Pierce struggles against Deng

By Gary Dzen

January 14, 2012

2 minutes to read

By Gary Dzen, Globe Staff

Doc Rivers said before last night’s game with the Bulls that he expected Paul Pierce to break out in a big way following his early-season struggles. But Pierce struggled as much as ever against the Bulls’ Luol Deng. Pierce made 3 of 12 shots from the field against the lanky Deng and appeared overmatched on defense, allowing a monster game (21 points, 16 rebounds) to the Bulls small forward.

“I have to play better for us to win ball games, and I realize that,” said Pierce. “Right now we’re going through a little lull, and we’ve just got to get through it.”

Pierce’s production has sometimes been overlooked since the arrivals of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, but the Celtics are a much better team when Pierce is an elite scorer. Both Garnett and Allen’s points come within the offense, while Pierce can create his own. That’s especially important against teams like the Bulls.

“Listen, Paul’s playing hard,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “Like I told you, I’m using the minutes for him to try to get him in better shape and better rhythm. Is it the best situation for all of us? No. But we’ve just got to endure through this until he gets right.”

Pierce missed much of training camp and is still getting his conditioning down, so there’s a chance he gets it right sooner rather than later. But he’s 16-of-51 from inside the 3-point line this season, a dismal 31.4 percent. As long as he’s shooting like that, the Celtics don’t stand much of a chance against the league’s best.

— The way the Bulls talked about the game afterward was telling. Deng was asked about the Celtics making a run, and his answer subtly lays out the new hierarchy of the Eastern Conference. It says that the Bulls — and not the Celtics — are the team dictating the wins and losses.

“We got to get better in not giving up leads,” said Deng. “We knew that they were not going to go down easy. I knew they were going to come back and make a run. We are just a little disappointed that we allowed them to make that run, but once again, just answering that run I thought we did a great job.”

There was a time not long ago when the only thing stopping the Celtics from winning games was how their own play.