But it doesn’t mean he’s lost sight of what’s important. (ESPNBoston)

“At the end of the day, I always say, it’s not about Paul Pierce,” he said. “I’m doing the little things to help this team win. We’ve got a number of guys playing well. I just want to play within the system. Play my part, play defense, do whatever I can to help this team win. You can’t have everybody go out there and score 25 points per night. Some nights you take a back seat and go to the guys getting it done. Tonight, it was Ray [Allen], Rondo, [Tony Allen]. I respect that. It’s not me pouting or looking down when I don’t get the ball and I’m not shooting the ball well. It’s staying in the flow of the game.” [...]

“I’m at the point in my career where, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit, it’s about winning games,” said Pierce. “At the end of the day, when my legacy is put up in the air, they’ll say, ‘What did he do for his team?’ There’s a lot of individual things I’ve done, but it’s about winning games, winning championships. If it’s me getting nine points, a couple rebounds, taking a key charge and we won the game. That’s fine with me.”

I agree with Pierce, 100%.  If the Celtics do win the title, nobody will remember Pierce’s poor showing against Cleveland and Lebron James.  Nobody will give a shit.  On the other hand, Boston might very well need a vintage Pierce performance at some point in order to take Cleveland down.

We can only hope he’s still capable of reaching inside himself and pulling out something extra, especially when the Celtics need it the most.