We haven’t really talked about this yet, but he fouls a lot. Also, I think he may lead the league in unsuccessful block attempts per minute. Not a minus, though.
Pierce played his second straight game off the bench with a protective glove after returning early from a broken hand injury. Like Tuesday, he wasn’t spectacular, but he also didn’t look out of place. Got a nice look for three in transition and made a few vintage moves to the basket, pirouetting around defenders and finding slivers of space.
Solid, but he doesn’t look fully healthy.
Hard to really measure his impact, though the way he reacted on the bench to Andray Blatche’s superfire in the third quarter was good enough for me.
Like a mute skunk, he quietly stunk.
You could argue that he gets an A+ for playing his second straight game like Healthy Deron Williams™, for an excellent two-way game where he pushed the pace against the league’s premier point guard, for hitting his three-pointers and playing system defense, and for controlling the game in the way that he knows and few other players can only dream of.
But really, Deron Williams gets an A+ for these two plays and you damn well know it as well as I do.
Please stay healthy.
Great game from Iso and Sniper Joe alike; got loose off flare screens and in the corners on more than one occasion and even played some decent possessions out of the post. Carried the team offensively for much of the game.
Left the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury, a potentially crushing blow. Didn’t have a field day against DeAndre Jordan, but was effective in his minutes.
ANDRAY BLATCHE WENT FULL BLATCHE. In the third quarter, with Brook Lopez out of the game following a scary injury, Blatche surpassed his season averages in the first half, and putting on his best show in the fourth quarter, hitting ridiculous midrange jumpers, setting up Mason Plumlee for an easy dunk. He played so well that the got a chance to live out what I can only assume was his childhood dream: the crowd roared for a Blatche clearout to close the third quarter. He got the ball at the top of the key, dribbled in place for a few seconds, and clanked a 28-foot three-pointer.
Like I said: Blatche went full Blatche. No other way to say it.
