Will the real Paul Pierce please stand up?

[beantownboy171]

This is my feeling on Paul Pierce. Paul Pierce is a great player, one of the greatest celtics of all time. But if he doesn't come up with a great game or performance in these playoffs my personal opinion of him will go down on him a bit, not a big bit, but a bit.

He is banged up, he is tired, and he has reason to be. He has been carrying this team his back all season. He has every reason to look sluggish and under perform in these playoffs. But a real elite playoff performer overcomes these obstacles. (now i still think pierce has plenty of time left to do this) A real elite playoff performer takes this adversity and becomes even better. So if pierce does come up short, and the celtics get eliminated this round, or even if we get out of this round, and get eliminated later and he never picks his game up. A little bit of mystique will be lost in my mind when it comes to Paul Pierce.

Paul Pierce will be the first one of the big three to go past his prime to the point where he is a shell of his former self. Not because he is any worse of a player then them. But because his play has always been about slashing.

He's always been known for getting where he needs to go even while not looking like the fastest most athletic player out there. Not to mention that Garnett and Allen have better fitness bodies and have had a less injury prone career.

I just think his type off play leaves him more in danger to aging and fatigue. Its not Paul's fault that he's exhausted in the playoffs. For half the season he didn't have a formatable back-up. I just don't know if he'll be able to over come it this time.

[QuinielaBox]

Good points here. 

PP has had some good moments, but he's clearly exhausted.  This is what drives me crazy about this series.  The Bulls will come out of this series regardless of the outcome with people thinking they're an elite team: they're not. 

They're a number 7 seed who wouldn't have made the playoffs in the West and who would've gotten swept by the C's with a healthy Garnett (and would've gotten swept by this team if a couple bounces or calls went the other way).  I admire the Bulls grittiness, but the closeness of the series has much more to do with a tired Paul Pierce and an absent Kevin Garnett than anything the Bulls have done. 

Paul Pierce has had to do a lot more work this season than Doc wanted him to do. With KG healthy for a full season we are neck and neck with Lebron and Kobe's respective teams. The thing is Paul Pierce could score 40 today and it still does not work out for his team. The other guys are going to take the ball out of Ray Allens hands as much as possible so it could wind up with Pierce and Rondo tonight to decide the game.