Paul Pierce disccuses ejection

Sports may seem trivial in comparison to yesterday's news that came late at night but this afternoon, Paul Pierce discussed the ejection that ocurred yesterday afternoon with just over 7 minutes remaining in the first game of the second round series against the Miami Heat. You might recall that Pierce was nowhere to be seen during the postgame interviews. To be honest, I don't blame him.

"I was more upset about letting my teammates down,” Pierce said. “I'm too important to this team."

“Referees called what they saw. I did a bad job keeping my composure. I overreacted. I thought it should have been a flagrant on both of the plays. I was surprised at getting kicked out. I didn’t think what I did warranted an ejection.”

Asked if he expected the physical play to continue, Pierce hedged, saying, “It’s not a movie or a script. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen game-in or game-out.”

Pierce disagreed with the call.

During game one, both teams shot about the same. However, during the second game, Boston is going to need to come out strong and not overreact at any bad calls by the officials. Miami, as evident by the first game, is going to be physical.

Interestingly, the Boston Globe's NBA writer,Gary Washburn, notes the following:

James Jones' foul on Pierce upgraded to Flagrant 1 but tech was rescinded. Jermaine O'Neal's flagrant downgraded to personal.

Pierce will not be punished further. It's excellent news for the Celtics because they need every player against the Miami Heat.

Pierce was issued two technical fouls in a 59 second span for separate altercations with James Jones and Dwyane Wade. The incident with Wade got him ejected, but during his dust-up with Jones, the two got face to face with Pierce pushing his face into Jones's.

Lead official Dan Crawford determined that Pierce's action wasn't a head-butt, however, this afternoon, Pierce sounded concerned, saying he expected to have a conversation with league officials.

Coach Doc Rivers did talk some more about the matter this afternoon.

"If we're calling flagrants the way we've been calling flagrants, if you go above the head, then that's a flagrant foul. Do I actually think any of them are flagrants? No. I really don't. I don't think any of them are flagrants, honestly. But if we're going to start citing the rule book on why we give techs, then you've got to call flagrants."

Asked if he was satisfied with the officials' explanation for Pierce's two technical fouls last night, Rivers simply replied, "no."

Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan notes that the Miami defense makes the loss real hard to get past.

It took about two or three possessions yesterday for the Celtics to realize the fun was over, that now they’d be playing a team that was interested in, and capable of, playing defense. There were many reasons for Miami’s 99-90 series-opening victory, but we can start with the fact that the Celtics actually had to work to get a decent shot, and by the time they established some kind of decent rhythm, they were in catch-up mode, and they never would recover.

That horrible start against a legitimate D was the big story, that and allowing sub James Jones to go off for a killing playoff-career-high 25 points. Dwyane Wade had 38, but so what? He’s Dwyane Wade. LeBron James played a superb all-around game, but the Celtics gladly would live with repeat performances of his 22. This game wasn’t about the Celtics’ defense. It was about their difficulty in solving the Miami defense, at least until it was too late.

Ryan notes that fans do not need to panic when it comes to the Celtics.

There is no need to panic. A team in the Celtics' position always wants to get one of the first two, and it really doesn't matter which one. Even if they go 0-for-2, it doesn't mean the series is over. I refer you to the Boston Bruins.[...]

Can we not reasonably assume that will be Rajon Rondo's nadir in this series? He will not go nearly 27 minutes into Tuesday night's game before getting an assist. Can we not assume that Kevin Garnett will be more of an offensive factor? These strike me as reasonable assumptions.

The bench remains worrisome, and it may be Boston's undoing. Baby hit his first two jumpers and never scored again. Delonte West is slowly scraping off the rust from all that inactivity. Jeff Green continues to tease with some nice offense, even as we wait for him to be the defender and rebounder the Celtics need him to be. What he does best is run the floor, but that seldom comes into play. And Nenad Krstic is still a bit player.