Ain't it Da Truth

Pierce Outgunned by Equipment Manager

Paul Pierce arrived early to practice Wednesday at UCLA, well ahead of the main bus transporting the rest of the Boston Celtics from their team hotel in advance of tonight's matchup with the Lakers at Staples Center.To pass some time, Pierce challenged Celtics equipment manager John Connor to a 3-point shooting contest. Connor, middle-aged with thinning gray hair, accepted the invite with no hesitation.

He then proceeded to easily take the first two games from Pierce, who had to rally just to get a tie in the third game. That's not good. "Yo, Paul," Connor howled after the resounding victory. "I'm gonna go unpack the bags now."

LINK

That's kind of embarrassing for one of the greatest shooters in NBA history. In fact, it might be worse than getting dunked on by a high school student.

Raef and Pierce Close out Win

November 26, 2005
After a lot of hard work, the final Celtics play could not have been easier. Paul Pierce inbounded the ball to Raef LaFrentz at the top of the arc. LaFrentz set a pick and quickly handed it back to Pierce, who drove left around the paint and scored the winning layup.

Paul Pierce thinks he's an Elite Defender

November 12, 2005
Preparing for a matchup against Bruce Bowen , Paul Pierce had defense on his mind before last night's game against the Spurs at the TD Banknorth Garden. Bowen, a member of the NBA's All-Defensive first team last season, received restrained praise from the Celtics' captain.

"He plays tough defense," said Pierce, before the Spurs defeated the Celtics, 103-82. "He gets the toughest assignments night in and night out." 

Despite Rampant Rumors, Pierce Still a Celtic

September 30, 2005

Paul Pierce will return to town soon, settling into his suburban home in preparation for the start of training camp Oct. 4. Maybe you will see him driving his customized Celtics-themed truck with images of the TD Banknorth Garden parquet inside. Maybe not.

No Truth in Dress Code

October 20, 2005

Call it a quick change, but Paul Pierce has joined the list of prominent NBA players opposed to the league's new dress code.

Big Three Reunion?

Well, the Celtics have Ray Allen in place. Er, um, I mean Al Horford. Of course this reminds everyone of another poker play Danny Ainge made a few years back. If Danny's mindset were like it was circa July 2007, and there's no reason to think it's not, what behind-the-scenes maneuvering might we expect this time?

Paul Pierce, Ricky Davis, and Pray for Rain

October 17, 2005

For all the influx of young talent and uncertainty surrounding their rotation this season, the Celtics still face a familiar problem. They remain all-too-predictable on offense. Option No. 1: Paul Pierce. Option No. 2: Ricky Davis. Option No. 3: Somebody, please.

Good Analysis Coming Out of Long Beach

How effectively can Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and (if healthy) Tony Allen keep Kobe Bryant from scoring as readily as he did against Utah and Phoenix?

Can the Lakers consistently stay in front of Rondo, especially in transition?

Will the much more physical nature of the Celtics' post players, and the team's vast defensive superiority over the first three teams the Lakers faced, hamper the effectiveness that Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum have displayed this spring?

If the answers prove: "Very," "No" and "Yes," to those questions, the Celtics will win the series in six games.

If two of those answers favor the Lakers, though, the Lakers could wrap it up as quickly as five games.

--Press-Telegram

I might add, as I will suggest later, one more question:

Does KG elevate his game close to 100%?

Who All Will Guard Kobe?

Do we start out with Pierce on Bryant and Jesus on Artest or vice versa? I don't know, and, really, I don't care. Try it one way and then the other. See what happens. What I do care about are DKDs (Designated Kobe Defenders) 3, 4 and 5. In 2008, we only needed to go three deep. The third DKD proved to be a difference maker in Game 4, which decided the series. His name? James Posey.

Nails has moved on, and the question is, who do we have to replace him?

It says here that we've still got plenty.

Tony Allen is undersized, but physical. He'll be sure to use his fouls in pushing Kobe around. After TA comes Marquis Daniels. Thinner but longer, Squisy has a chance to prove why we signed him in the first place. Having received a free pass during the regular season because he has "good hair," he will now be counted on to use the full length of his body to frustrate #24.UPDATE: 5/31. Doc says Marquis is out indefinitely. Perhaps the whole series. Boooooooooooooo!

