RealGM

Not much to say.

Despite Pierce's 38 points, it bothered early in the game, when the team couldn't establish a rhythm, that Pierce didn't pass to an open Ray Allen (twice) but tried to force a shot thru a double or triple team and also lost the ball due to a turnover.

At the time, I thought Pierce was not giving Ray the ball so early in the game because he was trying to win MVP. Anyway, I said Pierce is being selfish.

Other than that, the two biggest plays that affected the outcome, I thought, were the phantom first and third fouls on Kevin Garnett. The third one, when he cleanly blocked Gasol, shut him down for the half, but the first one made him go to the bench after he picked up the second.

Garnett was on in the first half, so those two phantom fouls altered the outcome of the game.

I also thought that the Celtic offense was not running smoothly at the start of the game, but when Pierce declined to pass the ball twice to an open Ray Allen, and instead forced one and lost it the other time, I had a really bad feeling that team ball wasn't gonna happen tonight. And it didn't.

I think Pierce was stellar. The problem in the first quarter is the spacing. PP probably didn't see Ray and didn't have good passing lanes.

jfs1000d wrote:I think Pierce was stellar. The problem in the first quarter is the spacing. PP probably didn't see Ray and didn't have good passing lanes.

Pierce saw Ray wide open both times.

Ray could have just launched a 3.

That's why when Pierce kept it, I had a bad feeling about the day. Both times it was early in the first quarter.

I expect more favorable calls at home and if we actually play decent in the first qtr then we got it.

Pierce literally fell down on 3 of the first 4 possessions. Twice it was a TO, once he got a foul.

For all his great play later, in the early minutes he wasn't quite right.

But generally, I think Garnett was spooked by the fouls and afraid of being aggressive -- more in the ways that come hard to him (offense) than those that come naturally (he DID get 7 offensive rebounds), but some also in those (softening defense on Gasol when he was afraid of fouling).