<div align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%">Who would you rather have?</span>Each week, SI.com's Jack McCallum analyzes two players of similar talents and/oron-court tendencies. (Contracts and salary-cap considerations are non-factors.)vs<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span style="color:#006600">They are scoring at virtually the same rate (about 28 points per game), trying desperately to move their teams into what seems to be a wide-open Eastern Conference playoff race. Boston's Paul Pierce, an All-Star for the last five seasons, is much better-known to the public than Atlanta's Joe Johnson. But Johnson, who may have found a permanent home with the Hawks, should almost certainly be an All-Star this season, and is a favorite of NBA aficionados who can keep their Johnsons straight.Pierce is considered the superior scorer, a bloodless competitor who always wants the ball at crunch time. Johnson, who often directs the offense and can be a shut-down defender, is considered the more versatile player. But Pierce gets a respectable 3.5 assists per game (close to Johnson's 4.1) and is underrated as a rebounder with 9.5, better than Johnson's 5.9. Pierce is also the more accurate free-throw shooter (.750 to Johnson's .684), which is a good thing since he gets to the line as much as anyone in the league."Joe can do as many things well as any player in the league," said one NBA assistant coach. "I know the Phoenix Suns wish they still had him. Over the last few years, Pierce has become a little bit undervalued because he hasn't been able to take the Celtics anywhere, but he is still an elite player. I'd still give the slight edge to Pierce."I'm also giving the nod to PIERCE. But let's check at season's end and see which star got his team more W's.</span></div></div>Give me Pierce in a 7 game series any day of the week.
Pierce..Joe Johnson still hasn't proven he can be the leader of a team..just because he started off with good stats less than 20 games into this season doesn't he's going to be a Pierce type of player..
Pierce. Joe is very talented, and his jumper is very good. Believe me, Ive seen the Hawks play the Raptors twice this year. He can also get to the basket easily..But Pierce is just the better scorer. His tenacity, consistencty, driving ability just excels, and he has a great jump shot also.His defense and rebounding and ppg are alittle better than Joe's, and I would say passing is about euqal, maybe the slight advantage to Joe..That's just my analysis on it.
