Pierce (disinterested or fatigued)

[D Dub]

Roy is right, he has played a lot of very competative ball over the last two seasons.  He probably senses his fatigue, and at the same time knows the herculian effort that will be required of him to get past Cleveland and eventually LA.

Looks to me like Pierce is holding back a little bit and trying to get as much in-game rest for when we really need him.

Smart move if you ask me.  If his teamates can't get us past the Bulls, then weren't going to be competative down the road anyways.  They'll need the extra confidence to pull off upset victories anyways, so why not lean on them now and cut the Capt some slack, eh?

[satch]

The problem with PP is he needs a leader. Let's face it KG not Doc is the one that motivates the team. Everybody wants Paul to be the leader but it's just not his nature. PP's ego will not let him except his non-leadership role. Before KG he was headed to Toineville.

[cordobes]

The fatigue for lack of rest theory is quite bizarre. The best series for Pierce last season was the Finals and he had much more minutes in his legs than he has this season.

I think the theory is cumulative.  In the season before last year's championship run, Pierce played in a total of 47 games, played 1740 minutes, and saw his season end on March 28.  If you buy into the "rest / fatigue" theory, Paul should have been well-rested even late into last year's playoffs, because he had such a light season the year before (especially because many of the 47 games Pierce did play in were low impact type games for a team going nowhere).

This season, Pierce is coming off a season (last year) when he played in 106 games (26 of them highly intense playoff games) for a total of 3,864 minutes.  Pierce's 990 minutes were more than any other player in last year's playoffs.  Along with that, his period of recuperation was shorter, as the Celtics' season didn't end until June 17.

Additionally, this season Pierce was playing high-leverage games all the way up until the beginning of the playoffs, while last year that wasn't the case.  Last year, Pierce averaged 32.6 minutes per game in March and 27.4 minutes per game in April; this season, he averaged 39.5 and 34.2, respectively.

I don't think it makes any sense at all to say "Pierce was fresh in last year's playoffs, so he must be in this year's, too".  That may be true -- I don't have enough information to say for sure one way or the other -- but if Pierce is a little more tired this year, it certainly makes sense.

He can't handle two consecutive playoff races? Why is Pierce so fragile stamina-wise?

It still remains to be explained why has Pierce looked so bad versus Atlanta last season, for example. If that theory is right, and Pierce is playing so bad because he's exhausted, he's not going to improve during the playoffs. We'll see if that happens.

Pierce had a terrible stretch during the 1st third of the regular season. Was it because he was exhausted?

[orrzor]

Sorry I do not agree with the PP bashing here. He is definitely tired and not playing as good as he could if rested. But I was at the game, and what I saw was that anytime Chicago was going on a run, Pierce made a basket to stop that run. He got blocked several times, but he also made critical baskets. It was actually kind of impressive, it seemed like when he knew he needed to score, he was able to.

[oldschoolceltic00]

Just a question here but I was wayching one of the last regular season games and i thought I heard mike and Tommy saying the Steph and Ray were getting over the flu. I don't remember when this was but was wondering if thats what might be hampering PP. He is definately looking very tired out there. Maybe Doc can get creative and get him some rest without keeping him out of game action for to long.

[Roy Hobbs]

The fatigue for lack of rest theory is quite bizarre. The best series for Pierce last season was the Finals and he had much more minutes in his legs than he has this season.

I think the theory is cumulative.  In the season before last year's championship run, Pierce played in a total of 47 games, played 1740 minutes, and saw his season end on March 28.  If you buy into the "rest / fatigue" theory, Paul should have been well-rested even late into last year's playoffs, because he had such a light season the year before (especially because many of the 47 games Pierce did play in were low impact type games for a team going nowhere).

This season, Pierce is coming off a season (last year) when he played in 106 games (26 of them highly intense playoff games) for a total of 3,864 minutes.  Pierce's 990 minutes were more than any other player in last year's playoffs.  Along with that, his period of recuperation was shorter, as the Celtics' season didn't end until June 17.

Additionally, this season Pierce was playing high-leverage games all the way up until the beginning of the playoffs, while last year that wasn't the case.  Last year, Pierce averaged 32.6 minutes per game in March and 27.4 minutes per game in April; this season, he averaged 39.5 and 34.2, respectively.

I don't think it makes any sense at all to say "Pierce was fresh in last year's playoffs, so he must be in this year's, too".  That may be true -- I don't have enough information to say for sure one way or the other -- but if Pierce is a little more tired this year, it certainly makes sense.

He can't handle two consecutive playoff races? Why is Pierce so fragile stamina-wise?

It still remains to be explained why has Pierce looked so bad versus Atlanta last season, for example. If that theory is right, and Pierce is playing so bad because he's exhausted, he's not going to improve during the playoffs. We'll see if that happens.

