Our friends at CelticsHub put Mickael Pietrus in the spotlight before Thursday's Game 6 and say the Celtics need more from the backup swingman. From Brian Robb:

What if I told you Air France had taken just one 2-point shot this entire series? Yes, it was the impressive reverse layup at the end of the third quarter of Game 5, so Mickael is shooting 100 percent from inside the arc. From downtown? A whole different story. Remember how much we all use to complain about Rasheed Wallace’s shooting from downtown? Well, Mickael shoots it nearly just as much and for the past month, he’s been worse than Rasheed ever was. In this series, Pietrus has hit just 2-of-13 3-balls, clocking a horrendous 15.4 percentage from beyond the arc, while taking just over 2.5 attempts from deep per game.

* Forsberg's thoughts: We've been saying for much of the series that the Celtics need more offensively from Pietrus and it might be time for him to attack the basket with more aggression, hoping to give himself a spark and the 3-pointers will follow. But to put Pietrus' offensive struggles in perspective, consider this: According to Synergy Sports data, he is averaging 0.5 points per possession, registering a mere 8 points on 16 possessions, which ranks him in just the 3rd percentile among all playoff participants. By comparison, Ray Allen is averaging 1.143 points per play (40 points in 35 possessions). Pietrus gets a bit of a pass because his defense has been solid (even if the stats suggest that, even there, he's still struggling at times to contain the likes of Joe Johnson).

It seems prudent to also put Keyon Dooling in the spotlight while we're discussing Pietrus' offensive struggles. While Dooling was in and out of the rotation during the regular season, he's been nothing short of spectacular in the playoffs, scoring 21 points on a mere 14 possessions, good for a best-in-the-league 1.5 points per play. Dooling is 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) from the floor overall, providing much-needed bench offense as Pietrus struggles to find his own shot.