Appreciating Paul Pierce (Again)

It seems like every other day we have someone new to praise for this recent Celtics turnaround. Avery Bradley has stepped up, Greg Stiemsma has stepped up, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo are playing out of their minds. But there's also Paul Pierce being Paul Pierce.

celtics - Appreciating Paul Pierce's season - WEEI | Paul Flannery

Since the All-Star break, however, Pierce has been arguably their best player and that includes Kevin Garnett’s revival and Rondo’s assist-binge. While those two have received justified attention for the Celtics’ resurgence, Pierce averaged better than 22 points a game in March on his way to winning Eastern Conference Player of the Month, and he’s maintained that level throughout April. One night after scoring 43 points – the first time any Celtic has topped 40 points in the regular season during the Big Three era – Pierce went for 29 points (on just 14 shots) and a career-high 14 assists in a 102-98 win over the Magic. "That’s called, a good basketball player," Doc Rivers said.

What else can you say?* That's Paul Pierce, just a really, really good basketball player. Sometimes it is easy to overlook that fact or even take him for granted because of all the stuff going on around him. But day in, day out, he's there giving the team anything he thinks will help win basketball games. Respect.

*Note: I've said a lot more than that and plan to keep saying a lot more. Pierce is one of my all time favorites. I love writing about him and watching him play.