Last night, Paul Pierce made a strong case to be finals MVP–unfortunately for him, the Celtics could not close the game out. You may be interested to find that Pau, not Paul, had the best game in terms of Model-estimated value. However, once team performance is accounted for Pierce comes out ahead, credited with 37.8 Points Created, and 0.376 wins. Nevertheless, this was Gasol’s best game yet:
| tm | Player | MP | PTS | MEV | PVC | PtC | Credit | G/B |
| bos | Paul Pierce | 47.97 | 38 | 29.85 | 0.395 | 37.80 | 0.376 | 2.34 |
| lal | Pau Gasol | 42.12 | 19 | 30.97 | 0.325 | 34.36 | 0.342 | 5.79 |
| lal | Lamar Odom | 41.23 | 20 | 24.34 | 0.256 | 27.01 | 0.269 | 3.88 |
| lal | Kobe Bryant | 44.33 | 25 | 18.68 | 0.196 | 20.73 | 0.206 | 1.78 |
| bos | Kevin Garnett | 33.10 | 13 | 13.28 | 0.176 | 16.82 | 0.167 | 1.97 |
| lal | Jordan Farmar | 22.30 | 11 | 10.47 | 0.110 | 11.61 | 0.116 | 3.21 |
| lal | Derek Fisher | 35.23 | 15 | 9.79 | 0.103 | 10.86 | 0.108 | 1.80 |
| bos | Tony Allen | 10.98 | 6 | 7.70 | 0.102 | 9.74 | 0.097 | 8.56 |
| bos | Ray Allen | 39.48 | 16 | 6.86 | 0.091 | 8.69 | 0.086 | 1.51 |
| bos | Sam Cassell | 18.02 | 9 | 6.23 | 0.082 | 7.88 | 0.078 | 2.13 |
| bos | James Posey | 32.42 | 3 | 5.87 | 0.078 | 7.43 | 0.074 | 2.29 |
| lal | Vladimir Radmanovic | 19.22 | 7 | 5.60 | 0.059 | 6.21 | 0.062 | 1.72 |
| bos | Eddie House | 13.63 | 6 | 2.37 | 0.031 | 2.99 | 0.030 | 1.37 |
| bos | P.J. Brown | 24.88 | 4 | 1.89 | 0.025 | 2.40 | 0.024 | 1.46 |
| lal | Luke Walton | 10.43 | 2 | 2.10 | 0.022 | 2.33 | 0.023 | 1.99 |
| bos | Leon Powe | 4.98 | 0 | 0.81 | 0.011 | 1.03 | 0.010 | 4.68 |
| bos | Rajon Rondo | 14.53 | 3 | 0.66 | 0.009 | 0.83 | 0.008 | 1.07 |
| lal | Trevor Ariza | 1.25 | 0 | -0.22 | -0.002 | -0.25 | -0.002 | 0.00 |
| lal | Ronny Turiaf | 1.40 | 0 | -1.66 | -0.017 | -1.84 | -0.018 | 0.00 |
| lal | Sasha Vujacic | 19.72 | 4 | -1.96 | -0.021 | -2.18 | -0.022 | 0.77 |
| lal | Chris Mihm | 2.77 | 0 | -2.90 | -0.030 | -3.22 | -0.032 | 0.00 |
| Totals | 480 | 201 | 170.72 | 2.000 | 201.25 | 2.002 | 2.07 |
In other surprises, Tony Allen out-produced Ray Allen, who I had just proclaimed potential finals MVP, and the Lakers’ big three dominated that of the Celtics. The only sign of hope for Boston is the last four players on the list, all of whom are Lakers, and all of whom actually detracted from their team’s final outcome. Inicentally, in terms of Credit for wins cumulative over the course of the series (on which I would base the MVP decision), Bryant Leads with 1.222, followed by Ray Allen at 1.059, and Paul Pierce at 1.013. My suspicion is that if Boston wins the series, the award will go to the player who has the most impressive final game. If neither PP nor RA distinguish themselves, the award goes to Pierce, who has more points, and many more assists than Allen.
