We lost yesterday for a lot of reasons. Already covered a few of them on here. But what really grinds my gears is that we lost by a "Paul Pierce 4th quarter" amount of points. RIGHT when he was getting it going, starting to pour in some threes, he got tossed.
We could go back and forth all day about whether or not it was deserved. But the real issue is that it could have cost us a W. Paul knew it, you could see it all over his face as he walked back to the locker room.
Jackie Macmullan made the point (albeit one dripping in sarcasm) that Paul showed he has matured a little as he did not whip his jersey off like he did in that Indiana playoff game years ago. Instead the cameras caught him pulling the front of his jersey over his face. He understands he owes his team.
If I've learned anything watching Paul Pierce throughout his career, it's that you won't like him when he's angry. Don't fuel his fire. It gives him focus. That's why I expect him to come out guns blazing in Game 2. Looking for his offense early and often and playing good, physical defense on Lebron.
I don't know what was going on with him early in the game. Maybe he was a little jet lagged? Drunk? I don't know. But it was weird. Like all of a sudden he had Tony Allens ball handling skills, dribbling the ball off his foot a bunch of times.
But I don't anticipate anymore flukyness like that from here on out. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Paul finishes with close to 30 points tomorrow night.
No comments:
Post a Comment