BOSTON -- What was that Paul Pierce was saying about how the New Jersey Nets can't stop him?

	Paul Pierce went scoreless in the fourth quarter of the Celtics' Game 5 loss.

The Nets have not only stopped Pierce dead in his tracks in the Eastern Conference finals, they've stopped all of his Boston Celtics teammates in taking a 3-2 lead, with a chance to clinch their first ever NBA Finals berth with a win in Game 6 tonight at the FleetCenter.

Before the series started, Pierce boasted that New Jersey was like 27 other teams. They were wasting their time trying to stop him. "I believe no one person can guard me,'' he said.

In the regular season, he spoke the truth, averaging 37 points in the four games against the Nets. But in the first five games of this series, his scoring average is way down (25.6 points per game); his field-goal percentage has taken a nose-dive, from 45 percent in the regular season to 37 percent in the series; and his 3-point shooting has been like night and day. After making a ridiculous 21 of 28 (75 percent) in the regular season, Pierce is back down to mere mortal status, making only six of 31 (19 percent) for the series.

Yup, Pierce has changed his tune just a little the past dozen days, as the Nets have held him to games of 27, 18, 28, 31 and 24 points.

"When you average 37 points against somebody during the regular season, you'd think the team would have common sense enough to figure out how to stop you,'' he said after Game 5, when he failed to score in the fourth quarter and made only five of 13 shots. "They're changing up their defense, throwing two or three guys at me when I drive. But I think I'm getting my looks.''

The look Pierce had at the end of Game 4 -- wide-open shots while standing at the foul line -- had nothing to do with the Nets' defense. His miss of the first of two free throws with 1.1 seconds left prevented the Celtics from going into overtime and possibly taking a 3-1 series lead.

But what Pierce and the Celtics have seen all series long is one of the most underrated defenses in the entire league. Led by Jason Kidd, an all-defense first-teamer, they've stymied the Celtics.

True, the Celtics have had great looks. They just haven't knocked them down. Among their main scorers, get a load of these woeful shooting percentages: Antoine Walker, 39 percent; Kenny Anderson, 36 percent. Tony Delk has made 31 percent and Eric Williams 36 percent. Only Rodney Rogers has shot well (48 percent) off the bench. As a team the Celtics are shooting only 37.8 percent in the series.

The most notable difference between the regular season, when the Celtics won three of the four games, and now is Boston's 3-point shooting. The Celts made 46 percent (43 of 93) in the regular season but hit only 28 percent (34 of 120) in the first five games.

"Our defense has keyed us the whole season,'' Kidd said. "That's how we've been able to get out and get our running game going.''

They've been sprinting right past the Celtics from the opening jump ball for most of the series. It has been more pronounced than ever in the last three games, two of which the Nets won and a third when they blew a record 21-point lead to start the fourth quarter.

In the last three opening quarters, the Celtics have made only 13 of 60 shots (22 percent), have committed 12 turnovers and have been outscored by the deceiving margin of 90-47. Deceiving because it seems like way more. In Game 3, the Nets held a 15-point lead after one period. In Game 4, it was Jersey by 13. In Game 5, the Nets were ahead by 15.

"We know where we're hurting ourselves?,'' said Pierce, who failed to score in the fourth quarter of Game 5 after his team had cut the lead to only one. "We're letting them get out to fast starts. We continue to talk about it, but we're not doing anything about it.''

Here's what the Celtics have been doing from the start: Jacking up perimeter shots. By refusing to attack the basket and settling for jumpers, it plays right into Kidd's hands. Besides not getting to the foul line and getting few offensive rebounds, the Celtics have been getting killed on transition defense. New Jersey has smartly converted all those missed shots and long rebounds into chances to run.

	“	We've been limiting them to one shot and getting our running game going in key spots. Our defense triggers what we want to do. ”
		— Byron Scott

"We've been limiting them to one shot and getting our running game going in key spots,'' said Byron Scott, after his team's decisive 20-1 run in the fourth quarter on Wednesday. "Our defense triggers what we want to do.''

Even when the Celtics have crawled back, they have not been able to prevent the Nets from scoring, almost at will, in the opening quarters. In the last three, the Nets are shooting 54 percent (37 for 69).

Yes, the games in this series have a familiar ring to them. The Celtics always storm back in the fourth quarter. But that's also when the Nets have turned up their defensive intensity.

Their strategy of getting the ball out of Pierce's hands with aggressive double-teams, along with employing some zone defenses to force Boston to shoot from the perimeter, has been critical to their success. The Nets would rather have anyone else shoot the ball than Pierce.

So far, no one on Boston has stepped up on a consistent basis to make the Nets pay for their strategy.

"We wanted to force him into being a playmaker,'' Scott said of Pierce. "We know that's something he's not used to doing. We know he wants to score. We're doing better at not letting him beat us off the first dribble, before our double-teams arrive, like he did in Game 3.''

In Game 3, Pierce put up 19 fourth-quarter points to spearhead the Celtics' historic comeback. That was the night the Nets couldn't stop him.

So far, the only one.

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.