Ricky did it again. He came through when it counted. Doc tried to run a play for Pierce, to nobody's surprise. Pierce had just finished forcing up two or three prayers, so I guess he was the logical choice. Thanks to whoever it was overplaying Pierce on the last play, because PP was denied the ball. A lot of credit should go to Davis for not trying to force it into Pierce's hands. Ricky, lately, has been coming through in the clutch whenever he has been called upon. With the amount of attention that Pierce draws, combined with PP's tendencies to shoot it, no matter how well he is defended, I think Ricky needs to be counted on more in clutch situations. Only a small percentage of players have that special quality. Ricky has shown that he is capable of it. Not just with his shooting, but with his ability to find a man with a better shot. I can't forget about Tony Allen, he was great in the 4th. Tony put the focus back on the task at hand, when it seemed like the team was focused more on the refs. He had a couple steals, he pushed the ball, attacked the basket, and he had that huge rebound/dunk combination. How did we get him so low in the draft? Regardless of how it happened, we are back in first for the break.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Pierce had just finished forcing up two or three prayers, so I guess he was the logical choice</div> Prayers? Not sure what you saw, but I disagree. Yeah, he missed them, but those were shots that PP normally takes and more often than not, makes. A turn around fade from 12ft on the baseline and a pull up inside the paint aren't what I qualify as prayers. Part of the reason he was shooting was because RD couldn't shake his man. Regardless, we won and that's all that matters.
I'm not surprised at all that you'd see it that way. The glasses that you wear when you watch the game are those special glasses that make it look like Paul Pierce is flawless. Maybe they weren't prayers, but I certainly was praying that he would stop shooting them. It gets too obvious when Pierce gets the ball late in the game. There's a 99.9% chance that he's going to shoot it. He was covered so well on those shots that 3 Memphis players ended up with Paul Pierce jerseys on.
While Pierce may have been off balance and missed the shots, they weren't that bad. The problem is that the team still stands around too much when Pierce has the ball in the last couple of minutes. Couple other notes: -Mike Miller may have the prettiest jump shot in the league. It may not always go in, but it always looks like its going to. -The refs were letting the teams be very physical. Lots of clutching and grabbing on both sides, destroyed any offensive flow. -Brian Cardinal looks like he would be incredibly annoying to play against. (Believe it or not, thats meant to be a compliment.) -Nice to see Jefferson get some time on the floor before the break. Still limping noticably, but it was a good idea just to let him get some feel for the game before having even more time off. -Neither Banks or West really played very well tonight, so there's a debate that can rage for another week. -Sign of the night: "Where's Waltah?" with a big picture of him with the Where's Waldo hat. Nice to see that the team goes into the break over .500 with a win in a tough game over a good team. Having to think about a loss for 6 days would have been rough.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CeltsMan54:</div><div class="quote_post">The problem is that the team still stands around too much when Pierce has the ball in the last couple of minutes.</div>Do you blame them? I mean, who knows him better than his teammates? I'm actually surprised that they make the trip downcourt for those possesions. They could probably just send one guy to take the ball up and give it to Pierce. The rest could stay back and take a nap. It's not like they'll see the ball or anything.
Well, you can make accusations towards me all you want 44. I guess Celtsman's opinion is jaded too. Why do people insist on elevating one player at the cost of another? RD didn't have that great of a game up until that shot, yet no mention of that from you. Ever occur to you that because of that, Doc didn't call his number late in the game? There were 3 consecutive plays called for PP down the stretch. 2 out of those 3 shots weren't that bad and the last play appeared to also be for PP, but RD couldn't get him the ball, as PP was well guarded. I think part of your issue lies with Doc's play calling as well. Regardless, if you'll excuse, I have to go put my Paul Pierce glasses back on.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">I think part of your issue lies with Doc's play calling as well. </div>Most of it, actually. I think it's a bit hypocritical to preach ball movement and making the extra pass, and then go ahead and have Pierce try to win it all by himself when it matters most.
^^That I absolutely agree with. I have no idea why Doc continues to go to isolation plays at the end of the game. I don't really care who they are going to at this point. We're playing team ball for 3 1/2 quarters and then we go isolation? Call me old fashion, but me thinks there's something fundamentally flawed with that. Exploiting a mismatch is one thing, but making the iso's late in the game standard practice is really chaffing my..........butt. I dig RD starting to emerge as a reliable 2nd option late in the game. It's a key to our development and success. Now all we need is for RD to continue to develop in this respect and hopefully, one more player(besides PP & RD) will start to display the attribute also. With just RD seemingly being the only other option, we're still too damn predictable. If I'm another team, I'm still going to double-team PP and roll the dice on the odds that RD won't beat us more than 4/10 times late in the game. However, Doc needs to find another way, because I'm not a fan of going away from team ball late in the game. <font color="DarkRed"><font size="1">(BTW: Sorry for the sarcasm earlier. I know, you know, it's nothing personal, but sorry anyways)</font></font>
