Compare/Contrast

Lebron James: "I'm not going to force no shots ever, even if my teammates want me to take the last shot," said James. "If the ball's in my hands at the end I can make a play. And I don't even have to shoot to make a play. I showed that tonight."

Paul Pierce: "I'm going to take responsibility for this game," said Pierce. "I made bad plays down the stretch. I turned the ball over two times and forced a shot when I should have found somebody and we wound up losing the game. I thought I found some open guys there in the fourth. Then, when shots didn't go down I started taking it upon myself. I'm just caught in a fine line between the two.

"My thing is I don't really get down about it. This is my seventh year and I've had more ups than downs. This is one of those games where I feel like I let the team down, but hey, there's been other times I let the team down. There's going to be more times I lift us up. My role on this team is to be aggressive. I'm a scorer. That's what I do best."