The 10 Best Showdowns Between Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant

There still is not a better rivalry in the NBA than Celtics vs. Lakers, a feud that manages to entertain out of some deep, decades-old obligation to spite one another even when the teams are just OK or when one’s internal bickering is more fun than its game.  Paul Pierce, the Inglewood native turned Celtics No. 2 all-time scorer, and Kobe Bryant have propped up this rivalry many times, through lean years and two NBA Finals. Even when they weren’t meeting in the 2008 and 2010 Finals — such as through the six years when Pierce’s team was under .500, and when the Lakers regressed into a mid-2000s autocracy — the basketball couldn’t be missed because of those two stars. Tonight the teams meet for the 35th time in the regular and postseasons combined since Bryant and Pierce were both playing, a string in which both players exceed their career averages for points. Is it the team rivalry that brings that out or the personal one? With Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger hurt for Boston and Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard injured for L.A. tonight, could this game become a throwback duel between Pierce and Kobe? (We hope so). Before we find out, we wanted to look back.

These 10 games stand out as the best in a rivalry that’s been brewing since the first meeting, on Feb. 25, 2000.

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10. Jan. 31, 2010
Six months before the Lakers would upend Boston for the NBA title, Bryant left a harbinger in Beantown with his seven-foot fadeaway over Ray Allen to take a 90-89 lead with seven seconds left. This wasn’t the Allen of 2012 who hobbled around the last half of the season as a defensive liability; Allen’s defense in the final seconds, during a screen and a give-and-go, was hand-in-glove tight. To date it’s the only shot Bryant’s ever made against the Celtics to tie or take the lead in the final minute of a game and was another reminder Bryant (19 points, six assists) is 19-15 in the series all-time — just barely better than Pierce (15 points in this game).


9. Dec. 25, 2008
The spoils of winning your first NBA title include a license to talk a more smack than you could before. Still feeling the glow of the Larry O’Brien trophy, Pierce said that Bryant wasn’t the best player in the world over the summer, a statement that caused an uproar because of the rivalry — and not necessarily because he was accurate after all, given LeBron James‘ ascension. Still, when you challenge the Black Mamba like that, it is surely going to create a game to remember the first time they meet. The Christmas Day matchup didn’t disappoint.

The Lakers’ 92-83 win gave the Celtics only their third loss in their first 30 games that season. Pierce had 20 points and 10 boards while shooting 68 percent true shooting but didn’t add a single point in the fourth quarter, a dry stretch that Bryant took advantage of with his six points and four assists (three in a row on Pau Gasol buckets) in the fourth. Bryant had 27 points, nine boards and five assists while shooting 58 percent true shooting.


8. June 10, 2010 — NBA Finals Game 4
Pierce put up 19 points in Boston’s win but let the Celtics’ super reserves do much of the heavy lifting by hitting the Lakers when they least expected it in Boston’s seven-point win. (Nine points in the fourth by Glen Davis? Not even Davis saw that happening.) Well, that’s not entirely true: Pierce had a huge start to the game with eight points in the first quarter by spreading his attack from the rim to 20 feet out, with jumpers in between for good measure. While he stayed mostly in check the rest of the game, content to have the team’s highest assist percentage (23.8) by finding open reserves, Bryant was on his way to 33 points by drilling three threes in the third quarter alone (his six in the game are the most he’s ever made against Boston), then making 10 points in a 12-point stretch for L.A. in the fourth quarter.


7. Jan. 30, 2011
The NBA is no idiot when it comes to scheduling. It’s why it forced fans on two coasts to wait until three weeks before the All-Star game before unveiling the NBA Finals rematch from the season before. It was a rematch of not just a done-in-five Finals but a Celtics-Lakers, all the way to seven finale. If you hate these two teams for their success, you still probably hate-watched this game. If you love either of them, you certainly tuned in. And what you got was a total storming of Staples by Boston, 109-96, where the seeds of the Lakers troubles (Gasol was ineffective, then shut out of the offense) and another surprising Celtics run or two was shown. In the moment, though, it was just about the buckets Pierce and Bryant combined for, with 32 and 41, respectively, in polar opposite fashions. Pierce’s hoops came within the flow of Boston’s superior offense that looked like Barcelona passing in La Liga. Bryant’s buckets were sheer force of will, with 11 of his team’s 24 points in the fourth quarter.


6. March 20, 2006
Given the 20-20 vision of seven years, it’s hard to imagine how Bean couldn’t have gone off for 43 points against a starting lineup of Pierce, Ryan Gomes, Delonte West, Wally Sczcerbiak and Raef LaFrentz (even Tony Allen was too young in his career to be a defensive stopper yet). Remember, this was the pre-KG era in Boston and maybe one of the most interesting periods in both stars’ careers without the aid of any true star alongside them. This was Kobe and Paul’s lost in the wilderness phase, when we really got to see how two teams would fare given one, enormous star and a team of role players. The Celtics missed the playoffs and the Lakers got in as a seventh seed and lost in the first round this season.

Put the two players together in a scenario like this and points are going to be scored. Besides Bryant’s 43 on 18-of-39 shooting (with only two turnovers), Pierce dropped 26 on 8-of-19 from the field, with nine rebounds. It was hardly a pretty display of shooting, looking more like a fat man given open run of a buffet. Still, how could you not watch?


