One thing on Pierce

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Quickly... There seems to be some suggestion on the list and elsewhere that
Pierce played poorly Saturday because of some residual effect from his
injuries. I don't buy that. This isn't a knock on Pierce, because everyone
has bad games, but I just think he stunk. He made terrible decisions with
the ball, tried to force the action and didn't recognize the double team.
Yes, he shot the ball poorly, but more importantly, he took bad shots. I
don't think it had anything to do with his physical condition.

Pitino cautioned against this after the win over Toronto, when he said
Pierce made some incredibly difficult shots, but needed to recognize double
teams better and, instead of taking a tough shot, find the open teammate.
Friday, the shots went down. Saturday, he turned it over before he had a
chance to shoot or, if he got the shot off, missed a challenged shot.

Personally, I'm thrilled with the newfound aggressiveness from Pierce and
I'm willing to live with a few forced shots as long as we see him improve on
recognizing those double teams as the season goes along. If he and Toine
continue to be aggressive with their offense, and recognize opportunities to
get others involved, this team will be fine.

(Assuming we get Herren in there and Kenny out of there ASAP.... but that's
another topic)