So much has been made of the trials and tribulations of LeBron James over the course of these NBA playoffs, which is to be expected. When you flame out the way James flamed out in the NBA Finals last June, you are going to be under a microscope — or a Hubble telescope as columnist Tom D’Angelo wrote in this Game 6 column.
But how about we take a look at another of the stars in this series, and put him under a magnifying glass.
Hey, Paul Pierce, you going to show up for Game 7 the same way you did four years ago when you (41 points) and the Boston Celtics knocked James (45 points) and the Cleveland Cavaliers out of the playoffs in Game 7 of an epic playoff series between those two teams and those two superstars?
Pierce scored nine points on 4-of-18 shooting — two on 1-of-4 in the first half — missed all six of his 3-pointers and was done before he hit 31 minutes. He spent the last 7:43 on the bench on Boston’s Game 6 loss.
Pierce has had his moment in this series, none bigger than his dagger 3-pointer toward the end of Game 5. But he is shooting 38.6 percent in the playoffs, 33.6 percent in this series. He has taken 113 shots to score 107 points, and he has attempted just 26 free throws.
Does he have something left in the tank for Game 7 on Saturday night? I discuss with CineSport’s Noah Coslov in the above video.