Worst (or at least, close to the worst) game of Paul's career?

[Roy Hobbs]

6 points, 2-for-14 shooting, 2-for-3 FT, 3 turnovers, 5 personal fouls

This game almost certainly makes the worst five games of Paul's career.  Definitely his worst ever in the playoffs, right?  Just a terrible, terrible night.

The good news is, this is obviously a fluke, and shouldn't be anything to worry about going forward.

(I'll let somebody else make the corresponding KG thread.)

[ma11l]

If either one of them show up tonight we are NBA Champions. 

[Chief]

Can't get in a rhythm when your sitting on the bench with multiple fouls. I believe he'll play better in game 4.

[Coach]

I can take the bad shooting, but Paul's demenor tonight is what bothered me.  Does he realize the oppertunity this team had?  Just like he was happy to be up 2 games....like he had one to give?  Total frusterating game to watch.

Silver Lining - Doc went to Eddie - Just for too long.  But Eddie needs some minutes.  How frusterating must it be for him, Cassel and Rondo, never knowing what's coming.  GET A ROTATION DOC!!

[EJPLAYA]

Absolutely no effort at all by PP (or KG for that matter) to go to the rim. Kobe played it perfectly. He knew they were going to give him tons of fouls due to game 2 and he took it to the basket. If PP would have made any effort to do that tonight we are up 3-0. It was almost as if they knew going in they were going to get the bad end of the fouls and were giving them this one. Too bad. We should have had that game.

[Who]

Paul just played dumb basketball tonight. It wasn't the Lakers defense, it was about Paul not driving often enough. A lot of good things happened when Paul put pressure on the Lakers defense. He just needs to re-focus over the next day or two and come back ready for Game Four.

[Andrew Celtic Nation]

Guys, Pierce made several efforts to drive and the lanes were clogged, the Lakers were prepared to stop him and make him a passer and he was sloppy getting rid of the ball. He missed a lot of makeable shot.

[wdleehi]

Fell in love with the jumper. 

[crownsy]

fell in love with the pine, tough to get any rhythm going when your sitting on the bench. 3 of his fouls were legit, that reach in and the charge were laughable.

i knew when they rung him up for 2 quick tick tack ones that he was going to see the bench early and often.

[biggs]

Paul is obviously starting to feel the injury.  He may have screwed himself by playing game 2.  He might have been better off sitting game 2 and treating the injury more seriously.  He looked so sluggish tonight on every play I was screaming at him.  He must have wanted to play through it though and if that's the case I blame Doc for letting the dice role.  There was one point in the fourth when Posey was playing excellently and for some reason Doc takes him out and replaces him with a weathered PP. 

It's just sad that we had this game with Kobe, with the refs and we still lost.

I have to say though that this thread should be the "worst game of garnett's playoff career". He was TERRIBLE.  Absolutely.  I give paul a "D" for this game, but I do do think he really is hurt.  Garnett however earns an F. 

I don't want to be too negative though.  You gotta think it's not good for L.A if we played THAT bad the lakers playing their A game only beat us by that much.

[CelticsPrideKG]

Make that one of the worst of KG's career as well (offensively anyway) and we still almost pulled this one out.  Defeat makes you appreciate victory more and I hope the players feel the same way.  The way they respond in Game 4 will say a lot about them and I just can't fathom the Lakers winning 3 in a row.

[GroverTheClover]

fell in love with the pine, tough to get any rhythm going when your sitting on the bench. 3 of his fouls were legit, that reach in and the charge were laughable.

i knew when they rung him up for 2 quick tick tack ones that he was going to see the bench early and often.

I agree. I think the lack of rhythm really affected Paul's game. At the same time, the "holy bleep I'm in the air and have to get rid of the ball or else I'll get called for a travel" passes were back out in full display. A few times, it looked like he was expecting contact and tried to adjust halfway up on his shot which really looked ugly. He really needs to reflect on tonight and move forward. Otherwise, we're not having any parades in Boston anytime soon.

[TheReaLPuba]

Both KG and PP missed some normal shots that they usually make.

But both did not play with enough aggression or purpose.

I think the double teams at various times off of Rondo or Perk really did make them more tentative than usual.

I also think the darkness of the arena with the dimmed down lights in the background also had an affect on their shooting.

They also did take some pretty quick and tough jumpers.

Foul trouble really got PP out of rhythm as well....KG managed to play pretty good defense for most of the game and rebounded too but he just shot like crap.

Obviously both of them playing so bad on offense doesn't happen often so I still feel good that the game was right there within reach.

[Redz]

It was strange, I actually thought Doc was going to ride it out with Posey, and I was OK with it.  Pierce was totally out of it. 

Game 1 vs Cleveland was no treat for Pierce either.

[crownsy]

Paul is obviously starting to feel the injury.  He may have screwed himself by playing game 2.  He might have been better off sitting game 2 and treating the injury more seriously.  He looked so sluggish tonight on every play I was screaming at him.  He must have wanted to play through it though and if that's the case I blame Doc for letting the dice role.  There was one point in the fourth when Posey was playing excellently and for some reason Doc takes him out and replaces him with a weathered PP. 

It's just sad that we had this game with Kobe, with the refs and we still lost.

I have to say though that this thread should be the "worst game of garnett's playoff career". He was TERRIBLE.  Absolutely.  I give paul a "D" for this game, but I do do think he really is hurt.  Garnett however earns an F. 

I don't want to be too negative though.  You gotta think it's not good for L.A if we played THAT bad the lakers playing their A game only beat us by that much.

completely disagree, he looked fine when he was on the floor tonight, including several nice drives to the basket (with no call  ) his problem was fouling and then when he got back in finally, he tried to do to much and had no rhythm. he barley crested 31 minutes.

hopefully the mandate to get him to the bench won't be on next game.