With only a week to go in the regular season, games mean more to some teams than others. The Boston Celtics long ago wrapped up the Atlantic Division and the first seed in the Eastern Conference while the Washington Wizards are making a final push for the fourth seed and home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. As a result, last night's 109-95 win over Boston can't exactly be taken as gospel, but was impressive nonetheless.

Before the game, Wizards hypeman "Styles" asked the crowd if they were ready for some playoff basketball. And while the reserved Verizon Center crowd didn't exactly answer in the affirmative, the Wizards did. The team pressured the Celtics all night, causing bad offensive spacing and a stagnant Boston offense that eschewed ball movement for a lot of one on one play. The Celtics also had no answer for Antawn Jamison in his first game back since injuring his shoulder last week. Jamsion did his damage from all over the court, taking Kevin Garnett outside and shooting over him or rolling inside and attacking the rim when matched up with Celtics center Kendrick Perkins. Jamison finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds, including one highlight reel dunk, in one of his finest performances of the season.

The Wizards controlled the game's flow and tempo for much of the 48 minutes, building up a 17 point lead early in the second quarter before Boston made a run to shortly retake the lead. The Celtics went into halftime down by two. Paul Pierce led the Celtics in the first half, scoring 18 points, including four three pointers. The Wizards built their lead up to 17 again in the third before another three from Pierce made the score 101-95 with 2:31 to play. But it was not to be for Boston, as Jamison and DeShawn Stevenson combined to score the games final eight points, giving the Wizards the win and the season series against the best team in the NBA.

"We didn't play with much intensity, but, honestly, I understand that," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said after the game. "This is the game I wanted to use minutes with the starters, and I probably will do it one more time. After that, we are just getting ready for the playoffs."

That's all well and good, but make no mistake, this was a big win for the Wizards heading into a very winnable first round rematch with LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The winner of that series would likely play the Celtics in the second round. "They play great against us, no doubt about it," Rivers said. "If they were to go against us in the playoff they should have great confidence." It appears the players are thinking this way too.

"I think if the matchup was to occur as far as meeting them in the second round or whatever, it gives us the confidence to know that we can match up with them," said Jamison. "We're taking their best shot."

Pierce wasn't letting the loss get to him though. "I still feel that we're the better team," he said. "Maybe we can see them in the playoffs, who knows, and go from there."

First things first for the Wizards, however. They have four games left and trail the Cavs by two games for the fourth spot in the East. Washington travels to Detroit on Friday, hosts the Sixers on Saturday and hosts Indiana on Monday before ending the regular season in Orlando next Wednesday.