Finally, we have the most intriguing member of the DKDs, Michael Finley. At 6-7, Finley stands the tallest of the three. At 37, Finley may also be the wisest. Perhaps most importantly, Finley can drain the 3 ball. No Kobe playing free safety to offer help defense when he's guarding Mike.

But is Finley too old to play D?

We're not talking about lots of minutes, and we're only asking for short spurts. No one doubts that Finely is still in good shape. All he needs to do his channel his energy and his length for 5 or so minutes every game. I think he'll make a meaningful contribution on D. But he if can't, we've still got four other guys to throw at the Fakers' star.

Paul Pierce is a Moron

“Surprises me when you come out on your home court and get this kind of loss and get booed by your home [crowd]. We get booed, it’s been a couple times this year, and it’s been about five or six years since I’ve seen that."

--Paul Pierce

Dude, you got any grey matter left in that noggin?

How can it possibly surprise you that a team, picking itself to win 70 games at the start of the season, is now getting booed for being blown out by bad teams . . . at home? In the old days, booing would have been the least of your worries.

Oh, and before I forget, you mentioned the team from a couple of years ago. You mean the one that lost a team-record 19 in a row, and featured future HOFers Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair? If so, good. I'm glad you remember that team.

Cuz pay close attention to what I'm gonna say. Pay real close attention.

That team would eat this team alive.

The Celtics Offense Now Runs through Ray Allen

These days Kevin Garnett is better on offense than he is on defense (other than last night!). Paul Pierce can still fill up the box score, just not consistently (and maybe not very often). Ray Allen? For two years, the Celtics had trouble remembering he was on the team. Sure, he had his monster games here and there. No doubt he's had his share of game winners, too.

But you could never say that he was Option Numero Uno.

Not that I recall anyway.

I think that's changing.

Michael Jordan was 34 when the Bulls won their last title, or the same age as Ray Allen is today. Best I can tell, MJ had a pretty good year that season. Kevin Garnett has never been a go-to-guy for 82 games a season, even in his MVP year. Paul Pierce, even in his younger days, really didn't want to play Kobe for the Celtics every night.

Ray Allen is a different cat altogether.

Despite being the consummate professional, willing to subordinate his game for the better of the team, Ray Allen still likes to put ball in basket, and do so as often as his teammates will allow and the circumstances of the game require. Over the weekend, I observed that the Big 3 appear to be finally figuring out how best to play together. What I think is really going on is that Rondo, KG, and the Truth have figured out that Ray Allen's tank is still full, and as long as it is, the Celtics are riding in his car.

The Celtics offense has never revolved around Ray Allen. It might be fun to see how much it does over the last 20 games and into the playoffs.

Are the Big 3 Actually Playing Better Together than Two Years Ago?

Rondo had 16 points and 11 assists, Kevin Garnett scored 22 points, Ray Allen had 16 and the Boston Celtics handed the Philadelphia 76ers their fifth straight loss, 96-86 on Friday night.

Now this is strictly from an offensive point of view (I'm still not satisfied with our defense), but does anyone else think that Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce finally have the "playing together thing" figured out? Two years ago it took forever to get Ray Allen involved in the offense, and, once they did include him, they'd immediately proceed to forget about him again.

This year Jesus asserts himself frequently, and steps aside when KG or the Truth have it going. That's an interesting thought, if true. The offense should start with Ray, and work in the other two depending on how they are playing.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Clearly, the 2009-10 Boston Celtics have my full attention for the first time in some time. Should they have your's, too? If you're like me, getting excited about the Celtics when the snow starts to melt is nothing new. I remember getting excited about the Celtics signing Artis Gilmore in 1988, and then adding Jim Paxson not long thereafter. 1988 was also the year that Bill Walton was supposed to return to health, and that really cranked up the noise in Celtic Nation.

Then there was the 1989 trade for Joe Kleine and Eddie Pinckney, the 1991 acquisition of Derek Smith, and the 2002 Joe Johnson trade for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. Boy was I excited. So excited, in fact, I remember going on long runs after both the Pinckney and Kleine deal and the Delk and Rogers deal and returning home still feeling like I could run another ten miles. The key question, of course, was how did all those deals turn out? Some better than others, but none yielded a championship. In hindsight, everything is so clear.

