Pierce was left amid the rubble, expected to rise from the ashes and save the franchise. That task was daunting and occasionally overwhelming. He had never been on a team that had lost 12 of 13. He was frustrated by the skirmishes within the organization. There was a dust-up between veteran Mark Blount and newcomer Ricky Davis. There were complaints about playing time. Reserve center Chris Mihm actually refused to go into a game. In the middle of a close game against the Lakers, Davis tried -- and missed -- a showboat dunk on a fast break. And those are only the incidents we know about.
"It has, at times, been a difficult group," said Pierce. "We have rookies who think they're veterans. We have veterans who think they're All-Stars. We've got guys who think they've got answers, but they've never been in a playoff game in their lives."
Carrying the team
That will change today, when the Celtics, the No. 8 seed in the East, play No. 1 seed Indiana in the first round of the playoffs in a best-of-seven series. Once a team rich in postseason experience, Boston will go to battle today with only three players remaining from the Celtics team that made it to the 2001-02 Eastern Conference finals: Pierce, Walter McCarty, and Blount. Recently acquired Chucky Atkins has playoff experience with previous clubs. Davis, Mihm, and Jiri Welsch have never made it to the "second season."
Just as they did in the regular season, the Celtics will look to Pierce to determine their fortunes. He has weathered the most difficult season of his life by submitting the good (23 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists a game), the bad (3.79 turnovers a game), and the ugly (40 percent from the floor). He logged 38.7 minutes a night and faced double- and triple-teams as his teammates tried to learn about each other on the fly.
