Paul Pierce Among The Best Ever In Closeout Games

[soap07]

Per the Star Ledger in New Jersey...

"Paul Pierce can now be considered among the greatest postseason players ever, if you judge it by one esteric stat: scoring average in "series-clinching" victories. According to Elias, here are the biggest big-game producers (minimum five career closeout games):

Player                   Closeout PPG          Closeout Games        Playoff PPG
Allen Iverson             34.3                   6                     29.7
Michael Jordan            33.9                   30                    33.4
Bob Pettit                32.9                   9                     25.5
Paul Pierce               30.2                   6                     22.6

[Roy Hobbs]

Wow...  that's an awesome stat.  TP for sharing.

[jay_jay54]

Seeing that Kobe has been in probably more playoff games than Pierce,wonder why he isn't in the top players?

[Brickowski]

Err... Do those stats take into account Pierce's performances in games 6 and 7 against Indiana in 2005?

[Bankshot]

Err... Do those stats take into account Pierce's performances in games 6 and 7 against Indiana in 2005?

Probably so.  Doesn't discount in any way the numbers, imo.  That 2005 team wasn't that good and was never expected to get out of the 2nd round if they got that far anyway.  I love how no matter how good Paul has been for the Celtics there still remains haters that refuse to give the guy his due. ::)s

[Roy Hobbs]

Err... Do those stats take into account Pierce's performances in games 6 and 7 against Indiana in 2005?

Nope.  The stat is only relevant for "series clinching victories".

[the_Bird]

A stat that only looks at series-WINNING games is so inherently biased as to be completely (IMHO) worthless.  You can look at these numbers and intepret them just as easily as being "When Boston's best player plays well in potentially clinching games, they tend to win."  Well, DUH!

MUCH more infortmative would be to know how Pierce performs in ALL potentially clinching games - not to knock off all the ones that we didn't happen to win in (and in which Pierce may well not have played well, since we lost). 

All this stat says is that there's a strong correlation between the team's success and its best player's success.  You might interpret this stat as also indicating that Boston's team success is highly dependant on Pierce's play; when he's off, there haven't tended to be too many other players to pick up the slack (which we know is true; Pierce hasn't had much help other than Walker up to this point in his career).  That still says a lot more about the team than the player, though.

[Jaycelt]

Err... Do those stats take into account Pierce's performances in games 6 and 7 against Indiana in 2005?

Nope.  The stat is only relevant for "series clinching victories".

Too bad for Pierce.
His game 6 numbers- 20pts on 7-12 shooting- 11 rebounds- 6 assists- 4 steals- 1 block-1 turnover

Hoooorible, just hooooooorrible. 

[Brickowski]

Except that he got himself tossed from game 6, which the Celtics luckily went on to win thanks to Antoine Walker.  Then Pierce was a no-show for game 7.

[Jaycelt]

Except that he got himself tossed from game 6, which the Celtics luckily went on to win thanks to Antoine Walker.  Then Pierce was a no-show for game 7.

He got tossed?  Really?  Gee, I didn't know that.  Did you guys know that? 

One correction- the team was a no show for game 7.

[Roy Hobbs]

Except that he got himself tossed from game 6, which the Celtics luckily went on to win thanks to Antoine Walker.  Then Pierce was a no-show for game 7.

Pierce wasn't terrible in Game 7.  6-for-13, 19 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists.  Not his best game, but not his worst, either.

The only two guys who showed up even a little for that game were Antoine and Paul.  The rest of the team was 13-for-43 (30%).

[LB3533]

Paul has stepped up his game when the series is on the line, but he hasn't had many playoff chances to show it off.

Jordan and even Kobe have been fortunate enough to be on some good playoff caliber teams throughout the duration of their careers.

Pierce was not as fortunate.