Is their something wrong with Pierce?

[Tricky Ricky]

He just looks awful and like he doesnt even want to be there. I was losing it after he got blocked by D ROse then didnt even try to get the ball and Rose ended up making a hussle play to get it. Is he hurt, in a slump, or just tired?

[cisco]

Pierce looks beat. He had no lift on his jumpshots, which is why he kept getting blocked. Tony Allen needs to play to give Pierce some rest and to play some defense on Gordon and Rose.

[Tricky Ricky]

Pierce looks beat. He had no lift on his jumpshots, which is why he kept getting blocked. Tony Allen needs to play to give Pierce some rest and to play some defense on Gordon and Rose.

Ya I agree, he just looks off and TA seemed to play Gordon well in game 1. Atleast PP has til Thursday to rest.

[MyInsatiableOne]

Pierce *is* tired...the team rode him (and Ray) to get the 2 seed...the extra days off between games now will be good...

[Frank Lucas]

I'm not buying the Pierce being tired excuse I just thing the lose of KG effects Paul Pierce offensive game more then anyone including Ray Allen. Without KG there is no space for Paul to go to work. The Bulls are traping him every chance they get. I think Paul has to make his more early in the offense but that is hard to do with the way Rondo is getting to the basket. But right now the Bulls are running at Paul with Big Baby or Rondo man. So it's up to those guys to make shots. What I liked about last night is that they run more plays for Ray Allen who was feeling it during the 2nd half. What I don't want to see is Paul Pierce force the action. But I'm not buying the tired thing because Pierce has rested on D so far this series and that because he is covering John Salmon who is playing hurt.

[DieselCeltic]

Paul will be fine.

[Red2]

Pierce has done this his whole career. ie have some great games followed by games where he just drifts. It's one of the reasons why as great a player as he can be , he will never in my opinion be as great as Larry Bird who brought it EVERY night. Pierce is a warrior and when he has it going there's no one I would rather have on my team but it's games like last night and Sunday that make you wonder what the hell is going on in his mind. I think he will bounce back but he sure looked meek and resigned to losing. Not getting back on D for several plays that were shown on national TV was embarrassing. He undoubtedly is tired so I sympathize there but that doesn';t explain the weak first halves he's played in the last 2 games.

[Bad-Thoma]

I think Clark Kent is going to step into the phone booth pretty soon, but so far he's looking like he had a kryptonite cocktail. Pierce has been driving me crazy dribbling until the shot clock is down to about 10 sec before starting the play, but Doc mentioned in the post game that the plan for Paul centered around working off the double team, and the doubles didn't come for the most part. It would expain why the team looked so damned confused when PP had the ball in his hands. I'd bet the team works to get Paul better opportunities Thursday to start getting him in rythm.

[s1ickd]

paul play's well when he's angry. he could have easily used his body and strength to take rose to the hole, but settled for a jumper.

[Brooklyn Zoo]

I'm not trying to be prvocative, but I really don't think Pierce is the same player without KG on the floor. It's a cliche that a team takes on the personality of thier star, and we are seeing that here. With Pauk being a bit sloppy and slow it seems like the whole team is doing the same.

He looks lazy out there, walking up the floor, resting on offense and only half trying on defense. For as many points as he gets on any night, he gets you about 3-4 TOs and at least a couple rushed shots that rebound long. He often looks like he's trying to steer the shots in or get the foul calls that he's used to without actually completing the play. In game 2 there were a few layups that got locked or missed because he just sort of lobbed the ball that the basket.He just seems to be playing at half speed.

I love Pierce and want him to play with the same fire he showed last year when he was guarding Kobe in the finals. We need him to be agressive and energetic if we want to win any of the games in Chicago.

[threrf23]

PP's offensive game suffers as a result of KG's absence? That's our explanation? Ridiculous.

Pre-KG PP always brought his A game come playoff time. Historically he is like Baron Davis, not always consistent in the regular season, but seems to step up his game noticeably in the postseason.

Perhaps he just doesn't feel a great sense of urgency at this point just yet. But that missed FT was uncharacterisitc and it is worth discussing whether he is tired and/or just not fully healthy.

[drza]

Actually, I think the team offense as a whole suffers in the absence of KG because he directly facilitates the offense for each of the other four players. Without KG, as someone pointed out, the spacing isn't as good. But it's more than that. Without KG Pierce loses his best pick-and-roll partner, Rondo loses his alley-oop/backdoor cut partner, Allen loses the guy that most often passes out of the interior which leads to wide-open treys from the corner, and Perkins loses the high-low partner that consciously sets Perk up for easy shots at the rim as often as possible. It's not a coincidence that KG has the highest paired +/- among the starters with all four of the other starters ( http://www.82games.com/0809/0809BOSP.HTM ).

Without KG, the Celtics' offense requires a lot more individual effort and is built a lot more on individual brilliance. The good news is that the Celtics have three of the best individual offense producers around in Pierce, Allen, and Rondo, which means that when they are on they can make the offense just as potent if not more-so in the absence of KG. The bad news is that 1) this type of offense requires much more energy to sustain and 2) this type of offense is reliant upon individuals being hot, which makes it less reliable.

On-topic, Pierce is having to put a lot more effort into his offense than he normally does. He also has to put more effort in on defense without KG anchoring the unit. He also has to play much bigger minutes because the Cs need him to be competitive, and the minutes are more intense because the games are closer without KG. Put this all together, and you get a guy putting up bigger numbers than he did in the early part of the '08 playoffs but a guy that also tires during games because he's having to work a lot harder than he has had to for the last 2 years.

