Paul Pierce is the key to victory

[nbaprimetime]

"If Boston wants any chance in winning tonights game and the series Paul Pierce is going to have to step up."

 edit - No spamming

[Roy Hobbs]

Dang it, I was going to start a thread on this, and the spammer beat me to it.

Pierce is indeed the key tonight.  Most importantly, he needs to drive to the basket.  10+ FTs from Paul, and I think we win.

[RAcker]

Spam or Roy, either way this point is correct.  We need an agressive Pierce and Rondo IMO.  If we get them both playing agressive, we win going away.  If not, it's anybody's guess.

[albas89]

I was thinking about it, too! through these first 3 games our offense hasn't gone to Pierce at all... OK, I know, Artest is guarding him, but from what I've seen I think Artest is a step slower than Pierce and most of the times Paul can go past him! the problem is not Artest, the problem is Bynum and Gasol, who have been camping under the basket for the whole series. I think Pierce should be in attack mode tonight and not settle for pull-up jumpers, he should drive to the basket and draw fouls(hopefully the refs wont shallow their whistles...)!

so, I think that, yes, of course we should take advantage of Ray's mismatch, but not in every single possession! that puts all the other players out of sync and we're becoming so predictable, the Lakers will make their adjustments!
Pierce can create his own shot and he's so unpredictable on offense, just like Rondo! these 2 are the key players to get a W tonight... we have to try to push the ball and run the floor with Rondo as much as we can, but on set plays, I believe that we should feed Pierce a lot more... he owes a big game!!

[bigtyc55]

agree 100%. He needs to be aggressive and take it hard to the whole, then he'll start hitting some jumpers. I'm feeling 25 pts, 8 boards, 4 asts tonight on 7-14 shooting, 2-5 threes, and 9-10 from the line.

[Greenbean]

The sky is blue. 

Just kidding but this has been obvious to me. Paul is the only guy on this team that can get to the hole and actually draw fouls on those bigs down there instead of getting his shot rejected every time.

Look for him living at the ft line tonight. The Lakers did a great job neutralizing our motion offense. It is time to use another weapon. The refs wont take him out of the game tonight. The world will see what our captain is made of tonight.

[PosImpos]

Well, the only times he's really showed up in the playoffs is when he's had a significantly atrocious defender on him - Q-Rich, Dorell Wright, Vince Carter, etc. 

Even Luke Walton seemed to have no trouble preventing Pierce from scoring yesterday. 

We need Paul to break out of whatever it is that's plaguing him and just take over a game.  If he can't do that, we're probably sunk.  We need at least one but ideally two players to take over each game from now on.

[Who]

I think Paul Pierce is the fourth or fifth most important Celtics player in this series.

I have Rondo as the clear cut number one because I think his ability to get the team running in transition and general offensive playmaking is the key to the their offensive efficiency. Then Ray Allen because he has the biggest mismatch in the series + his defense on Kobe Bryant. Then Garnett because of his defense + rebounding + ability to neutralize Pau Gasol.

Then either Pierce or Perkins in fourth and fifth place -- if Perkins could bring high powered interior defense, that may be more valuable than what Pierce is expected to bring to the table.

Pierce doesn't have much on his plate defensively with Artest + he has been doing a sub par job on the backboards all season + has a very difficult matchup going against Artest's physical defense which hurts his isolation type offense and limits him as a go-to scorer.

I think Rondo's ability to get the team into the open court and create easy baskets in transition is the Celtics most important offensive weapon. And the biggest difference between a good offensive night for the Celtics and a poor one.

[Mr October]

Yeah, Who, the key is Rondo's pace and energy, KG's play on both ends, and then Pierce need to attack the rim with abandon tonight.