NBA playoffs which stars have been born?

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7

Originally posted by: SuperGroove Who do the kings double in crunch time situations? Kobe Bryant. He's moreso 4th quarter man that Paul Pierce is.

i love kobe and all, but this one is highly debatable. pierce averages the most fourth quarter points in the nba playoffs (i saw it on a clip during the nets game). it would be interesting to see kobe vs pierce in the finals, but i'm rooting for the nets & kings

Scoring the most points in the 4th is no excuse for sucking up the place in the first 3 quarters, which Pierce is beginning to master.

 

[spanky]

Pierce had 1 good game against the nets, the rest is UNIMPRESSIVE! Some really terrible shot selections too. 'Toine's obviously the emotional leader of the team and has alot more court maturity than pierce.

Kobe's played great too, but I think he's shown that he's definitely NOT a basketball GOD and on par with MJ..

first, i think u should stop comparing today's young players to mj. no one will ever meet that standard. walker & pierce are pretty much stars in this league already, but i think pierce has a better upside. walker takes too many shots and has a lower fg% than pierce. i'm not really sure what u're talking about when u criticize pierce... he's been playing pretty consistently.

Scoring the most points in the 4th is no excuse for sucking up the place in the first 3 quarters, which Pierce is beginning to master.

i guess that means john elways must suck too. just another note... pierce was also second in the nba during the regular season for points in the fourth quarter... so it's not just a fluke against the nets.

 

[Miramonti]

walker takes too many shots and has a lower fg% than pierce. i'm not really sure what u're talking about when u criticize pierce

Ok, here are a few stats:


Walker:
reg - playoffs
ppg: 22.1 - 22.5
fg%: 39.4% - 41.5%
3pt: 34.4% - 41%
fr thr: 74.1% - 81.7%

Pierce
reg - playoffs
ppg: 26.1 - 25.3
fg%: 44.2% - 40.8%
3pt%: 40.4% - 28.9%
fr thr: 80.9% - 77.1%

Walker has stepped up and his leadership has been great. Pierce is definitely valuable but relative to his regular season stats, he's had a terrible playoffs.

Pierce has been playing solid D though and is up in rebounding, and I give him that.

 

[Rivergater]

jjsole, you're not giving pierce enough credit.
going into the playoffs, every team that played the celtics was afraid of pierce. every single team that played the celitics designed their defense with pierce in mind, not walker. celtic's opponents are double and triple teaming paul pierce (and you gotta give credit to the nets for doing an excellent job with that).

so when paul pierce gets double and triple teamed, do you expect his numbers to go up? i would expect his teammates' numbers to go up. the celtics as a team have the responsibility to shifts the offense to the other players on the court that aren't feeling the defensive pressure.

The nets triple team pierce and would rather take a chance that battie, anderson, walker, delk, or any other celtic will attempt a shot.
(unfortunately, passing out of the double/triple team isn't pierce's forte either so this is a great strategy). even though this is the case, paul pierce has been consistently putting up 25-30 points a game.

and he's always pulled down the boards as well throughout the regular season so you can't say that he's improved tremendously in that area. when people talk about the celtics and mention "bad shots" and "bad decision-making" they are usually referring to antoine walker. to give you an idea of this, he regularly gets booed at his homecourt in boston for wrecklessly putting up too many 3 pointers.

paul pierce's game is all about creating his own shots, and a big component to that is drawing fouls. he was one of the best in the regular season. it doesn't seem like he's getting a lot of the calls his way so that probably another element thats throwing off his game.

in the regular season, commentators talked about the leadership of paul pierce but thats one thing i see lacking from him in the playoffs. i think thats something that should change with time.

 

[AaronP]

REGGIE MILLER! A slightly above average regular season player. A superstar in the playoffs. I don't think anyone has made as many clutch shots or got really hot in playoff games like Reggie.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: Rivergater
jjsole, you're not giving pierce enough credit. going into the playoffs, every team that played the celtics was afraid of pierce. every single team that played the celitics designed their defense with pierce in mind, not walker. celtic's opponents are double and triple teaming paul pierce (and you gotta give credit to the nets for doing an excellent job with that). so when paul pierce gets double and triple teamed, do you expect his numbers to go up? i would expect his teammates' numbers to go up. the celtics as a team have the responsibility to shifts the offense to the other players on the court that aren't feeling the defensive pressure. The nets triple team pierce and would rather take a chance that battie, anderson, walker, delk, or any other celtic will attempt a shot. (unfortunately, passing out of the double/triple team isn't pierce's forte either so this is a great strategy). even though this is the case, paul pierce has been consistently putting up 25-30 points a game. and he's always pulled down the boards as well throughout the regular season so you can't say that he's improved tremendously in that area. when people talk about the celtics and mention "bad shots" and "bad decision-making" they are usually referring to antoine walker. to give you an idea of this, he regularly gets booed at his homecourt in boston for wrecklessly putting up too many 3 pointers. paul pierce's game is all about creating his own shots, and a big component to that is drawing fouls. he was one of the best in the regular season. it doesn't seem like he's getting a lot of the calls his way so that probably another element thats throwing off his game. in the regular season, commentators talked about the leadership of paul pierce but thats one thing i see lacking from him in the playoffs. i think thats something that should change with time.

If he didn't run his mouth so much about NJ not being able to stop him I wouldn't be so harsh. But he's an arrogant pr!ck who could be going to the finals if he'd get his head in the game like walker. With all of this "double and triple teaming", he has only 1 more assist per game (3.2vs.4.1) than the regular season. Big deal. He's taken over only the 4th qtr. of 1 game (the comeback) when he's suppposedly an mvp candidate. Sure he's a star, but his performance has made him appear very overrated among the top stars in the playoffs. You'd expect him to atleast play better against NJ as the series goes along but he hasn't really done that.

