Pierce (disinterested or fatigued)

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

Unfortunately Pierce has started on the downside of his career, and he's clearly worn out from too many minutes this year. 

If Doc had sucked it up and used Billy Walker earlier in the season he'd have a fresher Pierce--and another serviceable rotation player as well.

LOL. Paul Pierce was the consensus regular season celtics MVP

Pierce has started on the downside of his career? what is your problem? you do know hes the youngest of the big 3?



Pierce played terribly in the atlanta series, and even for the first 6 game of the cavs series he was okay

then what happened? he ends up winning finals MVP



this is an absolutely ridicolous post and dumb thread

18/8 isnt even all that bad of a game, for that look at ray allens game 1 2 pt performance, but also look at what ray allen did last night, on the "downside'' of his career.

Pierce isnt fatigued or disinterested, he had 2 subpar games. he'll be fine people. book it

[LB3533]

I thought Ray Allen was the MVP of the Celtics this past regular season.

Pierce was just as good as last year, which meant that he didn't step up as much as Ray Allen did.

[CoachBo]

I disagree slightly - he's clearly fatigued, but who wouldn't be when there's no credible backup behind him? The claim he's disinterested is beyond absurd.

I knew it wouldn't be long before the "play the rookies, no matter the fact that it's a difficult playoff series" stuff started.

Two full days between games. Pierce will be fine for game 3, and he'd better be because he's looking at at least 40 minutes again.

[ACF]

The latter. Nuff said.

[cdif911]

I thought Ray Allen was the MVP of the Celtics this past regular season.

Pierce was just as good as last year, which meant that he didn't step up as much as Ray Allen did.

Will Solomon was the MVP of this season, nuff said

[Truck Lewis]

I thought Ray Allen was the MVP of the Celtics this past regular season.

Pierce was just as good as last year, which meant that he didn't step up as much as Ray Allen did.

thats only because ray had a subpar 07-08 and it looks like he stepped up in 08-09

dont get me wrong,,,ray had a great year, but pierce should not be penalized for being consistent...PP was the rock in 08-09,,as he was in 07-08

[drza44]

Pierce played terribly in the atlanta series, and even for the first 6 game of the cavs series he was okay

then what happened? he ends up winning finals MVP

I think this is the gist of it.  Pierce may be a bit tired, but who isn't at this time of year?  No way on earth Pierce is disinterested in the playoffs...I mean, come on.  I think where the problem lies is in memory and perception more than anything else.

It seems that many people remember Pierce carrying the Cs through the playoffs on a game-to-game basis last season...but he didn't.  Pierce had an epic game against the Cavs in game 7, an epic game 5 against the Lakers, and another handful of very good games.  But for the majority of last season's playoffs he performed at a similar (or lesser) level than he has performed in the first two games this season.  He's not playing out of character...he's performing exactly like he did last year, if not better. 

The difference is that this year the focus is on him more than it was last season, so people are noticing a lot more that he isn't superman every game.  He still can (and likely will) produce at least a few superman games before it's all said and done, but he doesn't do it every game.  But that isn't unique to this year, that's just how it is.

[Rael]

Totally agree with Change's original post.  However, throughout his career, Pierce has never run back in transition.  When he causes a turnover, he automatically feigns injury and/or complains to the ref.  This is nothing new.  Apparently, KG and Doc put up with this, which has always surprised me.  It p---es me off when KG runs back after a turnover, blocks the layup, and nobody else is there to pick up the rebound.  I would think is p---es off KG, too.

I would say trade PP, but he's got the biggest b*lls in the league when the game is on the line.

[BASS_THUMPER]

last game he played way to many minutes, he is tired and fustrated bein the capt of a team certian things are expected of you and he hasnt been the "one" so far, he will get it together soon. he needs to relax and doc needs to rest him more. i have yet to see paul dunk the ball vs chi town. no fire in him.

[daveh51292]

last game he played way to many minutes, he is tired and fustrated bein the capt of a team certian things are expected of you and he hasnt been the "one" so far, he will get it together soon. he needs to relax and doc needs to rest him more. i have yet to see paul dunk the ball vs chi town. no fire in him.

Did you miss the dunk in game 2, pretty emphatic...

[cordobes]

Pierce played terribly in the atlanta series, and even for the first 6 game of the cavs series he was okay

then what happened? he ends up winning finals MVP

I think this is the gist of it.  Pierce may be a bit tired, but who isn't at this time of year?  No way on earth Pierce is disinterested in the playoffs...I mean, come on.  I think where the problem lies is in memory and perception more than anything else.

It seems that many people remember Pierce carrying the Cs through the playoffs on a game-to-game basis last season...but he didn't.  Pierce had an epic game against the Cavs in game 7, an epic game 5 against the Lakers, and another handful of very good games.  But for the majority of last season's playoffs he performed at a similar (or lesser) level than he has performed in the first two games this season.  He's not playing out of character...he's performing exactly like he did last year, if not better. 

The difference is that this year the focus is on him more than it was last season, so people are noticing a lot more that he isn't superman every game.  He still can (and likely will) produce at least a few superman games before it's all said and done, but he doesn't do it every game.  But that isn't unique to this year, that's just how it is.

I agree with this. 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.

[Fafnir]

He's just had two poor games overall in this series. It happens, Paul is great but he has funks like every player.

He'll adjust how he's attacking to deal with Chicago's length and how they're aggressively trying to block his shots.

[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.

[Fafnir]

Roy if you're going with a "cumulative theory" then the simplest answer may be that Pierce is a little older, a little slower, and more prone to poor games like this.

Especially after taking on a heavier burden this year. The loss of Posey and KG could certainly grind on him. He loses his reliable backup and the other leader of the team.

[RAcker]

Yes, we have injuries, but to Pierce and everyone else on this team making huge salaries to play basketball I say, "Suck it up, buttercup."