C's respond to Pierce's aggressive Game 5 outing, blow out Cavs

By Peter F. Stringer
Celtics.com
May 12, 2010

CLEVELAND, OH - Walking down the tunnel back to the Celtics locker room after Game 5 at the Quicken Loans Arena, Paul Pierce was already thinking about Game 6 back in Boston.

"Big win. We gotta get one more game. We had to get this game. We don't wanna come back, Twiss." Pierce said to Celtics PR chief Jeff Twiss, declaring his preference to end the series on Thursday night.

Paul Pierce had been laying low in the first four games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but he came up with a huge performance in Cleveland to help the C's blow out the Cavs in Game 5.
Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty/NBAE

As a TSA security agent wanded Paul Pierce outside the team bus (headed for the team plane) after the Celtics 120-88 blowout win in Game 5, he told the Celtics' captain, "See you next year."

Seconds later, a Celtics staffer asked Pierce where all the rebounding came from, informing him that it was the most rebounds he'd grabbed since opening night.

"We needed this game, dawg," Pierce replied.

Pierce frequently says he "gives the game what it needs," and on Tuesday night in Cleveland, the Captain gave his team what it needed. A blowout victory and 3-2 series lead. With the series returning to Boston, the Celtics will have their shot to close out the Cavs at the Garden on Thursday night.

There'd been plenty of talk about Pierce's performance in the first four games of the series, and his low offensive output; Pierce averaged just 11.8 PPG and 3.0 rebounds in the first four games vs. Cleveland. But in the always "pivotal" Game 5 (is there any other kind of Game 5?) Pierce delivered an incredible floor game, scoring 21 points, grabbing 11 rebounds (his most since opening night on October 27, 2009, also against the Cavs in Cleveland) and added 7 assists.

"I wanted to be more aggressive, getting set up in the paint. Just from watching the film, there were more opportunities I could get in the paint and stop and get my mid-range jumper, and, find other guys and they stepped up tonight," Pierce said in the locker room. "So, it really didn't matter tonight who was going to guard me. I was planning on being aggressive anyway."

Pierce's teammates noticed a change in his demeanor from the opening tip.

"He was very active tonight. He was very talkative. It was so loud in here but one of the voices you did hear was him," said Kevin Garnett, who scored a very efficient 18 points (8-for-14 FGs) and noted that Pierce put the onus on the Cavs' defense to stop him. "We're gonna need that from him and that was the difference."

Coach Doc Rivers felt his team clearly fed off their captain's energetic performance from the get-go.

"You could feel Paul's intensity," said Rivers, who'd been saying in recent days that he needed more offense from Pierce, but had been equally quick to point out his overlooked work on the defensive end. "He got his rhythm back. You can feel it and that was great. Not only for him, I think it's great for our other guys to see. In a Game 5 situation when it's 2-2 and you can feel that your top scorer is here. I think that lifted everybody."

Ray Allen, who had a huge game himself, leading the team with 25 points and canning six of his nine three pointers, felt Pierce's play keyed the Celtics early.

"He came out and he attacked. His shot hasn't been falling overall but we picked up the slack. Tonight he came out and he was aggressive. We tried to make sure we got him easy looks. That was the beautiful thing, he didn't have to work so hard to get scoring opportunities. "

Glen Davis, who helped finish the Cavs off in the early stages on the fourth quarter, noticed immediately that the captain was locked in.

"At the beginning of the game, he established the pace. He was aggressive and that's what he has to do," Davis said. "He has to make sure that he establishes himself because he's a great scorer."

But Pierce's work on the defensive end, which has been overshadowed by his relative lack of offensive production, hasn't gone unnoticed by Allen and company. Especially in Game 5, when Pierce (with a little help from his friends) held LeBron James to just 15 points on 3-of-14 shooting.

"Defensively, he was there for us tonight and that was the biggest thing overall that I think of," Allen said. "He was aggressive defensively as well."

Rivers was also impressed, and felt that bottling up James was a total team effort. And he noted that since Pierce was able to avoid early foul trouble, he was able to stay on the floor and get into the flow of the game.

"Paul had it going. I really thought we did a better job helping Paul out. I thought there have been a lot of times where we've left Paul on an island defensively," Rivers said. "Today the talking and the help was there which allowed him to stay out of foul trouble."

Pierce was originally scheduled to take the postgame press conference podium, but at the last minute decided to do his postgame interview in the locker room. It seemed like he was in a hurry to get out of Cleveland, and if the C's can take care of business in Game 6 Thursday night, Pierce won't be seeing anyone here until next season.