback versus the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA final, the very year the long-time Celtic won a championship.

"Paul Pierce is a future Hall of Famer and has a great reputation in this league for what he's done on the court," Raptor Lou Williams said. "He's been able to evolve over the years and change his game, but I'll leave the talking to him."

He's put fear into many an opposing fan base with three-point daggers, step-back jumpers and that slow, change-of-pace style that has kept him scoring as he's aged.

Pierce played an average of 26.2 minutes a night for the Wizards this season after leaving what he told ESPN was a "horrible" single season in Brooklyn. He averaged 11.9 points a game, the lowest of his career so far, but has been a mentor of sorts to young Washington stars John Wall and Bradley Beal.

"He's still a very capable player, he can put the ball on the floor, he's big, smart, still can shoot the three, still has a lethal pump fake, he can get to the free throw line, so it's all there," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "He's still Paul Pierce, a Hall of Fame player."

A 2011 study by Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research named Pierce among the top 10 most disliked players in the NBA.

During a recent Wizards Easter visit to the White House, even Barack Obama wanted to taunt Pierce, playfully getting up in the face of the 6-foot-7 NBA veteran, when the U.S. President and some kids bested him in a shooting contest.

Casey shrugs off Pierce's remarks about the Raptors this week.

"His comments this week were very calculated, I'm sure," Casey said. "That's why you don't fall for that. He's no fool, he understands exactly what he's saying, how he's saying it, and he's a good guy. That's what a leader should do; try to get under your skin."