I was in my car for the final moments of Saturday's Game 3 between the Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards, but one text message told me everything I was missing.

Paul Pierce stepback elbow jumper

I knew immediately that 37-year-old Pierce had just sunk the Hawks with his trademark late-game move, though my friend had clearly undersold the sequence by failing to note that Pierce banked the shot over three Atlanta defenders while saving the Wizards from blowing a 21-point lead.

When Pierce bellowed, "I called game!" after being asked in an on-court interview whether he called glass on the winner, my phone blew up again. My friends are NBA fans but, more specifically, they are Boston Celtics fans after growing up here and they have thoroughly enjoyed Pierce's postseason exploits with the Wizards.

To fans here, Pierce will always be a Celtic. In a way, there's this feeling that he's simply on loan to the Wizards, a hired hand while Boston navigates its rebuilding process (which Pierce aided by fetching a ransom from the Brooklyn Nets two years ago).

We noted earlier this week how, with Boston bowing early in the playoffs, most Celtics fans had hopped on the Wizards bandwagon. Watching Pierce turn back the clocks while trash-talking the Raptors during a first-round sweep made that decision easy for most Boston fans.

Now Pierce has helped the Wizards take a 2-1 series lead over the top-seeded Hawks despite currently playing without star guard John Wall (hand). Celtics fans flocked to social media to celebrate Pierce's heroics and the hashtag "#icalledgame" quickly trended in Boston.

Of course it did. Pierce still belongs to Boston. Regardless of his laundry, he's still one of ours.

Which is a rare thing nowadays. Boston's four major sports teams have won nine total championships over the past 13 years, so Boston fans don't tend to get too sentimental just because an old friend is enjoying some playoff success. Things have certainly changed since Ray Bourque got a parade for winning the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001.

Pierce might be one of the few guys left in Boston sports who could get a hero's welcome for bringing back a title trophy from another team (and let's not get too far ahead of ourselves considering the Wizards still face an uphill climb in these playoffs, particularly will Wall sidelined).

Celtics fans will simply savor watching vintage Pierce. Even with more than 50,000 minutes on his NBA odometer, Pierce is playing with the confidence of a player half his age. He's found a Fountain of Truth on the court, and has backed up everything he has said.

Celtics fans will keep daydreaming about Pierce finishing out his career in green, even if he's clearly got a good thing going down there in Washington. Boston's young roster needed a veteran presence in falling to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in round 1.

Near the end of his 15 seasons in Boston, Pierce struggled to consistently convert in late-game isolation situations. When Celtics fans texted, "Paul Pierce stepback elbow jumper" during his final year here, it was usually a jab about Boston's lack of late-game creativity and the play's lack of success.

But the play worked Saturday for Pierce and the Wizards. Four hundred and thirty-five miles away, an entire fan base cheered along with Washington fans.