How is it that Mr. Softee aka Kevin Garnett has the coolest NBA Playoffs post season commercial? You'd think such a defiant, dramatic commercial would be better suited for one of the NBA's true killers. You know the cold blooded... Kobe Bryant, the Tim Duncans, the Paul Pierces. Oh did I just say Paul Pierce? Correction Pierce used to be a thug on the hardwood. Which brings me to the reason why the Celtics aren't ready to be NBA Kings. The Celtics have done a miraculous job of getting three NBA stars to truly buy into the team concept. During the regular season, Boston dominated the league with three all-star players in Garnett, Pierce and Allen who clearly sacrificed shots to benefit the team. The results?... the greatest one season turn around in NBA History. Now we're knee-deep in the playoffs and here's the problem.
At the end of the day, the playoffs are more about players than team. Not saying that you can win the entire thing without a good team, but you need that one player that decides at some point or another than he won't be denied and more or less will be the catalyst to carry his team to victory.
We all know (or maybe some of us don't) that Garnett and Ray Allen, both consistently throughout their careers, have shown that they don't have the mental makeup to put a team on their backs. They don't have that 01 Iverson in them, or that Championship Wade in them (bad calls or not). Garnett has been deservingly criticized over and over for not being a player that has that nerve to over power his opponents when it matters most.
Here's where Paul Pierce comes in. Somewhere in all of this unselfish team play, Pierce has lost his edge. Pierce used to be that player that would cut the other teams throat and ice-grill the opposing crowd as he was doing it. He definitely played without a conscious and used to be a force before this season. One of the more underrated players in the league!
If the Boston Celtics are going to seriously contend for the NBA Championship they need Pierce to channel that old assasin that was always top 5 in getting to the free throw line. You know, that Pierce that went into LA one afternoon and dropped 40 on triple ocho and told Jack Nicholson to sit down as he was terrorizing the Lakers defense.
You can't be a great road team in the regular season, then when the playoffs start you can't smell a road victory. You show me a team that looks like the 92 Dream Team at home, but plays like this years Heat on the road, and i'll show you a fraud. They do have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, but who really think that the Pistons or one of the Western Conference teams couldn't steal a game in Boston? Exactly! This team needs Paul Pierce to go back to the old Paul Pierce in crunch time and on the road. And if that happens just maybe "The Truth" will set them free.
Pierce choked against the Nets in the '02 Conference Finals and he's doing it again now.
The celtics need to sit there ass down