Carrying the load

Paul Pierce has done just about everything for the Celtics this past week.

Paul Pierce has always been able to put the team on his back and carry them to victory. It happened many times in the prime of his career, and in a blast from the past, he did it again on Wednesday night in an almost flawless performance.

There's no question that Pierce is still the best scorer on this team, and this week should be a reminder to those who might have thought otherwise. Coach Doc Rivers alluded to that in training camp: "He's a scorer. Scoring is hard in our league. When you can get a consistent scorer in our league, you start depending on that, so we depend on Paul, to even be better this year offensively. He's our scoring rock for sure. That's who we go to, and that's who we will always go to."

This past week, Pierce has had to carry a bigger load than usual. In three games played this week, he averaged 30.3 points per game. What's even more impressive is the efficiency with which he did it. He is 29-of-49 from the floor, which translates to red-hot 59.2% from the floor. Furthermore, he's 11-of-17 from three-point land, which equals 64.7%. In addition to scoring, the captain has done more than his share in other areas. He averaged 7.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists over his last three games as well. All of this should add up to a deserving Eastern Conference Player of the Week award.

It has been really entertaining to watch the display that Pierce has put on as of late, but it shouldn't be anything to get accustomed to. Pierce can't be expected to bear the heavy burden of being the dynamic scorer while also helping out in every other facet of the game on a nightly basis. For a 35-year-old who has logged nearly 50,000 minutes (including the postseason), that's asking way too much.

When it comes to asking too much, the Celtics have also relied way too heavily on Kevin Garnett. He, like Pierce, has had to do a little bit of everything, with the only difference being that in Garnett's case, he's had to do everything all year. From scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocks, and of course the trademark defense, KG has had to carry this team. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's a discouraging sign that the best player on the Celtics is Kevin Garnett, and that's not good in the long run.

Garnett appeared to finally show some fatigue and age last night, as he turned in his worst performance of the season. KG was a mere 6-of-22 from the floor, missing many of the jumpers that he is usually money with. He badly missed a put-back jumper near the low block and not even getting rim. He front-rimmed a ton of his shots, an easy indicator of fatigue. During the overtime period, Garnett could barely run up and down the floor. The Celtics set him up for two wide-open looks -- he was so wide-open that even I could have knocked them down -- that he converted to start the period. From there on, it was a struggle. It was hard for him to even run up and down the floor.

Not only was fatigue evident in his offense, but in his defense as well. Garnett rarely boxed his man out last night. He allowed the Bucks to get many extra possessions off of offensive rebounds, especially from Luc Mbah a Moute and Larry Sanders, who combined for 7 offensive rebounds. Considering that many of those offensive boards came down the stretch when Jason Collins was on the bench -- and he only played 15 minutes, so he didn't help take the load off last night -- and Jared Sullinger had long fouled out, the onus was on Garnett once again to control the paint. Unfortunately, Garnett looked gassed and couldn't do it on his own.

The insertion of Jason Collins into the starting lineup is a good move. It has somewhat eased the burden on Garnett, something Rivers harped on after Wednesday's game. "I thought it made Kevin relax. He’s felt like he’s had to do so much.” The move was more of a reflection on Garnett than it was on Collins. It's an effort to let Garnett slide back to his natural power-forward position, it takes away some of the banging and wear and tear that Garnett had to put up with against the more physical big men, and it gives the Celtics another big to clog up the paint and control the glass.

Taking away some of the burden that these grizzly veterans have to bear has been a point of emphasis all season. But now, it's getting to a point where things can't get out of hand. Pierce and Garnett can only do so much. You can only bend them for so long before they will eventually break.