I briefly mentioned this on Twitter last night, but I wanted to expand on it today.  Paul Pierce’s sweet spot is that right elbow, everybody knows this.   However, last night in game 5, Paul Pierce was ale to get to his spot at will:

Pierce attempted 11 shots from that right elbow area and he made 6 of them, and his six makes count for half of his total makes for the game.  Just by looking at the shot-chart, it is no surprise to find out that Paul Pierce had his best game of the series.  If the fans know that this is Pierce’s sweet spot, the Lakers have to know about it, so I think it is safe to assume that one of their goals when defending Paul Pierce is to keep him out of this area.  The Lakers failed to do this last night:

Make One

Ron Artest had a strange game defensively.  I don’t know what it was, but he was just lacking a physicality that he normally has.  This was most apparent when he was defending Paul Pierce in his sweet spot.  A few times, Pierce would just seal at the mid-post, and Ron Artest would just let it happen.  Artest normally uses his body to push a guy like Pierce out of position, but tonight he didn’t do that.  Once Pierce makes the catch, Artest gives Pierce too much of a cushion (especially when you have two seven footers in help position behind you), and Pierce takes advantage by knocking down the jumper.

Make Two

In addition to sealing Pierce on the mid post, the Celtics also liked getting the ball to Pierce up top and running a screen for him.  The Lakers were switching every screen and here Lamar Odom is now in charge of defending Pierce.  Odom keeps his hands down and lets Pierce just walk into his step back move without much of a challenge.

Make Three

Again, the Celtics run a screen for Pierce, getting a switch and forcing Odom to once again cover Pierce.  This time Pierce pump fakes, and Odom doesn’t bit (or react even).  He is late with his close-out and Pierce knocks down the easy jumper.

Make Four

This is probably the best defended play of the six I am showing you.  Artest gets a hand in Pierce’s face, but he is still able to knock down the step back jumper.  The mistake here is Artest once again just letting Pierce back him down in the mid-post with no real effort to try and push him out of position.

Make Five

This is just a really nice set run by Boston.  They get Pierce going off a screen away from the basketball, running towards his sweet spot.  Pretty good defense, but maybe you would like to see Bynum leave Perkins to help on Pierce running off of the screen.

Make Six

The Celtics push the ball in transition here, and it forces a few cross-matches and maybe the worst one (from the Lakers’ perspective) is Jordan Farmar stuck covering Paul Pierce.  Farmar tries to be physical with Pierce, but he is too small and Pierce just backs him down to the elbow and knocks down the jumper.