Remember when Pierce was the "man" in the fourth..

[campybatman]

I remember when Pierce was Mister Fourth Quarter and was clutch in crunch time. He consistently got to the foul line and scored a lot in the last quarter of games. Those times are gone or no longer necessary from Paul I reckon. Not with the team having two more All-Stars you can say. Still, I'm sure Pierce enjoys that he doesn't always have to carry his teammates to a possible victory, again, those days are no more.

He is the league's top scorer in the fourth quarter, the new Mr. Clutch.

"They continue to criticize me for my outside shooting, but I continue to make outside shots," he said. "Part of the reason I'm leading the league in fourth-quarter scoring is my outside shots. If teams continue to allow me to shoot it, I'm going to take it."

With James on a career-high pace for assists, the word "unselfish," has popped up more frequently in the conversation.

"He's an exceptional talent. He's extremely gifted. He appears to be a great teammate, a great player that people like playing with," Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. "Those players ... only come along every 15 or 20 years."

Said James: "A team can't work when a guy puts himself in front of a team. I have yet to be on a team like that."

Yet James remains not just the first scoring option but sometimes also the second and third. He is forced to do it alone at times. Or he takes it upon himself. The Cavaliers are still adjusting to the addition of West, center Ben Wallace and reserves Joe Smith and Wally Szczerbiak in an 11-player, three-team trade Feb. 21 in return for Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden, among others.

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... e=nextpage

[AWalkerREMIX]

Remember when fourth quarters mattered for us? It's been a while. Pierce still comes up clutch when we need him...except these days, it's usually in the 3rd quarter when we need to blow people out.

[ParticleMan]

I never thought Pierce was all that great in the 4th quarter compared to any other quarter. It's just that for a long time he's the only guy we had to take the big shots, so he made some clutch ones but also missed a lot of clutch ones. That's what Bron is facing now. It's great for the ego, but crappy if you're itnerested in actually winning games. leading hte league in 4th quarter scoring doesn't make you clutch, it just means your teammates suck compared to you.

[SonicYouth34]

He still is good, when he takes it to the basket or posts up. He's bad when he's chucking 30 foot fade aways

[nightstarstolen]

Pierce is great at taking contact.. That was his bread and butter.

End of story. His slashing will be key in play offs.