Paul Pierce Showing No Signs of Slowing Down

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Nov 3, 2009

Paul Pierce Showing No Signs of Slowing Down One of the Celtics’ larger concerns of this past offseason: Is Paul Pierce getting too old?

He turned 32 years old before the season, had a string of injury scares throughout the 2008-09 season and had logged 40 minutes a game in the playoffs on his veteran knees. With Kevin Garnett coming off knee surgery and Ray Allen hitting 34, talk of “Boston’s closing window” was starting to run rampant.

Then the season began, and The Truth — in just four games — has put just about every doubter to bed. Heck, this might even be the best Pierce has ever looked.

The bare-bones stats line, to be sure, is impressive: 21.8 points on a ridiculous 58 percent shooting, with 1.5 steals to boot.

But dig deeper, and Pierce’s true value to this point in the season emerges.

For one, he’s mounting those numbers in 32.8 minutes of play per contest. Compare that with 37.5 last season, and it’s clear: With the Celts blowing teams out and newcomer Marquis Daniels serving as a personal backup, Pierce is simply more effective when he’s on the floor.

The result? Despite less playing time, he’s averaging more points, more rebounds (6.5) and fewer turnovers than a year ago.

Pierce also seems to have spent extra time lofting 3s in the gym this offseason. In just four games, the 11-year vet has already landed 13 treys, an average of more than three per game, at a rate of almost 60 percent. In the best year of his career before now, he hit 2.6 3-pointers a game at 40 percent.

But here’s what puts the captain’s four-game explosion over the top: A good portion of those flashy stats have come at crunch time.

Take Game 1 in Cleveland. With 1:03 left to play and the Cavs mounting a comeback to get within four, The Truth went to work, hitting two of his vintage jumpers and two free throws to hold off LeBron and his boys for a 95-89 win — Boston’s first in Cleveland since 2004.

He did it again in Game 3 (Game 2 was a blowout over the Bobcats. After a two-point first half against Chicago, Pierce erupted in the second, going a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor in the third quarter, including five straight 3-pointers. The Green, needless to say, put the Bulls to sleep on that run, ultimately taking a 118-90 win.

Then to Game 4 on Sunday against New Orleans. Pierce came through late in the fourth quarter again, scoring five points in the final 2:33 to stave off a comeback run from Chris Paul and the Hornets. All told, he brought his best against one of the league’s elite, scoring a season-high 27 on 10-of-14 shooting, including 3-for-5 from deep.

Pierce is old enough to understand that, in this league, victories are generally earned in the second half. As KG recounted after Boston’s beat down of the Bulls, “Paul said in the locker room, ‘Let’s open the third quarter big and stay aggressive.’”

It’s no coincidence, then, that that’s when Pierce has been doing most of his work. And it’s no coincidence, either, that with his patience, the Inglewood native has become more efficient than ever before, posting the highest player efficiency rating, true shooting percentage (76), field goal percentage (58.3) and rebounding percentage (12.4) of his career.

Chalk it up to fresher legs, the return of KG to the paint or inferior opponents, but one thing is clear: The window on The Truth doesn’t appear to be closing anytime soon.

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