Games this week
- @ Miami: 17 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl, 5 TO
- @ Atlanta: 21 pts, 5 reb, 0 ast, 6 stl, 4 TO
Against Miami, the Celtics were down 9 when Pierce re-entered the game. The Celtics immediately went on a big run to close the gap and force overtime... on a perfect alley oop from the hands of Mr. Pierce. Against the Hawks, Pierce scored 9 straight points to keep the Celtics within 4 points in the 4th quarter.
And he did it all coming off that knee infection that caused him to miss all that time. Mind you... Doc promised that Pierce wouldn't play his normal starter minutes. So what did Pierce play in his 2 games back? 43 minutes against Miami and 40 minutes against Atlanta.
I guess Doc was right. He didn't play his normal starter minutes. He played more than his normal starter minutes. That's enough to make Pierce our player of the week.
Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images