BOSTON — The Jazz's 2005 draft-day trade with the Portland Trail Blazers that allowed them to land point guard Deron Williams is NBA lore.

But what many don't know — including Williams himself — is why the swap almost never happened.

And now, the rest of the story ...

According to a column by Jackie MacMullen in Friday's Boston Globe, "The (Celtics) haggled with Portland in the days leading up to the draft over a deal that would have shipped (All-Star Paul) Pierce west and landed Boston the No. 3 pick and some contracts to make it work cap-wise ... Instead, the Blazers ended up swapping the third pick to Utah for the sixth and 27th selections. The Jazz snapped up Williams (the likely choice of Danny Ainge, too, had he pulled the trigger on Pierce)."

Said Ainge, the ex-BYU star turned Celtics basketball boss, to the Globe: "We were pretty close."

Williams, meanwhile, had no clue at the time that the Celtics were trying to get him.

"I hadn't heard nothing about it," he said before the Jazz's 110-92 win Friday at Boston.

After Williams scored 32 in the victory, incidentally, the Celtics had nothing but praise for the point they nearly had.

"They got a great point guard in Deron Williams," Pierce said. "Probably one of the most underrated points in the NBA."

HE SAID IT: Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, on Utah ending Boston's 11-game home win streak: "It's very unusual that you come in here in this building and win — especially against a team like this. So it was a very good win for us. But it really doesn't mean anything until the season's over."

HE SAID IT II: Sloan, on winning a playoff atmosphere-game: "I've got a young team, and they've got to learn how to play on those conditions. That's why I was proud of the fact that they held their composure. They got knocked down a few times, but they held their composure and stayed with what we wanted to try to do. And that's something we've had some problems with in the past."

TRASH TALK: After Washington beat Cleveland on Thursday night, ex-Jazz guard DeShawn Stevenson of the Wizards told the Washington Post he considers Cavaliers star LeBron James "overrated."

Stevenson — inspired by an ex-Jazz teammate — may even have told King James as much.

"I was just trying to get up under his skin and make him think about me playing, competing and talking trash," the Jazz's 2000 first-round draft choice told Washington reporters.