5. Nov. 7, 2002
Playing at the FleetCenter in a game that would go into overtime, Bryant had one of the most incredibly inconsistent games of his career while shooting 47 times — one of only three players (Jordan, Chris Webber) since 1985 to attempt at least that many in a game. Boston won, 98-95, with the help of a Pierce triple in OT that gave his team a lead it would never relinquish with 1:54 left, and he finished with 28 points and six boards, shooting less than .500 but making 5-of-8 threes. Pierce got the best of Bryant, who enjoyed the matchup’s theater nonetheless.

“I told Paul (Pierce) it was just like the old days,” Bryant said. “It felt like we were part of history. The old days of Larry and Magic. But that leprechaun is still walking around the rafters.”

Bryant didn’t have Shaq’s talents (to a lesser degree, Rick Fox sat out, too) to allay any pressure, meaning he went on one of the purest one-on-five displays in the past 20 seasons. Yeah, he got 41 points, but he shot 17-of-47, 0-of-8 from deep and missed 10 straight shots in one stretch. His usage rate was an astounding 54 percent, meaning more than half of the offense went through one man. Phil Jackson was baffled after the game:

“I haven’t seen anybody shoot 47 shots before, ever. There’s a limitation to what you can do. I was telling the team, ‘He carried us back into the game. Now stop going to the well. It can dry up.”’


4. June 17, 2010 — NBA Finals Game 7
I remember a few things about this game vividly, and one is Bryant’s 6-for-24 performance (or maybe just Bill Simmons’ rants about it). His 23 points in the 83-79 win are the most talked-about aspect of his fifth NBA title and second in a row with the 13-point comeback against Boston. But what of his 15 rebounds (the most in his history with Boston), or even the critical assist to Ron Artest with 1:01 remaining for his three-pointer that gave L.A. a six-point lead?

Pierce (18 points, 10 boards) had an equally hard time getting his game on track, spending nearly an entire quarter scoreless after making a three with 4 minutes to go in the third quarter before he’d make another field goal. Unlike Game 4 the Celtics’ offense was more forced than fluid, a dragster’s engine backfiring days after winning a race. You could see it in the way Pierce wanted to turn the game by himself but struggled, a feeling shown best in the fourth when he got a board on defense with 1:54 remaining, drove straight to the rim for a missed shot seven seconds later against Gasol’s defense, got the offensive board and turned it over on an errant pass. This game’s power came in the rare sense of struggle its two stars showed, an uncommon occurrence that both tried to take a blowtorch to.


3. June 13, 2010 — NBA Finals Game 5
Taking a 3-2 lead gave Boston the inside path toward a second NBA championship in three seasons over the Lakers. Of course, it turned out not to end that way when four days later Bryant scored 23 and Pierce had 18 (they shot a combined 11-of-39) in the Lakers’ Game 7 victory. That game won’t be remembered for its stars’ efficiency. Game 5 was a special matchup, though, one where Pierce had 27 points and zero turnovers with 61 percent true shooting. In vain, Bryant poured in 38 points with 55 percent true shooting, but with a usage percentage of 37 that effectively turned possessions into dead-ends once the ball got into his hands.


2. June 15, 2008 — NBA Finals Game 5
Was the Lakers’ win in Game 5 a sign the pendulum had swung back in the Lakers’ favor? Not at all, in hindsight. After the Celtics’ historic 24-point turnaround a game earlier and before the Celtics’ title-clinching, 39-point rout back in Boston, Bryant and Pierce went after each other at Staples for 25 and 38 points, respectively. Pierce shot 62 percent true shooting and got to the line 18 times, and also had five turnovers.

For the record, I don’t care if you watch any other videos in this top 10, but this one perfectly captures the moment of Game 5…

… but if you’re looking for just one moment to remember, you have to include Bryant’s strip of Pierce from behind before releasing down the court for the outlet and dunk. That summarized this game for Bryant despite his 8-of-21 shooting and six turnovers: He matched his moments of getting beaten by recovering in the clutch for big buckets.


1. Feb. 26, 2006
While Bryant has his nine-game streak of at least 40 points, Pierce’s 39 points, seven boards and four assists in this 112-111 Boston win gave him at least 30 points in eight of nine games. Every single one was necessary.

You’ve read already on this list about games notable for their pure shooting volume and inefficiencies, games that turned because one or both players wouldn’t stop asking for the ball despite their struggles through the game. This was mostly a beautiful exception from the field, where Pierce was .625 true shooting — with the caveat he shot 14-of-21 from the line. He made a free throw to take the lead with 1.7 seconds left but missed the second, setting up Bryant’s missed triple to win it at the buzzer. Kobe had 40 points, eight boards and six assists. Pierce spent most the game turning Devean George‘s head around, turning stumbles and slidesteps into buckets as Bryant ran right at Pierce. He’d take him to the corner more than once, whether to shoot a jumper when he’d already picked up his dribble or find a cutter when Pierce looked to have the angle cut off.

“I didn’t intend to get into a scoring duel,” Pierce said. “But I wanted to step up and take him at the end.”

What do you think of this rivalry?

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