But right now, we don't know a damn thing. Will Rondo become Boston's D.Wade in the fourth quarter as the regular season comes to a close? Will KG and Sheed become the Twin Tower combination we contemplated in August? Will Shelden Williams earn more and more PT, and eventually play a key role in a playoff series against the Hawks, rebounding and blocking shots in a big time payback against his former team? What can we expect from Mighty Mouse? Can the Celtics defeat either Orlando or Cleveland in a 7-game series? Will the Nuggets oust the favored Lakers from the Western Conference playoffs?

Nobody knows. But right now I like our chances a helluva lot better than I did last year. Last year the writing was on the wall once KG went down, just like with all the injuries in 1987. I hate those kind of springs. All I want is a chance, and a chance is what we have right now.

So it's OK to put your toe back in the water. This is where the fun starts. The 61-game exhibition schedule is O-V-E-R.

Paul Pierce, Where the Hell have You Been?

There was a certain energy about Paul Pierce as he walked off the TD Garden floor following the Celtics' 104-80 win over the Bobcats on Wednesday night.This is a healthy Paul Pierce, a lively Paul Pierce. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who watched from the sidelines just four short days ago. But he's back now, and when the captain's feeling good, the whole team feels good.

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The season started with me exhorting Paul Pierce to live up to his self-proclaimed status as an all-time great by hoisting this team on his back on the way to regular season MVP honors. Even NBA.com said Pierce was right there with Kobe and LeBron in the fourth quarter. Doc Rivers chimed in, too. But long before he started getting injured, Paul Pierce was already starting to fall off the MVP radar. It then occurred to me that, God forbid, Pierce was showing signs of old age.

While the MVP talk is kaput, talk about Paul Pierce as premiere player, especially in big games, is alive and well. John Havlicek performed at a high level in fits and spurts through the end of his career, when he retired at age 37. Asking Pierce to become the old Pierce, the intestinal fortitude of this team, isn't asking a lot. It's just asking him to be himself. Hopefully, last night was the first in a series of such nights that don't end until June.

Dusting Off the Cape

Tonight Paul Pierce posted his first 20-point scoring effort since January 29th, and looked a lot like the Superman of old in so doing. Meanwhile, that seven-foot-one guy on the roster was blocking more shots than I could keep track of. While he's not the KG of old, the Ticket is starting to do something he hasn't done in a while: pump his fist when any of his teammates force something good to happen on defense. We're still not playing the greatest defense, but one thing that's been lacking on D has been an emotional and spiritual presence.

That little fist-pump may be the first sign that Tom Thibodeau is starting to rally the troops, and using Garnett to lead the charge.

Can We Start the Bench?

Wow.

Inspired play. Attitude. A sense of urgency, energy even.

Of course, I'm just talking about the bench, and I'm just talking about the end of the third quarter and the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, but you gotta start somewhere.

During that time frame, we saw Tony Allen clogging up passing lanes (on defense) and making steals a la James Posey. We saw Give It to Me Big Shelden throwing people around in the paint at one end of the floor and dunking in their face at the other. We saw Glen Davis time and again score from inside, and we saw Mighty Mouse draining threes like his name was Drazen Petrovic.

When Doc Rivers removed Shelden Williams from the game and replaced Glen Davis with Kevin Garnett, at least one viewer (this one) was left to ask, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? Do you understand that the Boston Celtics are actually playing basketball and playing it, dare I say, well? Sure, it was against the Pistons. Undoubtedly, we still gave up too many points in the paint. But for the love of pete, Coach, can you possibly let the players stay on the floor when they're on a roll and have some momentum?

I mean, the starters egos can't be that fragile. Hell, having KG, Pierce, and Jesus watch the reserves close out a game might even remind them how its done.

Psst. Hey Doc, There's a Lot More to Worry about than our Home Record

"We're a defensive team first, we've got to be better defensively. And how we play on defense affects how we play on offense. When it's not going on defense it's not on offense and vice-versa. Second and third efforts really hurt. First effort is there every time. But second and third effort, that's where you get loose balls and rebounds

"We've played better on the road than at home for some reason. It's 48 minutes of concentration, you have to play through the game. You've got to finish the race. Hopefully things will get back on track." The Celtics began appearing vulnerable at home in the playoffs last year, eliminated by Orlando in the second round despite having home-court advantage. This season, the

Celtics (36-21) have a 16-11 home record "The most troubling of all things to me is how we've performed at home," coach Doc Rivers said. "I don't care if you have injuries, or whatever, you should win at home." But Rivers has seen plenty of other bothersome behavior by the Celtics, who are 13-16 since Dec. 25

"We had a good practice [yesterday] and we needed it," Rivers said. "And we need a couple more of them. We know the issues and we've got to keep working on them - nothing wrong, we've just got to do it right.

