Pierce: 'I Expect To Play' Saturday In Game 1
BOSTON (CBS) – Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce is hurting, but he won't let his MCL sprain slow him down as the team gets ready to play the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, beginning Saturday night in Boston.
"Yeah, I expect to play," he said confidently from the team's practice facilities in Waltham on Friday.
"I'm just getting the treatments; icing it as much as possible," he said. "It's probably not going to heal until the season is over, so I'm just doing the necessary steps that I can just to make sure I don't overdo it or put myself in a position where it can really hurt my career moving forward, being at the age I'm in. But I'm confident with the way it feels that I'm capable of going out there."
Pierce On Injury:
Pierce first injured his left knee in the pregame shoot-around prior to the C's Game 4 win against the Hawks last Sunday. The team announced it was an MCL sprain on Thursday, but Pierce was able to put together an 18-point, 7 rebound and 5 assist performance in 40 minutes of play in the series clincher.
40 minutes on a sprained MCL sounds like it would do more harm to the Celtics captain – even with a nickname like "The Truth" – but Pierce says it doesn't bother him too much once he's in the flow of the game.
"It really doesn't bother me when I walk around or jump straight up. It's more if I turn the knee in a certain direction, it sort of re-aggravates it," he said. "I don't have a problem getting up and down the court; it's just certain parts of the game – getting to the lane, the physicality of the game when you turn the knee – that's why I'm wearing two knee braces. But that's the only pain I feel."
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As for Boston's upcoming series against the Sixers, after dropping two of three to them in the regular season, Pierce knows they have their work cut out for them.
"I think it's going to be a great matchup; the Sixers have really played us tough," said Pierce, who averaged 17.7 points and 6.6 rebounds in the three regular season contests against Philly. "We can't take them for granted, even though they're an eighth seed. They beat a strong Chicago team -- even though they're injured they're so well-disciplined, well coached. That series could have went either way."
"It's good to have home-court advantage against them, I thought we played well at home. We just have to take advantage," said Pierce.
