Kobe played his normal game against Pierce,Paul did the same against Kobe

[wahz]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=piercpa01&p2=bryanko01

Kobe and PP did about their career averages against each other. PP owns him and he knows it.

[BASSTHUMPER]

i didnt click link

no stat could prove to me what i already know

[wahz]

what will it take for even the avg Celts fan to "get" that Kobe has played exactly like this against PP and the Celts for his entire career? I have the page closed but he has chucked up shots against the celts and made around 35% of his shots...meanwhile Paul has outplayed him routinely and made around 45% of his shots. The thing is that yesterday you could see why. PP won't back down, it doesn't even occur to him to do that. He flops like he does against anyone else. He stays in fronnt of him. He feeds him into other defenders. He is bigger than him so he drives on him and bodies him and knocks him around. he will take jumper after jumper with Kobe in his face.  Kobe has to know PP owns him and the truth is he plays like it.

[wahz]

yeah for his career against PP Kobe has made  9 of 23 per game. Better yet he takes more than 4 3's and only makes them at a 21% rate. He did almost exactly his career avg yesterday. Unreal.

[hpantazo]

I have believed for a long time that Pierce is a better player than Kobe, and I'm glad he got a chance to show it to the world last night. Let's just hope he's well enough to keep proving it for the rest of the series. He owns Kobe.

[Mr October]

Great performance by Pierce. The more Kobe goes into "Kobe-show" mode the better. It is so much easier to defend one guy who is pounding the crap out of the ball and then shooting jumpers.

When the ball is moving the Lakers are deadly.

[GroverTheClover]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves. PP is good, and often plays equal to Kobe, but he's clearly not better

[Neurotic Guy]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves. PP is good, and often plays equal to Kobe, but he's clearly not better

Grover has it right, IMO.  Thank goodness Paul has shown the ability to slow Kobe down -- that is great.  However, Kobe has games in which he is just phenomenal and to expect that Pierce will own him for the remainder of the series is just wishful thinking. Given that Paul may also be less than 100%, I expect Kobe to have some very big nights in this series.  I just hope they can keep him down enough on Sunday to squeak out a win -- a win for the C's on Sunday would be enormous.

[pearljammer10]

Paul Pierce is the NBA least recognized star/superstar/allstar (whatever YOU choose to call it) and Kobe is the league most overratted player... With that being said Pierce is a better all around player than Kobe and he just doesnt get recognized for it. If Pierce got 26 shots per game he could easily average what Kobe does. If you switch Kobe and Pierce from the Celts to the Lakers their numbers would almost switch identically imo. Pierce is a better defender and his bigger body makes him stronger on his moves. Kobe is more explosive and can jump higher. Pierce is a much better rebounder, passer, and defender than Kobe and is just as good as a scorer. Pierce proves this when he plays Kobe like the other posters have mentioned. I hope Pierce will finally get more recognition after this season. He is no longer a "good player on a bad team" or "the guy who has to put those numbers up on the bad celtics". He never was that and he proved that playing with 2 other all stars this season.