Looks fellows, Pierce has a got a poor man's type of Dream Shake, it's a spin, drive, grind, and draw contact move which he does, with amazing reproducibility, whenever he's fresh for a game. All and all, it's his money ball. There's no way anyone can take that away from him unless he's beat, from let's say two back-to-back games of 35-40 minutes. Whenever Paul is being let's say the total package, from crashing boards, wrestling with opponents on the block, etc, he expends a ton of energy. Now, as we all know, energy is not unlimited, this is simple thermodynamics.
On the other hand, when Big Baby Davis is let's say roughing up others on the block, crashing boards, etc, true, he uses up energy but at the same time, he's a non-all star sub and thus, his expenditure is less costly, to the team overall. The point of my argument is simply that since Paul Pierce has a 'money ball', a move that he can do, continually w/o variation. I see him as the most important person to keep fresh for the end zone, whereas neither KG nor Perks have a consistent Kareem sky hook which they can drop at will.
Try to understand why a 38 yr old Kareem couldn't be stopped by either Parish or McHale in '85. It was simple, he either dropped his Sky Hook or made a back cutter pass to Worthy for a jam. The Celtics could stop one or the other, but not both.
Here's my spread for Pierce:
Q1 - 3-4 mins
Q2 - 3-4 mins
Q3 - 4-5 mins
Q4 – 11 mins (1 minute water break)
Now, here's what I don't get, a triad of Daniels, BBD, and 'Sheed can't keep the C's from a first three quarters meltdown and thus, enabling let's say a Rockets, Sixers, or Bucks to blow past us in the game w/o avail? I just don't think the rest of the league is that good.
So then what happens in Q4... Rondo takes the ball up, finds Ray, bullets the pass, Ray's then gets covered, Pierce is in motion, Ray passes it, Paul catches the pass from Ray, draws contact, goes to the line. 2 pts. Next cycle, help defenders come to a stop Pierce, Pierce passes back to Rondo, Rondo takes a wide open jumper. Third option, same play, defenders block all passages towards Pierce, Perkins dunks it in as his opposing help defender has his eyes on Paul.