[Harison]

Actually, I think the team offense as a whole suffers in the absence of KG because he directly facilitates the offense for each of the other four players. Without KG, as someone pointed out, the spacing isn't as good. But it's more than that. Without KG Pierce loses his best pick-and-roll partner, Rondo loses his alley-oop/backdoor cut partner, Allen loses the guy that most often passes out of the interior which leads to wide-open treys from the corner, and Perkins loses the high-low partner that consciously sets Perk up for easy shots at the rim as often as possible. It's not a coincidence that KG has the highest paired +/- among the starters with all four of the other starters ( http://www.82games.com/0809/0809BOSP.HTM ).

Without KG, the Celtics' offense requires a lot more individual effort and is built a lot more on individual brilliance. The good news is that the Celtics have three of the best individual offense producers around in Pierce, Allen, and Rondo, which means that when they are on they can make the offense just as potent if not more-so in the absence of KG. The bad news is that 1) this type of offense requires much more energy to sustain and 2) this type of offense is reliant upon individuals being hot, which makes it less reliable.

On-topic, Pierce is having to put a lot more effort into his offense than he normally does. He also has to put more effort in on defense without KG anchoring the unit. He also has to play much bigger minutes because the Cs need him to be competitive, and the minutes are more intense because the games are closer without KG. Put this all together, and you get a guy putting up bigger numbers than he did in the early part of the '08 playoffs but a guy that also tires during games because he's having to work a lot harder than he has had to for the last 2 years.

Very good post, I agree with you drza.

[PPAW4Life]

I think Chicago poses an interesting defense for Pierce.

They constantly put different guys on him....one play it will be Salmons, another play it will be Hinrich, etc....and then they switch and show hard throwing some traps on Pierce.

Pierce is just tentative right now...he's looking to make a play thinking a double team is coming and our guys aren't spacing very well and then Pierce is left dribbling the ball taking a tough fade away jumper for his offense.

When Pierce does drive and gets to the rim they have that dude Thomas who is a pretty good shot blocker and he has hops.

[LenBiasBaller]

Actually, I think the team offense as a whole suffers in the absence of KG because he directly facilitates the offense for each of the other four players. Without KG, as someone pointed out, the spacing isn't as good. But it's more than that. Without KG Pierce loses his best pick-and-roll partner, Rondo loses his alley-oop/backdoor cut partner, Allen loses the guy that most often passes out of the interior which leads to wide-open treys from the corner, and Perkins loses the high-low partner that consciously sets Perk up for easy shots at the rim as often as possible. It's not a coincidence that KG has the highest paired +/- among the starters with all four of the other starters ( http://www.82games.com/0809/0809BOSP.HTM ).

Without KG, the Celtics' offense requires a lot more individual effort and is built a lot more on individual brilliance. The good news is that the Celtics have three of the best individual offense producers around in Pierce, Allen, and Rondo, which means that when they are on they can make the offense just as potent if not more-so in the absence of KG. The bad news is that 1) this type of offense requires much more energy to sustain and 2) this type of offense is reliant upon individuals being hot, which makes it less reliable.

On-topic, Pierce is having to put a lot more effort into his offense than he normally does. He also has to put more effort in on defense without KG anchoring the unit. He also has to play much bigger minutes because the Cs need him to be competitive, and the minutes are more intense because the games are closer without KG. Put this all together, and you get a guy putting up bigger numbers than he did in the early part of the '08 playoffs but a guy that also tires during games because he's having to work a lot harder than he has had to for the last 2 years.

Wow great post. On point.

[ParticleMan]

i too agree with drza. but it's the lack of effort on pp's part that is concerning.

i wonder if he's mentally still sort of reeling from KG being out for the playoffs. i mean, he was thinking he was going to play for a title, and now he probably realizes that the ECF is the limit. that's gotta be a bummer.

[Fencer reregistered]

Pierce has done this his whole career. ie have some great games followed by games where he just drifts. It's one of the reasons why as great a player as he can be , he will never in my opinion be as great as Larry Bird who brought it EVERY night. Pierce is a warrior and when he has it going there's no one I would rather have on my team but it's games like last night and Sunday that make you wonder what the hell is going on in his mind. I think he will bounce back but he sure looked meek and resigned to losing. Not getting back on D for several plays that were shown on national TV was embarrassing. He undoubtedly is tired so I sympathize there but that doesn';t explain the weak first halves he's played in the last 2 games.

A fair point.

Part of it is that he's not really up to playing flat-out, both ends of the floor, all game. So be it. Maybe something about his not ideally athletic game causes him to expend yet more energy than Kobe or Lebron do when he's playing at around their levels, making him unable to play like that consistently.

Part is that he doesn't seem to be the quickest to understand how the other team is defending him and how he needs to adjust. He has the good character to do what's needed rather than to be selfish, but he doesn't adapt as quickly as one would hope. That works both ways. Sometimes he looks to score when he shouldn't; other times he doesn't look to score when he should.

[LenBiasBaller]

Ray is older and he had to chase around Ben Gordon who dropped 40. Ray is in tip top shape. He prides himself on his conditioning. on top of that Ray is always moving coming off screens and that takes a lot of energy. I usually see centers get winded the way Pierce does. He should be good for the next game with two days of rest.

[MyInsatiableOne]

I guess we should all take solace that Pierce has really not shown up yet, and we're tied 1-1 and easily should be up 2-0 if he makes that FT in game 1...