Re: Open Shot

[Rich Davies <rich@daviesdesign.com>]

Yeah, I have a thought: Right On!

Regardless of what O'Brien or anyone else thinks, Pierce is the Go To Guy.
Not Walker, not Kenny, not anyone else on the team; only Pierce. He is the
only one who's likely to get a call (thought probably not yesterday), the
only one who can break down a defender and he's shown time and again that no
matter how a game has gone, he is Mr. Clutch and Mr. 4th Quarter.

Magic Johnson was talking about this kind of thing on TNT one night during
the past week. There are times when the stars, with a game in the balance,
demand the ball, rightfully so. Magic did it. Bird did it. Michael did it.

While Paul is not (yet) in their class, he is The Star for the current
Boston Celtics and has the right to demand the ball to put a game away. I'm
glad he wanted it, and I'm glad he was pissed about it afterwards. I don't
want hesitation, like Antoine displayed (albeit briefly). I don't want
someone who's not sure if they should take the shot. I want a guy who's
gonna say, "I've got the ball and I'm gonna win the game no matter what you
do."

This is not to say that Paul makes wise decisions every time he has the
ball, whether or not it's at the close of a game. But he would have given us
the best chance to pull it out if he'd had the ball sooner. I have no idea
why O'Brien would call a different play than "Get the ball in Pierce's
hands." I don't know why he would want to. O'Brien has done so well at
recognizing that this is a player's league, I can only imagine that it was a
momentary lapse in judgment.

I expect we're going to see an incredibly aggressive Paul Pierce on
Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it. I only hope that he's learned enough
to keep it under control.

Rich D.

> From: "Shawn Niles" <shizzjr@hotmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 11:08:18 -0400
> To: JDELLH@AOL.com, celtics@igtc.com
> Subject: Re: Open Shot
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts on Pierce's comments after the game?