On many an NBA coach's "to-do" list this month is placing calls to fellow coaches to lobby for a certain player to get All-Star consideration. In the past, Doc Rivers, Jim O'Brien, and Rick Pitino all did it for Paul Pierce, and it usually paid off. Pierce played in five straight All-Star Games from 2002-06.
Last year? No chance. He was hurt. The team stunk. This year? Rivers can save the dime and the time. While Pierce has already come to grips with the fact that he has no chance of starting (two lads named Kevin Garnett and LeBron James will do that), his play merits what should be an automatic berth as an alternate on the Eastern Conference team. To quote Rivers, "Paul Pierce having an All-Star season? There's a news bulletin."
At 30, Pierce may well be playing the best basketball of his career. That's because for the first time, we are seeing Paul Pierce 360, a guy who still is a dangerous scorer, but also a guy who has amped up his defense, ratcheted up the assists, and is trusting of his teammates, all the while looking like, in the words of one NBA scout, "the happiest guy I've ever seen from one year to the next."
With the Celtics winning at a mind-boggling pace, you can make a case that no one is more deserving of this good fortune, given everything Pierce endured in his first nine years here. Last year was abject misery, from a personal and professional standpoint. He missed 35 games with injuries, or 11 more than the team won. The year before (33 wins) wasn't much better - and he had to watch chum Antoine Walker win a ring with Miami. Pierce's teams haven't won a playoff series since 2003.
Now he has a slew of new teammates, led by the estimable Garnett, and has a chance for something much more rewarding than a sixth All-Star berth, something that would involve winning more than a playoff series.
"The All-Star Game is fun," Pierce said. "If I do go, that'd be great. But I have a bigger goal with this team that I'm playing on right now - and that's bigger than making any All-Star team."
You get the feeling Pierce checks the calendar every morning to make sure he hasn't been transported in time to some parallel universe? Last year, he got to work and saw Al Jefferson and Sebastian Telfair and knew he'd have to score 30 points for his team to have any chance of winning. This year, it's Garnett and Ray Allen, along with James Posey, Eddie House, and former Jayhawk teammate Scot Pollard. His kind of guys. He can talk their talk. I mean, what kind of meaningful two-way conversation could Pierce ever have had with Gerald Green?
That was one of the joyous byproducts of Danny Ainge's magical summer, not just the arrival of the aforementioned players, but also the look on Pierce's face. He didn't just get help. He got the cavalry, infantry, and air force, all in one summer.
"A lot of people around the league come up to me before or after a game and say how happy they are for me, for having gone through the bad times and sticking it out," said Pierce. "And now, 'Look at the opportunity you have.' A lot of them wish they were in my position."
Bet he didn't get much of that last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that. And the arrival of Garnett and Allen has been particularly liberating. Those are his contemporaries. He's seen them at All-Star Games. But it's a whole different game when you see these guys every day.
"It's a lot of fun," said Pierce. "You get excited about these opportunities. It's not every day you get a chance to play with these type of guys, and I cherish it each and every day I walk into the gym for practice.
"Every opportunity I have for this game, I treat it as my last. Just to have the opportunity to play with these guys is all worth it. These next three, four, or five years, however long I play, I'll have the opportunity to be on the same court with these guys. I'm going to cherish it regardless of the outcome."
Celebrity endorsements
Gerald Wallace may be toiling in relative anonymity (although not financial insecurity) in Charlotte, but he received the ultimate compliment last week from none other than Kevin Garnett.
"Defensively is where he stands out," Garnett said. "He's one of the best one-on-one defenders in this league."
Coming from Garnett, perhaps the best defensive player in the league, that stands as an endorsement worth framing.
"He's one of the very few players who plays both ends in this game," Garnett went on. "When Charlotte wins, it's because he plays well at both ends."
Wallace played well enough in the win over Boston, collecting 15 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He was somewhat overshadowed by teammates Jason Richardson (34 points) and Raymond Felton (16 points, 8 assists, 0 turnovers). But even before the game, Paul Pierce was echoing Garnett's comments.
"Gerald Wallace is getting a lot of respect around the league," Pierce said. "I saw him in Boston when he was in the
"He can play multiple positions, guard multiple positions, and do all the little things that you need for a team to win. I wouldn't be surprised if he made the All-Star team this year."
That may be a little far-fetched, although Wallace's January numbers are pretty impressive (21.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 5 assists). And according to the Celtics, Wallace is second in the NBA in fast-break points, which, as we know, is the way things go in an All-Star Game. No. 1? The Nets' Richard Jefferson.
Too small for the big screen
Glen Davis is a pretty big fellow. He's listed as 6 feet 9 inches (only in his dreams) and 289 pounds (more to the point). While in college at LSU, Davis majored in arts and theater. So it didn't come as a bolt out of the blue when he received a call from his agent, John Hamilton, to see whether he would be interested in auditioning for a role in the movie adaptation of Michael Lewis's recent best-selling book, "The Blind Side."
(Fox bought the movie rights, a screenplay has been accepted, Julia Roberts is interested, but nothing has been finalized.)
