Too many shots for one guy

[vinnie]

Paul Pierce carried the load on offense tonight with 32 points, be he took 25 shots. In the first three games, he took a total of 36 shots and the Celtics won all three. I know that Doc was trying to exploit the matchup with Nelson when Orlando switched, but one player taking 25 shots is just not Celtics basketball, and I just do not think they can win playing this way. Pierce took 1/3 of the Celtics' shots tonight. Those are Kobe/Lebron numbers.

[Greeny]

I agree.
Everyone then stood around, and there was no rebounding.

Better to have alot of motion, and maybe someone gets free.

Ray and KG had limited touches.

[mmbaby]

Totally agree with you, V. PP is our captain and he's incredible, but there are other players on this team and he hogged the ball. OK to hog if you're shooting, but he wasn't, not there near the end. It reminded my of regular season when I was yelling at the tv, wondering why they were continueing to give the looks to the starters who weren't performing at the moment. Boy I don't want to go back to that feeling, but I had it tonight.
Hope they review the 4th qtr together and have a talk with PP.
Good post.

[PosImpos]

Yeah, we got burned at the end of the game when Pierce was forcing his offense.  Then when we were desperate we actually started working to get Ray some good looks and suddenly he exploded.  We need to get Ray involved earlier in the game.  We need more on offense from KG, too.

[guava_wrench]

Who cares about the number of shots. His attacking was working. The problem was when he stopped attacking in overtime but no one was moving on offense. We were spending 5-10 seconds waiting for post players to seal their man.

Even with his misses at the end, his shooting percentage was slightly better than our team's overall shooting percentage.

Going to Pierce was great when he set picks for Rondo and ended up with a mismatch with Nelson. If only we could have fouled Nelson out earlier.

[Change]

Great Post. Regular season all over again. If i recall correctly: Pierce was 6/8FGA & 7/10FTA for a total of 19points in the First half. Rest of the way 5/17FGA & only 3FTA. So yeah, he sucked in the second half. Ball stopped moving+Pierce jacking up shots=Celtics lose. Hero Ball cost Celtics this game.

[vinnie]

Maybe if they had gotten the ball to Ray more often and earlier, he might have hit more shots. Too much offensive talent on this team for one guy to be taking 33 percent of the team's shots. It makes the other guys stand around too much.

[mmbaby]

I think he got tired in the second half. No reason for him to be selfish and play hero when he's in that mode. We already know that he's our hero and always has been. But share the ball when you're tired. That's what playing as a team means.

[mmbaby]

And agree, no reason one player to take 33% of shots...not on this caliber team.

[Spicoli]

If Pierce swings the ball to Ray at the end of regulation, we win that game.

[j804]

I agree and Ray hinted during the postgame that "they" tried doing to much 1 on 1 its no surprise.

[jbowen]

When Ray, Rondo, KG, or Baby are open and won't shoot the ball somebody has to.
Everybody but PP seemed tentative after they weren't hitting early and just didn't want to shoot.  Just seems like KG never wants to shoot, dude started 5-5 and finished 0-7 (0-8 if you count the freebie he missed).

I'd say something about a lot of his misses wouldn't have counted as misses on the other end but don't want to sound like I'm making excuses..

[twinbree]

I didn't realize Pierce took that many shots. He obviously wanted to win this one badly but the great thing about him in this series has been his efficiency. 32 points on 25 shots is not good. Everyone else seemed off so I cut him some slack but when Ray started coming alive late in the game delegating a bit may have helped us

[Change]

When Ray, Rondo, KG, or Baby are open and won't shoot the ball somebody has to.
Everybody but PP seemed tentative after they weren't hitting early and just didn't want to shoot.  Just seems like KG never wants to shoot, dude started 5-5 and finished 0-7 (0-8 if you count the freebie he missed).

Nothing new. KG suffers from unclutchness syndrome for years.  The tighter the game gets, the less involved he wants to be. In last second situations, Team trusts Big Baby over KG.

[LB3533]

We went to KG down the stretch too, he didn't convert on his jumper/turnarounds nor was he he able to hit a 2 layups at the end.

12 points from the bench won't get it done either.

JJ Reddick had 12 points and matched our 3 primary bench players.