Jefferson vows to rebound from defeat
Al Jefferson held the fate of the Celtics in his hands for much of the final quarter of a 96-95 loss to Golden State last night. Jefferson's free throw inaccuracy was costly, but his inside moves and rebounding in crunch time kept the Celtics in contention.
In the final 6 minutes 16 seconds, Jefferson scored 6 points and was 2 for 6 at the foul line. Jefferson's offensive rebound led to Delonte West's 3-pointer, which cut the Celtics' deficit to 94-93 with 1:46 remaining; his follow off a Paul Pierce miss established the final score with 48 seconds to go; and his defensive rebound led to the Celtics' final possession, squandered as Pierce failed to launch a shot.
But Jefferson also missed twice from the foul line with a chance to cut the deficit to a point in an 80-second span, his free throw pulling them to 87-84 with 4:56 to play. And Jefferson also missed two shots after drawing Baron Davis's fifth personal foul with the Celtics trailing, 92-86, with 3:35 left.
"I am not going to back down," Jefferson said of his aggressive late play. "I know I can score and make free throws. We lost by 1 and I am not going to run away from it; they tell me to be more focused at the line. But you've got to start the game focused. Nobody is perfect and you are going to make mistakes, but what I did was make the same mistakes over and over.
"It was a big disappointment and I feel like I let the team down. We got comfortable and we thought they were going to give us the game. We've got to be focused."
Coach Doc Rivers benched Jefferson in the first half in an attempt to motivate him.
"I subbed him 100 different times to try to send that message," Rivers said. "I thought Leon [Powe] came in and gave us some great energy and actually made things happen for us. But you can't rest on your laurels in this league. Everything you've done up until this second is now in the past and you've just got to keep playing. But Al is going to do that.
"Al has been playing great. And I thought he tried to shake it off and I thought he did. He didn't come on purpose not to play defense. So I can live with it because he's young and he's just going to keep getting better. And I was proud of him down the stretch. He struggled on the line but he still wanted the ball. A lot of guys in our league, if they miss a couple free throws they don't want the ball in the post anymore. Al was still right down there begging for the ball and we were getting it to him."
The Warriors took control late in the first half with the low-post prowess of Andris Biedrins, Ike Diogu, and Mike Dunleavy. That opened things up for Davis as the Warriors went on a 16-4 run late in the half.
"He was bringing me back to reality," Jefferson said of Rivers. "He told me to step it up when he sent me back in the game. But it was not like I didn't know what was going on, it was just a lack of focus in the first half. That's why I respect [Rivers], he's a great coach to be able to handle this team.
"We proved to ourselves that when we play like we can play, we will always be in the game. It was a tough call at the end but we should have played better in the first half, especially myself."
Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com. 
