Greene rewards coach's confidence

He is listed on the Celtics roster as a 6-foot-4-inch guard, but Orien Greene wound up looming large in the final minute of last night's 109-106 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.

Greene scored all 6 of his points in the fourth quarter to help the Celtics stave off an undersized but spirited Bobcat squad that took 100 shots (and made 40), forced 23 Boston turnovers (16 steals), and rallied from a 16-point deficit in the third quarter to tie it at the start of the fourth (81-81).

The rookie from Louisiana-Lafayette logged 9 minutes 39 seconds of action but found himself on the floor for the game's final 7:13 and seemingly made every second count.

''I'm basically waiting on my name to get called, my number to get called, and just go out there and help the team win," said Greene, who also had two rebounds and one assist to his point total.

Greene tied the game at 92 with 6:23 to go when he stroked a 19-foot jumper, then took a fearless run at the basket -- on a play where he was supposed to penetrate and kick it out to Paul Pierce on the perimeter -- to break a 102-102 tie with 57.5 seconds left, and provided the Celtics with an important buffer when he went to the foul line (courtesy of Primoz Brezec's third personal) and calmly sank both free throws to give the Celtics a 108-104 lead with 17.3 seconds to go.

''Orien was huge -- huge," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. ''I mean, down the stretch. The layup was the biggest play, to me. Obviously, making the two free throws as well. You know, he just came in and he wasn't scared to play."

Especially when the game was on the line.

''I mean, he was big," said Pierce, who led the Celtics with 31 points on 11-for-17 shooting. ''He played good solid defense down the stretch, got us a big-time layup."

Pierce might have wound up with as many as 34 points if Greene didn't show the gumption to take the opening that was presented to him when he drove the basket hard and spied a seam in Charlotte's defense.

''That play was for him to come off and throw it back to Paul," Rivers said. ''But [Greene] saw the opening and he took it."

Said Pierce, ''We had a play called. Usually down the stretch you want to set something up. But the guy came up playing with confidence and he got the job done. My hat's off to him."

''If he had messed it up, I would've yelled at him," said Rivers with a laugh. ''But it was a great play by him. He's not scared, and that was nice to see."

Said Greene, ''When I came off the pick, they were expecting me to pass it back or look for the guy to roll and not looking for me to be as aggressive to the basket. That's what I've been trying to work on. So I just took it to the basket."

Rivers, though, seemed at a temporary loss after last night's victory when he was asked the last time Greene played such significant minutes at the end of a game.

''I don't know," he said. ''There was a stretch where he was playing, probably before Marcus [Banks] came back [from a fractured left tibia that forced him to miss the first 21 games]. Once Marcus came back, he kind of took some of [Greene's] minutes."

But when Banks struggled last night, Greene made the most of his playing time to make a strong case for himself.

''I just thought he had confidence in me to know how make the right plays, which would help me build my confidence," Greene said.