Boston Celtics: How Paul Pierce Leads the Celtics as a Facilitator

Paul Pierce is known for scoring, but he has also helped the Celtics in another way. (Photo Credit: Mark Runyon, Basketball Schedule).

When Rajon Rondo went down with an ACL injury in late January, Paul Pierce and the already-struggling Boston Celtics were expected to crumble.

However, other Celtics have stepped up, and now the Celtics are playoff-bound.

Jeff Green, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry and others have made major contributions to the Celtics, allowing them to stay in playoff contention and compete in all games despite losing their star point guard. Green dropped 43 points on the Miami Heat on March 18 and he has developed into a premier scoring option during Rondo’s absence.

From March 27-April 5 (six games), Green averaged 23.7 points per game (PPG), highlighted by a 34-point effort against the Detroit Pistons. Green shot 50 percent or better in all four of those games and he scored 27 points on just 14 shots against the New York Knicks on March 31.

How has Green been doing this? He has stepped up his offense since Rondo’s injury, but he has been helped by another player.

That player is Pierce, who has stepped up and assumed a leadership role in the wake of Rondo’s injury. Pierce is averaging a solid 4.9 assists per game (APG) this year, which is tied for second among all small forwards. From March 16-April 3 (an 11-game span), Pierce averaged a decent 6.2 APG (not including a game he missed during that span).

There has been a correlation between Green’s scoring and Pierce’s passing. When Green dropped 43 points on Miami, Pierce had eight assists. When Pierce dished out 10 assists against the Atlanta Hawks on March 29, Green scored 27 points. Considering Green is averaging 12.8 PPG this year, 27 points is very impressive and Pierce helped him get there with some nice passing.

Terry has also been a nice scoring option for the Celtics this year, as he is averaging 10.3 PPG. Terry is able to score a lot when he catches fire and on March 29, the same day Pierce dished out 10 assists, Terry scored 24, which was his second-highest point total all year. When Pierce racked up 14 dimes on Feb. 10 against the Denver Nuggets, Terry scored 26, a season-high.

Garnett has missed some games, but he has benefited from Pierce’s passing as well. When Pierce recorded 14 assists against the Nuggets, Garnett dropped 20 points. Since Rondo’s absence, Pierce has stepped up and become the leading facilitator. No one on the Celtics that is currently active has averaged within two APG of Pierce, which shows that the Celtics would be horrible in passing without Pierce.

Why? Because since Rondo’s absence, Pierce has averaged a stellar 6.2 APG.

The Celtics are 11th in the league in assists and while that’s largely because of Rondo, Pierce has played a large part in that stat as well. Rondo averaged 11.1 APG, which is much higher than Pierce’s season average and his average during Rondo’s absence. However, Boston has played 37 games without Rondo and will finish the season with 38 games played without Rondo, so the fact that they are so high shows how valuable Pierce has been.

Boston is just 19th in team scoring (with 96.6 PPG), but players have stepped up in the wake of Rondo’s injury. Green has averaged 16.8 PPG since Rondo’s injury (in contrast to 12.8 PPG this year) and Garnett and Terry have both averaged more points since Rondo went down.

You could say that these players are scoring more because more points are needed (again, due to Rondo’s injury), but Rondo wasn’t exactly a scoring machine. He averaged 13.7 PPG, which is decent, but not spectacular. In fact, you would think that players would be scoring less because they aren’t receiving more than 11 APG from Rondo, and because they would need to create scoring opportunities alone.

And they would need to create opportunities on their own if Pierce wasn’t on the Celtics.

Boston was struggling even with Rondo, as the Celtics were 20-23 with their star guard. Pierce was able to take over Rondo’s role as a passer and continue to average almost 20 PPG, carrying the team to a 21-12 record (in games where Pierce has played since Rondo’s injury) and a playoff berth along the way. The Celtics aren’t good enough to win the championship, but because of Pierce they will enjoy the playoffs again.

And if Pierce continues to distribute the ball, the Celtics could even surprise people in the postseason.