Raja Bell’s jumper puts Utah over the top.

BOSTON (AP) – Raja Bell didn’t need to be reminded that he hadn’t hit a shot all night. It didn’t stop him from making the biggest one of the game.

Bell’s jumper as the shot clock expired with 26.8 seconds left put Utah ahead for good, and the Jazz defeated the Boston Celtics 99-96 Friday night.

“Shooters keep shooting,” said Bell, who was 0-for-6 before hitting the last two shots of the game. “I had a rough night, but I’ll take it. It’s better than nothing.” The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Jazz, who won for only the third time in 12 road games.

“We kind of lost our composure,” Bell said.

“That happens sometimes, but we have to get better at that.” DeShawn Stevenson scored 22 points and Matt Harpring had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Jazz, who led by as many as 18 in the third quarter.

Andrei Kirilenko added 18 points, seven blocks, six assists and six rebounds.

“I said before the game that I thought our defense was really very poor and we started out the game (with) very, very poor defense,” Celtics coach Jim O’Brien said. “It was not acceptable.”

The Celtics, winners of six of their previous eight, took a 96-95 lead with 1:59 remaining on Jiri Welsch’s jumper.

“We’ve been in most of the ballgames and, in those situations, we’ve had the same thing happen where we’ve let teams come back on us and we look like we panic a little bit,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said.

“If we just stay with it, play hard, and try to the right things, we’ll be all right.”

Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 19 points and eight assists. Welsch and Walter McCarty each scored 14 and Marcus Banks added 12 points for the Celtics, who have not swept a season series from the Jazz since 1987-88 – the year Larry Bird made his last appearance on the All-NBA first team.

Ricky Davis and Chris Mihm, in their second game with the Celtics since Monday’s trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers, scored eight and nine points, respectively.

Notes: Stevenson had 16 points in the first quarter. … The Celtics are 4-1 in games in which Welsch scores in double figures.

AP-ES-12-19-03 2259EST