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I've been using variations of the word "sickened" lately, as in the Celtics make me sick to my stomach. Pierce calls this team a defensive team first, and, indeed, I believe we are ranked in the top five in terms of fewest points allowed per game.

But come on, people. Let's get real.

Is this team a defensive juggernaut? We know what defensive juggernauts look like. We watched one play more than 100 games two years ago. They won just about every defensive battle there was to win (except we usually turned the ball over more than the opponent), garnering flabbergasted praise from just about every team in the league. We outrebounded, outblocked, out-stole, out-rotated, out-helped, and out-hustled the opposition better than 90% of the time. Our defense made the opponent feel bad about themselves, made them feel hopeless. That's why LA gave up on 12/31/07 at Staples and again on June 17, 2008. We made them cry uncle because we were suffocating the life out of them.

So I disagree with Doc. F our home record. F our road record. The problem is that we don't play defense, or at least not championship-level defense. Even back when our record was 23-5, we weren't playing 2007-08 defense. The other night 92-year-old James Posey pulled down 9 rebounds in 25 minutes. Garnett can occasionally come close to posting numbers like that, but he's also 5 inches taller than Posey. Nobody on this team rebounds. We are second-to-last in the league. Pathetic, and uequivocally so.

On Thursday I'm going to post an article written by Bob Ryan in March of 1988. It's entitled "The 61-Game Exhibition Schedule." Bill Walton's return was thought to be imminent at the time, and, Ryan felt, his return rendered the first 61 games of the regular season meaningless. Never happened. Even if it had, Walton's return was no guarantee that the team would turn around it's fortunes.

And that's where I am today. The Celtics don't play defense and they don't rebound. Nobody's gonna wave a magic wand and make KG and Sheed 25 again. Nobody's gonna change Kendrick Perkins into Dennis Rodman. I'm not saying our goose is cooked. But the team needs to start showing some signs of improvement, some signs of life in the next five games or I say the season is kaput.

Think about how well we played during the regular season in 2007-08. That consistent, high-level of play made the jump to playoff-level basketball much easier. Right now the chasm separating the current state of Celtics basketball from playoff basketball is the size of the Grand Canyon. That's not a gap you close over night via a flip of the switch.

The Celtics Have Too Much Heart

“It’s all about fight and pride,’’ center Kendrick Perkins said after the Celtics fell to the Nets, 104-96. “We’ve got to play hard on both ends, not when we get down and the crowd’s got to get us into it. Sometimes you’ve got to provide your own energy.’’

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I realize the man said and "not" rely on the crowd to get us into it. But the mere suggestion that this is in fact what the team is doing is enough to make me gag. Funnier still is Rasheed Wallace's suggestion that he's shooting threes only because that's the way the plays are called, that the current Celtics have "too much heart and drive," and that he, Rasheed Wallace, is about to become a different player, meaning a prime-time, go-to guy.

The only thing funnier would be if "one of the greatest shooters of all time" got outgunned by an equipment manager:

Paul Pierce arrived early to practice Wednesday at UCLA, well ahead of the main bus transporting the rest of the Boston Celtics from their team hotel in advance of tonight's matchup with the Lakers at Staples Center.To pass some time, Pierce challenged Celtics equipment manager John Connor to a 3-point shooting contest. Connor, middle-aged with thinning gray hair, accepted the invite with no hesitation.

He then proceeded to easily take the first two games from Pierce, who had to rally just to get a tie in the third game. That's not good. "Yo, Paul," Connor howled after the resounding victory. "I'm gonna go unpack the bags now."

LINK

It's Been Hell for KG

The power forward will turn 34 in May, and even teammates wonder how long he can continue doing the heavy lifting for a team that's also had its share of injuries. KG as in, this is KillinG him. "I don't have to watch him, I see him every day," said teammate Paul Pierce over All-Star weekend. "I'm aware it's definitely hell for him."

--Mark Heisler

Seems like old times, huh?

Celtics.

Lakers.

And our old friend Mr. Heisler weighing in. . .