Paul Pierce cost us that game

[Who]

Pierce wasn't great last night but he wasn't the reason why we lost this game.

Caron Butler, who most here would consider at best a peer of Pierce (in fact, I'd wager that the majority here consider Pierce better) managed to shoot 46% and have his own moments of brilliance when he outshined LeBron.  And Butler had to spend just as much energy on the defense end as Pierce...probably more, in fact, since he doesn't have nearly as much defensive help from his teammates as Pierce gets from the other Celtics.

Firstly, Wally Szczerbiak defended Caron Butler for the majority of the series. Give Pierce Wally and you get a bunch of hoops. LeBron was the secondary defender on Butler and defended him on crunch possessions. I think he defended him game six after Butler dropped 32 and the game winner on them in game five, and James shut Butler down in game six.

Secondly, James destroyed Caron Butler on the other end. He murdered Butler and his team. The reason they lost was because the Wizards couldn't slow James down. Likewise with James to Wally, Butler was the secondary defender on James. Unlike the Butler defending James, Butler didn't torch James throughout the series. And no Butler was not spending as much energy on defense as Pierce because he wasn't on him as often as Pierce, that would be Stevenson.

Butler didn't play well for most the series. He shot a respectable percentage but outside of one good game he didn't crack 20 points once. The first two games he scored 14, then 12.

For most of the series Butler shot long jump shots, forced the action, refused to attack Wally or James. That' why his FT attempts are so low. He didn't move well without the ball, he didn't pass the ball well. That's part of the reason why Cleveland's offense had no creativity and low assists throughout, also why their offense was stagnant and easy to defend. Caron's lack of offensive production led to Washington never scoring 100 points, only once scoring above 90.

Butler's offense was better but only marginally and Pierce has been very very poor offensively. Butler's D is a joke, Pierce's D has been all-defensive level. Huge difference.

Pierce is a much better player than Butler and even with his large offensive struggles he's outperformed Butler in the postseason against LeBron James.

[irishbuddy]

You blame Pierce but that sorry player Ray can not buy a bucket or cover slow old Wally.

[irishbuddy]

Try the refs.Every whistle was against the men in green.Especially nearing the end.

[jimmyt]

to blame this game on one player is busch league.
Yeah Pierce had a couple costly turnovers but he didnt COST us the game. If you want to start blaming people then dont stop there.
Blame Doc Rivers for a poorly coached game once again and some bad lineups at times.
Blame Doc for totally shunning Leon Powe the last few games.
Blame Doc for waiting 13 games to give Eddie House some playing time.
Blame Big Baby for missing numerous baskets right under the hoop.
Blame the referees for making terrible terrible calls and non-calls.
Blame Ray Allen for being non-existent throughout the entire playoffs.
Blame Rondo for playing a terrible game away from home once again.

Like I said ejplaya, to just blame pierce for the loss is amateur to say the least. That being said, Pierce should have attacked the basket more that game. The celtics once again settled for jump shots and failed to drive to the hoop. I guess i cant blame them seeing as they never got foul calls when Lebron gets a foul call if you look at him the wrong way.

[EJPLAYA]

You blame Pierce but that sorry player Ray can not buy a bucket or cover slow old Wally.

Wally was 2-11 so I wouldn't be too hard on Ray's defense that game. Ray is also getting half of the shots that PP and KG are and usually not where he is most effective. If Ray was taking 15-20 shots a game then I would have an easier time sliding very much of the game towards him.

[SShoreFan]

You blame Pierce but that sorry player Ray can not buy a bucket or cover slow old Wally.

Wally was 2-11 so I wouldn't be too hard on Ray's defense that game. Ray is also getting half of the shots that PP and KG are and usually not where he is most effective. If Ray was taking 15-20 shots a game then I would have an easier time sliding very much of the game towards him.

I concur.  reckless abandon doesn't win games.

I do not think he "cost" the Celtics the game, but I am tired of reckless abandon.

[EJPLAYA]

We're on the same page most of the time EJ, but we don't come down on the same side with this one. There's plenty of blame to go around with this loss: Rondo, Perk, PJ, and Posey barely showed up for this one with 7 points between the four of them, Ray was a major disappointment again, the refs made some of the worst calls of the season, (especially that charge ... wow), some of the plays from time-outs were complete head-scratchers, the free-throw discrepency was ridiculous, and Pierce struggled with 6 turnovers and only 3 assists ... failing to do on a regular basis what he does best: penetrate the paint and create inside. However, despite the stats, he should get props for the job he's done defending LeBron. LB has struggled more this series than I've ever seen him struggle before, and Paul is the difference. Pierce was indeed an element to this loss, but FAR from the only one, or even the biggest one.

I am definitely not giving PP 100% of the blame, but here is where this comes from:

PP was in control of the ball for much of the 4th quarter and made terrible decisions in a close game that cost us that game. He had some terrible turnovers that led to easy baskets for Cleveland. He also dribbled the ball for 7-8 seconds trying to decide what he was going to do followed up with a horrible spinning drive that he wasn't even able to get shots from which forced poor shots late in the shot clock. He failed to realize that what he needed to do was start sooner and set someone else up for a good shot. He looked an awful lot like Sam Cassell late in the game. Discounting the refs, I don't see one individual who had as much ability to change the game that played worse than PP. There were other issues no doubt, but PP is the captain. This is supposed to be his team. He just tried to win it himself with the worst matchup we had.

