Eddie House Proves His Worth As Boston’s Best Clutch Scorer

They always seem to start innocently enough. On Friday against New Jersey, it was a 17-footer that began Eddie House's latest late-game hot streak.

By the time they are over, however, we are reminded again of who may be the Celtics' best clutch scorer.

House scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter of the 96-87 win over the Nets, continuing a trend he has carried for much of the season.

At times, House helps to put the nails in the coffin. Other times, he saves the C's from disaster.

The latter was the case Friday.

"Obviously, Eddie making shots bailed us out," Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said after the game.

Facing a dismal Nets bunch on pace to lose more games than any other team in NBA history, Boston actually trailed by a point entering the fourth quarter. House started the scoring with that bank shot and, after a basket put New Jersey back up for the final time, drilled his first three-pointer to put the Celtics ahead to stay.

For good measure, House hit another from the arc to make it 82-77 and finished his flurry with a 21-footer that put the hosts up seven points midway through the fourth.

Although he pretended at first to call every shot a big one, House knows they mean a bit more with the game on the line.

"You get looks in the fourth or get them in the first. I try to make all of my shots," House said. "But when you get shots in the fourth, you really want to make them."

The numbers show that he has.

Over the last four games in which House has scored, 27 of his 45 points have come in the final quarter. In a season-high 22-point performance against Chicago earlier this season, he scored 15 in the last 12 minutes to bury the Bulls. Against Philadelphia one month later, seven of 13 points were scored in the fourth, including the last two of a 113-110 victory.

With Paul Pierce sidelined and Ray Allen logging a ton of minutes, Rivers is pleased to have a fourth-quarter guy off the bench; on Friday, House was the only player on the court to play the game's final 12 minutes.

"I was bound and determined to try to get Ray to 33 minutes, in that area, and it was murder at one point because we couldn't make shots in that one stretch," Rivers said. "I knew if we put Ray on the floor with Eddie, it would open the floor up, but Ray had already played his allotment for me. … When [Allen] came in, it was big for us. I thought he made shots because he had better legs."

Allen had better legs, and House, who was 0-of-4 from the floor entering the fourth, had better looks. As has been the case in 2009-10, he has known what to do with them.