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Watching PP play in these last two games has really been painful. It seems like he just doesn`t have the energy. He looks tired, slow, lethargic...

I was worried about his minutes in the regular season when he averaged 40+ over a month after KG went down and it looks like it is catching up to him. My biggest concern coming into the playoffs (besides the KG injury, of course) was if Paul would be fresh enough to carry us like he did last year. And after the first two games it doesn`t look good.

The fact that he had to defend the best opposing players pretty much the whole season and now has to contain Salmons in the first round is taking its toll on his offensive game. He is making stupid turnovers, can`t seem to dominate one on one situations when defended by smaller guy and just doesn`t run back after a lost ball...

Now, I am not blaming Pierce for his struggles I am just mad that Doc overplayed him in the regular season.

Knowing Paul, he will bounce back and dominate again but I am worried about his physical condition and how he has looked thus far in the post season...

I doubt he is.....

Could he be dismotivated with KG out?

Yes, we need to trust and play our bench more. Doc doesn't show any confidence in his bench and that is why they play shaky. That is my one complaint about Doc is that he is scared to go to his bench and always plays Ray and Paul big minutes. I mean I guess I can't blame him that he's winning games i'm just worried that over the long haul it will get to our starters like it appears to be getting to Paul now.

I must say that Ray's conditioning is unbelievable. That man really takes care of his body. wow.

Hasn't anyone learned from the past? Every time we count one of our stars out, they come back. Stop trying to figure these players out. They can be "off" sometimes. I think we are so spoiled throughout the season, we look for exact answers to unanswerable questions because we don't like what we see. These guys are world class athletes. Pierce is fine and he will be there in the end.

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"What have you done for me, lately?" "Better than that, what have you done for me in last 5 minutes?" LOL.

Canman hit the nail right on the head as usual. Our future HOFer (who has won innumerable games for us and who had an excellent year in 08-09), and who is projected for all NBA first or second team, has indeed appeared sluggish during Games 1 and 2 during crunch time. I personally think that he is tired from the excessive minutes required of him since KG went down. Do not doubt the heart of a champion, especially one of the best players in the NBA. The Truth will be back very shortly, and carry us into the ECF finals.

GO GREEN.

I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't stand reading the game-thread last night. I understand many of you are just reactionary, but calling pierce a "**** loser" is ridiculous. All what he has done for this team, this city. Even if he disappears for the rest of the series, he doesn't deserve to be called a "**** loser."

He'll pick it up next game. Don't count him out. Someone on the GB made an interesting point. 1st game it was rondo/rose. Second game it was Gordon/Allen. 3rd game will be pierce/salmons.

He's either tired or there's an injury we don't know about. Paul looks really slow out there. He was blocked at least 3 times last night shooting jumpers. When does that ever happen? I'm not saying he's washed up for the playoffs but we haven't seen him at his peak performance yet this series. Here's hoping he gets out of his slump quick.

Perhaps he is depressed about losing KG. I know I am.

Like I said in the opening post, this isn`t a "blame PP" thread, it is more about the importance of managing playing time in the regular season. I have said many times during the last 2 months that I am worried about PP averaging 40+ minutes at his age and it looks like all the minutes are catching up to him now.

I think everybody expects Paul to bounce back after 2 disappointing games but he doesn`t look nearly as fresh as he did last post season. To an extent that is understandable but I feel Doc should have done a better job after KG went down...

Besides every time a "negative" thread is made on this board about a celtic player it seems like he has a huge game after it. So let`s hope it is the same with this one! The magical powers of realgm...

He just lost his legs in the 4th quarter but he also seemed to be forcing shots. I don't mean in the usual sense of taking the shot or passing the ball he seemed to panic a little and lost his patience. He was just going right up with it, a little off balance trying to beat the double team like he was 24 again. I think he was having a problem picking up were the weak side shot blocking was coming from so it was taking away his pump fake and wasn;'t going to school on the young Bulls defenders. I don't think he is going to be real happy about the game tape.

But I don't think he is burned out in the sense of accumulated mins he is just tired because Doc rode his starters because he had to win the game, PP needs to pace himself offensively a little bit better. His defensive effort was pretty flawless though.

There is nothing Doc can do the bench is awful, aside from rolling the dice on Bill Walker or Scal coming back and even then he hasn't played in forever and he is Scal. I don't know why he doesn't at least test drive TA who has shown the ability to step up in big spots even if totally inconsistent.

My guess rides them in Game 3 just the same and if they can get the win maybe try and mix in the bench for Game 4.

Paul is just getting older. He looks like Larry Bird in the final 2 minutes of game 5 1987 finals when the cracks first started to show on the biggest stage. Time catches up to everybody. He'll bounce back and have some great games.... but the days of him bringing it every night at the highest level are probably over.

canman1971 wrote:Hasn't anyone learned from the past? Every time we count one of our stars out, they come back. Stop trying to figure these players out. They can be "off" sometimes. I think we are so spoiled throughout the season, we look for exact answers to unanswerable questions because we don't like what we see. These guys are world class athletes. Pierce is fine and he will be there in the end.

I agree 100%. Another thing that caught my attention was Doc saying in the post game that they had game planned for Pierce to expect the double team, and the doubles didn't come and it looked like Paul was waiting for them. The whole team looked lost when Paul had the ball outside of the paint, including him, and he ended up forcing quite a bit with the shot-clock getting a little short. They only seemed to double him in the paint, and then the ball started to move. My guess is that the C's expected a ton of focus on Paul and planned on using him as a decoy more to get the Bulls D rotating and it didn't work out all that well. He did rebound well and defend well so I think it's more of an issue of being out of sync than being tired, hopefully Superman shows up Thursday and puts all this to rest.