[TheReaLPuba]

We're on the same page most of the time EJ, but we don't come down on the same side with this one. There's plenty of blame to go around with this loss: Rondo, Perk, PJ, and Posey barely showed up for this one with 7 points between the four of them, Ray was a major disappointment again, the refs made some of the worst calls of the season, (especially that charge ... wow), some of the plays from time-outs were complete head-scratchers, the free-throw discrepency was ridiculous, and Pierce struggled with 6 turnovers and only 3 assists ... failing to do on a regular basis what he does best: penetrate the paint and create inside. However, despite the stats, he should get props for the job he's done defending LeBron. LB has struggled more this series than I've ever seen him struggle before, and Paul is the difference. Pierce was indeed an element to this loss, but FAR from the only one, or even the biggest one.

I am definitely not giving PP 100% of the blame, but here is where this comes from:

PP was in control of the ball for much of the 4th quarter and made terrible decisions in a close game that cost us that game. He had some terrible turnovers that led to easy baskets for Cleveland. He also dribbled the ball for 7-8 seconds trying to decide what he was going to do followed up with a horrible spinning drive that he wasn't even able to get shots from which forced poor shots late in the shot clock. He failed to realize that what he needed to do was start sooner and set someone else up for a good shot. He looked an awful lot like Sam Cassell late in the game. Discounting the refs, I don't see one individual who had as much ability to change the game that played worse than PP. There were other issues no doubt, but PP is the captain. This is supposed to be his team. He just tried to win it himself with the worst matchup we had.

2 of his 6 turnovers were obvious bad calls.

2 of the remaining turnovers he was fouled on the pass and he wasn't trying to score against double/triple teams he was definitely trying to pass.

1 turnover he just passed to the open man but LeBron made a good play and got the steal.....I don't think Pierce was making bad decisions...the results just weren't what we wanted and the majority of the reason is bad officiating.

[EJPLAYA]

We're on the same page most of the time EJ, but we don't come down on the same side with this one. There's plenty of blame to go around with this loss: Rondo, Perk, PJ, and Posey barely showed up for this one with 7 points between the four of them, Ray was a major disappointment again, the refs made some of the worst calls of the season, (especially that charge ... wow), some of the plays from time-outs were complete head-scratchers, the free-throw discrepency was ridiculous, and Pierce struggled with 6 turnovers and only 3 assists ... failing to do on a regular basis what he does best: penetrate the paint and create inside. However, despite the stats, he should get props for the job he's done defending LeBron. LB has struggled more this series than I've ever seen him struggle before, and Paul is the difference. Pierce was indeed an element to this loss, but FAR from the only one, or even the biggest one.

I am definitely not giving PP 100% of the blame, but here is where this comes from:

PP was in control of the ball for much of the 4th quarter and made terrible decisions in a close game that cost us that game. He had some terrible turnovers that led to easy baskets for Cleveland. He also dribbled the ball for 7-8 seconds trying to decide what he was going to do followed up with a horrible spinning drive that he wasn't even able to get shots from which forced poor shots late in the shot clock. He failed to realize that what he needed to do was start sooner and set someone else up for a good shot. He looked an awful lot like Sam Cassell late in the game. Discounting the refs, I don't see one individual who had as much ability to change the game that played worse than PP. There were other issues no doubt, but PP is the captain. This is supposed to be his team. He just tried to win it himself with the worst matchup we had.

2 of his 6 turnovers were obvious bad calls.

2 of the remaining turnovers he was fouled on the pass and he wasn't trying to score against double/triple teams he was definitely trying to pass.

1 turnover he just passed to the open man but LeBron made a good play and got the steal.....I don't think Pierce was making bad decisions...the results just weren't what we wanted and the majority of the reason is bad officiating.

That's right. It's everyone else's fault! One bad charge call and all of a sudden the 5 other turnovers were bad calls.

He is ALWAYS trying to score when he does his spins to the basket. He only passes out of that when he can't get a shot off. He is usually out of control when he spins. I don't have a huge problem if he gets the pass and immediately goes into that, but he sat there dribbling in place for 7-8 seconds. There went all the options to move the ball when he was shut down.

I guess it was Doc's fault that PP was hogging the ball and then only passing last minute when Lebron shut him down.

[clover]

I've gotta say probably the most annoying thing about PP's game is how he'll hold the ball, stuck deep in coverage, until there's about 1.5 seconds left on the shot clock.  Only then will he pass it out to Rondo behind the three or something equally improbable.

[fairweatherfan06]

Losing was a team effort (with an assist from the refs).

[Redz]

Admittedly all of Pierce's #'s are down this year with added support, but I just dug up a key stat.

In 37 career playoff games prior to this year Pierce had attempted 10.1 free throws per game

This year in 13 games 5.1 FT per game.

[Hondo]

Paul didn't cost us the game.  Too simplistic of an explanation.

I would like to somehow pass a mandate that Pierce and Allen both have to pass the ball to the point guard to bring it up the floor.  Nothing good ever happens when either of these two decide to wave off the point guard and dribble it up the floor.  That is a sign that they intend to get theirs and some kind of turnover or bad shot is the most likely outcome. It just makes me cringe every time I see it happening.

[Andy Jick]

if rondo played on the road like he did at home we'd never be talking about paul pierce right now...

[Roy Hobbs]

Admittedly all of Pierce's #'s are down this year with added support, but I just dug up a key stat.

In 37 career playoff games prior to this year Pierce had attempted 10.1 free throws per game

This year in 13 games 5.1 FT per game.

Thanks for finding data on that.  It has definitely seemed like Pierce is going to the hoop a lot less this postseason, and those numbers pretty much conclusively prove that.