Bill Simmons wrote for ESPN:
"It also wasn't a surprise. Garnett's crunch-time woes have been the dirty little secret of this storybook Celtics season. Sure, he saved the franchise and made the C's relevant again. He's also the reason they might not win the 2008 championship. Put simply, Garnett shrinks from pressure more times than he comes through. The NBA is a simple league to figure out: In a playoff series, the best player prevails unless his supporting cast is significantly inferior to the other team's. So when Boston's best player can't dominate close games against a quality opponent … um, that's a problem."
Well, lets explore that topic further. On Sunday, it was a moment of Truth. Paul Pierce was the man for Boston standing up to Lebron James, who has chance to be the greatest basketball player in NBA history. That was Pierce's biggest victory of his career (much bigger than that game 5 victory against Philadelphia in 2002 when he went off for 49 that night). So it was Pierce who stood out. My guess is that Garnett on Sunday deferred to Pierce and just support him on defense, rebounding, and passing. Garnett scored enough to keep the defenses honest.
Tonight, in Game 1 of the ECF, Garnett was the leading scorer and Sheed could do nothing about it. And in the 4th qtr, it was Garnett to Perkins and Garnett to Rondo for two critical Boston baskets to hold off Detriot. So Garnett is more effective as a FACILITATOR for the Celtics because he trusts his teammates. I think Simmons did not do his homework on Garnett in the playoffs and based his conclusions on a couple of poor performances in Atlanta and Cleveland.
If we want to question anybody here, it must be Ray Allen who really is in poor form right now.
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