Pierce had a terrible stretch during the 1st third of the regular season. Was it because he was exhausted?

I don't know if he's fatigued or not.  He certainly talked about being tired enough during the season, and mentioned his fatigue concerns, but I don't know to what extent -- if any -- that it's affecting his performance.

However, your original logic (which you've now changed) was wrong.  Just because Pierce was fresh last season in no way suggests that he is fresh this year.

[cordobes]

The fatigue for lack of rest theory is quite bizarre. The best series for Pierce last season was the Finals and he had much more minutes in his legs than he has this season.

I think the theory is cumulative.  In the season before last year's championship run, Pierce played in a total of 47 games, played 1740 minutes, and saw his season end on March 28.  If you buy into the "rest / fatigue" theory, Paul should have been well-rested even late into last year's playoffs, because he had such a light season the year before (especially because many of the 47 games Pierce did play in were low impact type games for a team going nowhere).

This season, Pierce is coming off a season (last year) when he played in 106 games (26 of them highly intense playoff games) for a total of 3,864 minutes.  Pierce's 990 minutes were more than any other player in last year's playoffs.  Along with that, his period of recuperation was shorter, as the Celtics' season didn't end until June 17.

Additionally, this season Pierce was playing high-leverage games all the way up until the beginning of the playoffs, while last year that wasn't the case.  Last year, Pierce averaged 32.6 minutes per game in March and 27.4 minutes per game in April; this season, he averaged 39.5 and 34.2, respectively.

I don't think it makes any sense at all to say "Pierce was fresh in last year's playoffs, so he must be in this year's, too".  That may be true -- I don't have enough information to say for sure one way or the other -- but if Pierce is a little more tired this year, it certainly makes sense.

He can't handle two consecutive playoff races? Why is Pierce so fragile stamina-wise?

It still remains to be explained why has Pierce looked so bad versus Atlanta last season, for example. If that theory is right, and Pierce is playing so bad because he's exhausted, he's not going to improve during the playoffs. We'll see if that happens.

Pierce had a terrible stretch during the 1st third of the regular season. Was it because he was exhausted?

I don't know if he's fatigued or not.  He certainly talked about being tired enough during the season, and mentioned his fatigue concerns, but I don't know to what extent -- if any -- that it's affecting his performance.

However, your original logic (which you've now changed) was wrong.  Just because Pierce was fresh last season in no way suggests that he is fresh this year.

What have I changed? And you just quoted part of my "logic", forgetting the very important bit where I say "I agree with this" - right after drza44 post. In the phrase you quote I was just adding a lateral reasoning.

Anyway, it's amusing: last season the theory was that Pierce was struggling because he rested too much before the start of the playoffs. This season he's struggling because he didn't rest enough. What shall one conclude? Maybe that the rest/non-rest issue is somewhat irrelevant and that Pierce, like most ageing stars, still has all the skills to frequently have great games, where he looks like his old self, but no longer is able to dominate consistently and is prone to have some prolonged slumps?

[cornbreadsmart]

hahaha. i called this. if and when the c's lose boston will take down pierce. it will always be pierce's fault. easily the most underappreciated sports figure i've ever seen here. WORST BASKETBALL CITY . die hards are great. overall the STUPIDEST city in regards to hoops. this city is as fair weather as you get with the c's. everyone is all critical and already off the  bandwagon and putting away their green hat.
  before we got ray and kg i could walk thru south station at 5pm and be the only person in the entire place wearing anything celtic related. this is almost every day. look at all the green everywhere now. once this run is done and if the c's go back to being even mediocre you won't see green anymore. boston would support the sox no matter what(even though  they pretty much BUY titles ) and pats would still get support. not the c's though. boston fans will  go back to LAUGHING at the c's and our media will go back to bragging how they DON''T watch.

[cornbreadsmart]

"paul pierce disinterested?" i'm sorry . i just can't get over it. lol.

[Redz]

hahaha. i called this. if and when the c's lose boston will take down pierce. it will always be pierce's fault. easily the most underappreciated sports figure i've ever seen here. WORST BASKETBALL CITY . die hards are great. overall the STUPIDEST city in regards to hoops. this city is as fair weather as you get with the c's. everyone is all critical and already off the  bandwagon and putting away their green hat.
  before we got ray and kg i could walk thru south station at 5pm and be the only person in the entire place wearing anything celtic related. this is almost every day. look at all the green everywhere now. once this run is done and if the c's go back to being even mediocre you won't see green anymore. boston would support the sox no matter what(even though  they pretty much BUY titles ) and pats would still get support. not the c's though. boston fans will  go back to LAUGHING at the c's and our media will go back to bragging how they DON''T watch.

well, it's good we have one true fan...congrats

[drza44]

Outside of people's perceptions/memories not necessarily reflecting reality, there is another angle to this: Pierce DOES have to do more this year than he ever had to last year.

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.