Posts tagged PaulPierce at FanHouse

A month after sending chills through the NBA by crumpling to the ground in Game 1 of The Finals, Paul Pierce finally had an MRI done on his much-discussed knee. And things look just fine.

"It's what we thought all along," Danny Ainge said. "He had a sprained MCL and a bone bruise, and he'll be fine."

Pierce reported this week that he had some lingering soreness, prompting him to get the MRI while he was in town to host his youth basketball camp.

Based on the sheer importance of Pierce's continued health for the Celtics to continue to be successful, I'm still flummoxed it took this long to get an MRI on that thing. It's one thing to avoid verdicts in the middle of a championship series. But there's been roughly three weeks to get it looked at. Has The Truth been celebrating that entire time?

It seems that the Celtics aren't ready to stop celebrating their NBA title just yet, as a group of them headed to Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao win the WBC lightweight title by knocking out David Diaz. Check out Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and bandwagon-jumping Sam Cassell whop it up with Pacquiao in the dressing room moments after his victory.



The Celtics just won the NBA title, and were given more than their fair share of attention, right? How about letting Pacquiao have some of the spotlight for himself for a bit, huh guys? He hadn't even put a shirt on yet, and these guys come barging in and steal the show. Seriously, I didn't see celebrities like Steven Tyler, Bill Belichik, Donnie Wahlberg, or Bill Simmons (really -- that's the best you can do, Boston?) in the locker room with Paul Pierce or the delusional Glen Davis sharing the champagne on the night the Celtics won it all.

Note to the Celtics: you won the basketball championship. That doesn't mean you have the right to show off at baseball games, boxing matches, or anywhere else. It's been less than two weeks since Boston won the title, and it's no wonder that everyone who isn't a Celtics' die hard is already sick of this team.

Here's video of the Celtics being honored at Fenway Park on Friday night. Highlights include: the entire team running from the centerfield wall to the pitcher's mound; Paul Pierce throwing out the first pitch; the first pitch going high; Jason Veritek not being able to catch the first pitch; and Brian Scalabrine pounding his chest to celebrate said first wild pitch.

And at some point, apparently Pierce slid into second base ... Without the aid of a wheelchair if you're keeping score at home.

In the long-form tradition of The Rotation, Tom Ziller considers the action the morning after each game of the NBA Finals.

Proper perspective for the absurdity of Game 6 does not exist. The NBA can call this one weird season on infinite counts, but the sum of all other nonsensical haps in the league really cannot compare to what the Celtics franchise provoked on its way to the championship.

Boston's series win isn't a surprise: as Brett Edwards wrote last night, everyone knew it was coming after that mystical Game 4 win in L.A. But this? A complete blowout from the start of the second quarter? Garbage time?! Eddie House alley-oops to a 180in' Tony Allen?!? GATORADE ON THE HARDWOOD!!!!

Simply and utterly absurd ... but just real enough to change the entire face of the league.

Starting center Kendrick Perkins spent Game 5 in (really big) street clothes for Boston, catapulting Leon Powe into the starting line-up and P.J. Brown into the heavy end of the rotation. Before Sunday night's contest, Doc Rivers noted Perk wouldn't likely be ready for Game 6 either.

"I would say that would probably be doubtful," coach Doc Rivers said before the game of Perkins returning to the floor for Game 6 at the Garden. "But I don't know."

Did Boston miss Perk in Game 5? To the naked eye, Pau Gasol looked more comfortable in the paint than he had in the first four. The Lakers rebounded slightly better than the Celtics. Powe saw only five minutes -- nice confidence boost, I'm sure -- and Brown only managed to record 4 points, 3 rebounds and 5 fouls in his 25 minutes.

The real impact: Boston had to play small ball, which had some success but also allowed L.A. to push the tempo. The Celtics, with that insurmountable halfcourt defense, have been successful when they've kept the Lakers' transition game in check; playing quicker on offense themselves leads to L.A. getting into an up-and-down flow, which could hurt.

But more important than Perk's shoulder is Paul Pierce's knee. The Truth went hard for a full 48 minutes last night. There haven't been any solid reports on Pierce's health, but considering the pain Pierce was in a week ago, you'd be surprised if he weren't sore as Hades this morning.

In the long-form tradition of The Rotation, Tom Ziller considers the action the morning after each game of the NBA Finals.

All season, the nation gawked at The New Kobe. New Kobe is unselfish. New Kobe is a leader. New Kobe is a good guy. New Kobe is completely different.

New Kobe, in the fourth quarter of Game 5 -- an elimination game, at home -- was completely flummoxed, completely controlled by Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce and the Celtics. Old Kobe would have never allowed himself to be shackled like this.

The Lakers did their best to replicate the early lead and historic collapse that they gave us in Game 4, but the Celtics made their run a bit too early, and L.A. was able to hold them off for their second victory of these Finals in Game 5.

Much like the last game, L.A. jumped out to a huge lead in the first quarter, and lead by 17 at the end of the period. The difference tonight was the fact that it was Kobe doing the damage, pouring in 15 first quarter points. But as we saw the previous game, this Celtics team does not go down without a fight.

Boston climbed to within three at the break, and took the lead early in the third. The Lakers then stabilized and finished the quarter up nine, but again, Boston came back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth to cut it to just one with under four minutes to play. A couple of key steals by Kobe though, along with some solid defense and rebounding down the stretch sealed this one for the Lakers.

In the long-form tradition of The Rotation, Tom Ziller considers the action the morning after each game of the NBA Finals.

The dominating lead the Lakers built in the first half of Game 4 may have been astonishing, but it was not a surprise. As Los Angeles ripped through the toughest Western Conference in history, it seemed nothing would stop their machine.

I dare say the Celtics have figured them out. With a Lakers roster built so completely around an unstoppable offense, Phil and Kobe seem to have no back-up plan when the Lakers machine meets its match on the defensive end. Except to maybe wet the bed.

Kobe Bryant could just be making some sort of really in-depth analogy, and I am missing it, but it would seem, from his postgame press conference (you may watch the video here) that he is going to get flat out stinking drunk.

Assuming, of course, that he consumes all the alcohol that he claimed he would. Obviously there was nothing fun about losing to the Celtics, and certainly nothing enjoyable about having to answer questions re: the same choke job. Which could explain Kobe's visible frustration after the game, when he was asked how the Lakers would "bounce back".

Whine about it tonight, a lot of wine, a lot of beer, a couple shots, maybe like 20 of them, digest it, get back to work tomorrow. Nothing you can do.

Mamba -- who had an extremely quiet game, particularly after Paul Pierce shut him down after halftime -- also pointed out that there was nothing unfathomable about the loss, saying that he is a "realist" and that "It happened."

The other thing that happened? The Mamba and Co. could not step on the Celtics' collective neck. And Kobe knew it too, judging from his reaction to a question about going in "for the kill" and how the Lakers reacted.

Nothing. We just wet the bed. A nice big one, too, one of the ones you can't put a towel over. It was terrible. Nothing you can do about it. They played great in the third quarter, we played like crap. They pulled out a great win, now it's time to move on to the next one, period.

Kobe's press conferences have been nothing short of entertaining during the Finals but while Game 3's was just funny, the visible, below-the-surface frustration tonight was way past palatable. I know no one's ever won an NBA title down 3-1 in the Finals, but I guarantee Kobe will at least make this a series before it is over.