As for walker (didn't he lead the league in 3pt attempts while shooting a poor %?) a Boston fan (or even someone from his hometown chicago ) has got to be dam proud of the way he's stepped up his discipline and leadership and overcome some of his weaknesses. He hasn't forced things as much but has stayed aggressive.

Again I wouldn't be so down on pierce if he'd stfu sometimes. When interviewed after 'the comeback' he said well "that's what great players do, they step up in the fourth". Gimme a break and stfu - he didn't give any credit to his teammates and especially to walker for challenging the team.

I'm sure he'll have some great postseasons in the future tho. For the team's first playoff run, I give them alot of credit (as well as NJ), and I also thank them for giving Pitino such a facial.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Again I wouldn't be so down on pierce if he'd stfu sometimes. When interviewed after 'the comeback' he said well "that's what great players do, they step up in the fourth". Gimme a break and stfu - he didn't give any credit to his teammates and especially to walker for challenging the team.

I'm sure he'll have some great postseasons in the future tho. For the team's first playoff run, I give them alot of credit (as well as NJ), and I also thank them for giving Pitino such a facial

You forgot to mention how much he's been whining ab out not getting the calls, about how Kidd gets all the calls. basically he whines about everything.

 

[blurredvision]

I have to agree with jjsole on this one. A few quotes I agree with:

Scoring the most points in the 4th is no excuse for sucking up the place in the first 3 quarters, which Pierce is beginning to master.

When interviewed after 'the comeback' he said well "that's what great players do, they step up in the fourth". Gimme a break and stfu - he didn't give any credit to his teammates and especially to walker for challenging the team.

Pierce is definitely valuable but relative to his regular season stats, he's had a terrible playoffs.

he's an arrogant pr!ck who could be going to the finals if he'd get his head in the game like walker. With all of this "double and triple teaming", he has only 1 more assist per game (3.2vs.4.1) than the regular season. Big deal.

 

[PlatinumGold]

No more pierce bashers?

 

[spanky]

pierce is sux. j/k...

i didn't know pierce was running his mouth about being all that. i guess i'd be critical of him too. bastage.

 

[UCDznutz]

Originally posted by: WoodchuckCharlie
I have to agree with jjsole on this one. A few quotes I agree with:

he's an arrogant pr!ck who could be going to the finals if he'd get his head in the game like walker. With all of this "double and triple teaming", he has only 1 more assist per game (3.2vs.4.1) than the regular season. Big deal.

could this necessarily be attributed to Paul Pierce? I mean if he's being double and triple teamed, passing out of the situation, that doesn't necessarily mean his teammate is going to make the basket. Because we all know besides Pierce and Walker, there's not too much talent on that team in terms of scoring (maybe Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers).

 

[Rivergater]

Originally posted by: UCDznutz

Originally posted by: WoodchuckCharlie
I have to agree with jjsole on this one. A few quotes I agree with:

he's an arrogant pr!ck who could be going to the finals if he'd get his head in the game like walker. With all of this "double and triple teaming", he has only 1 more assist per game (3.2vs.4.1) than the regular season. Big deal.

could this necessarily be attributed to Paul Pierce? I mean if he's being double and triple teamed, passing out of the situation, that doesn't necessarily mean his teammate is going to make the basket. Because we all know besides Pierce and Walker, there's not too much talent on that team in terms of scoring (maybe Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers).

thats a point i tried to get across but all the pierce bashers missed it.

jjsole, i'm not picking on you but i'm just replying back to your rebuttal.
from your rebuttal, i can sense that you're letting your personal feelings for pierce get in the way (and you do admit that). after all, i thought we were talking about pierce the player and not pierce the person. pierce is a valid mvp candidate for what he did in the regular season, there is no question about that-- look at his stats. but you can't say that he's overrated when you look at what he did against new jersey in the regular season. he single handedly beat the krap out of the nets. the nets obviously countered in the playoffs with some defensive strategy and its working great for them. the nets did an amazing job in adjusting to the celtics. i heard johnson watched hours of tapes on pierce and mimicked him during practice so the team would get a better understanding of how to guard him-- now thats mad respect for a player's game.

just because you're awesome in the regular season doesn't guarantee that you're gonna put up numbers in the playoffs or get your team some wins. if you're a fan of jason kidd, you know that before this season, the dirt on him was that he wasn't a player that could lead his team to victory in the playoffs.

i hate arrogance just as much as the next person but the only reason i posted on this thread was not because i don't think pierce isn't arrogant, but because i don't believe that walker is what you profess him to be. his shot selection is awful and while he may be an emotional leader on the celtics, it was pierce who led the celtics to where they are right now.

commentators say that the nets are doing an excellent job containing pierce but he's still scoring 30 points a game!!! thats considered a bad game for pierce but for anybody else in the league, those are fantastic numbers. to quote you, pierce "could be going to the finals if he'd get his head in the game like walker" -- his inability to pass out of the double team isn't his fault as much as his team's. they either stand around and watch him or they get a pass and they don't have the foggiest idea what to do with the ball. and no celtic fan truly expects battie, anderson, or rogers to hit shots consistently (except rogers from the three). when he posts up and they start double and triple teaming, the normal play would be to kick it out to whoever is on the wing and have them shoot that open jumper. the majority of the celtics don't really have a consistent shot. they live by the three and die by the three...