Davis read for the role of the protagonist, Michael Oher, a homeless African-American who emerges as the prototype left offensive tackle after he is taken off the mean streets of Memphis to live with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, an affluent white couple. Oher went on to Ole Miss, was first-team All-Southeastern Conference, and will decide by tomorrow whether to enter the NFL draft this year. (It appears he will.)
As for the audition, Davis said, "It involved a reading and a videotape. It was fun. I did it in Boston. But I haven't heard anything since then."
Sean Tuohy works as the television analyst for the Grizzlies. He was a crackerjack point guard at Ole Miss and was taken by the Nets in the 10th round of the 1982 draft (218th overall). Tuohy revealed that Davis won't get the role, not because of a poor audition, but because - get this - he isn't big enough!
Well, that's technically true. Oher is listed at 6-5, 325 pounds.
Tuohy also said he understands that George Clooney and Brad Pitt are fighting to play his role.
Etc.
Blowing the whistle on the NBA
Even though the game was eight days ago, one overlooked aspect of the Pistons-Celtics epic at The Palace bears revisiting. This was one of the biggest games of the regular season, certainly one of the biggest in the Eastern Conference. So why on earth did the NBA send out the equivalent of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod to referee? You would have expected to see Steve Javie, Joey Crawford, Danny Crawford, or Dick Bavetta as the crew chief. Instead, we had the triumvirate of Scott Foster, David Jones, and Benny Adams. According to the referees' guide distributed by the NBA, Foster has refereed 33 playoff games in 13 years while Jones has done 28 playoff games in 18 years and Adams, who gave Doc Rivers a technical, has worked four playoff games in 12 years. In other words, all three of these guys can make plans for May. Neither team was happy with the officiating, which resulted in 51 personal fouls and four technicals.
Developing situation
If you are an incorrigible basketball junkie, then Boise, Idaho, is the place to be this week. Starting tomorrow and running through Thursday is the annual D-League Showcase, in which all 14 D-League teams will be in attendance, each playing twice. This is prime hunting ground for the NBA; more than 50 league personnel men are scheduled to be in attendance. Last year, former Northeastern point guard Jose Juan Barea made his D-League debut at the Showcase, held in Sioux Falls, and had 21 points and eight assists in his first game. The Celtics have had both Gabe Pruitt and Brandon Wallace in the D-League this year. Wallace was waived last month, and the Utah Flash have been trying, without success, to get him back on their roster. Pruitt has made two trips to the D-League, but has been with the Celtics for the last few weeks.
It was so unlike them
The Celtics' 95-83 loss to the Bobcats was noteworthy in many respects. It marked the first time this season they lost a game after holding a lead of 11 points. And it took 33 games for them to be out of a game in the regulation 48 minutes. In fact, it was their first loss by more than 5 points this season, a stunning factoid. A recent check revealed that - surprise - San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix, Detroit, and the Lakers are next, and they all have seven losses of more than 5 points. (The Spurs, Suns, and Pistons all picked up No. 7 this past week.) The interesting team in that group is the Lakers. Two of their seven losses came against the Celtics, who pummeled them in each game. But LA continues to do well against almost everyone else. It has won five straight and nine of 10, with the only loss being to the Celtics. The Lakers could run their streak to seven straight with games against Memphis and Seattle tonight and tomorrow. But their final seven games of January are against the Suns, Nuggets, Spurs, Mavericks, Cavs, Pistons and, ahem, Knicks.
Technical difficulty
Kendrick Perkins is leading the league in something: technical fouls. Perk got his seventh Friday night, one more than notorious hotheads Rasheed Wallace of the Pistons and Stephen Jackson of the Warriors. That still is a ways away from the 16 technicals that, if collected, result in a one-game suspension. (It's known internally as the Sheed Line.) "Sometimes I let my emotions get the best of me," said Perkins, who added that he wasn't surprised to be where was on the Tech List. "I just gotta settle down and everything will be all right." Kevin Garnett has five technicals, Paul Pierce has four, same as Doc Rivers. Indiana coach Jim O'Brien, however, is ahead of everyone. He has eight.
Rockets staying on course
Keep an eye on those up-and-down Houston Rockets. They opened a five-game homestand Friday night with a victory over Minnesota and have the Hornets and Spurs passing through the
It's his neck on the line
After seeing a third specialist, T.J. Ford went to Houston to continue his rehab from his frightening neck injury last month in Atlanta. Ford also has seen doctors in Los Angeles and New York. The Raptors are planning on having Ford back, but no date has been set for his return. He hasn't played since Dec. 11.
Play it again
In upholding the Heat's protest and agreeing to replay the final 51.9 seconds of a Dec. 19 game they lost to Atlanta, commissioner David Stern broke new ground in his nearly quarter-century of overseeing the league. The last time a protest was upheld was in 1982 by Stern's predecessor, the late Larry O'Brien. Stern also fined the Hawks $50,000 for incorrectly giving Shaquille O'Neal an extra foul, resulting in him having to leave the game. (That was when Shaq was in his string of five straight foul-outs.) The final 51.9 seconds will be replayed March 8. Wonder if Shaq will even be back in uniform - or care - by then. He hasn't played since the day after Christmas, and the Heat have been a train wreck.
Peter May can be reached at p_may@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
