As Rondo goes, so go the Celtics

[I love heinsohn]

75 points from the big three. Above 50% shooting and perfect from the FT line. Rondo crapped the bed and the Celtics lost.

No other options besides to keep the faith and hope Rondo comes up big on the road. I still think he will... maybe

[dinoz]

75 points from the big three. Above 50% shooting and perfect from the FT line. Rondo crapped the bed and the Celtics lost.

No other options besides to keep the faith and hope Rondo comes up big on the road. I still think he will... maybe

Total nonsense.

[PPAW4Life]

Rondo played alright overall I thought.

He missed shots but the most hurtful thing he did was NOT take shots.

He can get anywhere he wants on the floor and several times he gets to the free throw line extended but doesn't take a jumper....several times he gets the ball swung to him on the baseline and doesn't take the jumper.

He needs to be a threat out there.
Edit: He needs to not palm Piston's faces......while the ref is WATCHING from 2 feet away.

[The Rondo Show]

We lost this game because our defense crapped the bed, not Rondo. He certainly wasn't great, but his play was fine and we've won with him playing a lot worse than this before. He had 10 points, 9 boards and 8 assists and our offense scored 97 points--suggesting that despite passing up that open jump shot a little too much, he obviously didn't kill our offense.

[sprash9802]

We lost this game because our defense crapped the bed, not Rondo. He certainly wasn't great, but his play was fine and we've won with him playing a lot worse than this before. He had 10 points, 9 boards and 8 assists and our offense scored 97 points--suggesting that despite passing up that open jump shot a little too much, he obviously didn't kill our offense.

Rondo needs to be a part of the offense... as of now, they are guarding 4, and letting one man be a freelancer. Rondo needs to attack the basket and break guys off the dribble... I am just afraid Rondo will go into his shell on the road again... we can't let it happen.

[PPAW4Life]

We lost this game because our defense crapped the bed, not Rondo. He certainly wasn't great, but his play was fine and we've won with him playing a lot worse than this before. He had 10 points, 9 boards and 8 assists and our offense scored 97 points--suggesting that despite passing up that open jump shot a little too much, he obviously didn't kill our offense.

Well we scored all those points because of the Big 3.

The problem with Rondo is his defender is the one always cheating and doubling off of him and causing turnovers.

The turnovers really hurt our offensive efficiency and ability to sustain our runs.

[Fencer reregistered]

Rondo's rebounding was outstanding, and his defense was good-not-great.

But he was 2-9 shooting, passed up some shots that should have been high percentage, and made some terrible passes that weren't reflected in his 8/2 assist/TO stat sheet.

So yes -- he did have a poor offensive game.

[Green Menace]

We lost cause of our defense. Last 3 minutes we couldn

[GJense4181]

His defense will keep you in it more than his offense will take you out of it.
Although, he does try to thread the needle far too often. His quickness is a god-send and he needs to take advantage of it offensively, rather than passing out to non-shooters.

[I love heinsohn]

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Rondo needs to be a part of the offense... as of now, they are guarding 4, and letting one man be a freelancer. Rondo needs to attack the basket and break guys off the dribble... I am just afraid Rondo will go into his shell on the road again... we can't let it happen.

[BostonKilla]

Do you know what Rondo is? He is a Kevin Garnett poser! hear me out now. Rondo is so young that he is a baby. He's a baby in this league just like Perkins. Which is a great thing for the Celtics. However that means Rondo is looking for a role model and he found one in KG. And KG is the perfect role model so KG's spirit has rubbed off on Rondo. You can tell by the look in Rondo's eyes and his posture that he has been influenced by Garnett's presence. However, at the end of the day Rondo has to become his own man because KG won't be around as long as Rondo, Stuckey, Perkins, ect. will be. Right now, Rondo has to quit being a poser and become his own man.

[bujabra]

Rondo should be more aggresive offensively and take it to the basket for FT's. He's too quick for any of their guards (maybe not Stuckey) and Doc should exploit that. Billups picking up fouls early in the game would give the team a huge advantage.

[return2glory]

75 points from the big three. Above 50% shooting and perfect from the FT line. Rondo crapped the bed and the Celtics lost.

No other options besides to keep the faith and hope Rondo comes up big on the road. I still think he will... maybe

You're kidding right? Rondo is important to this team, but he is not the reason we lost. Rondo almost had a triple-double. We lost because we allowed 49.3% to the Pistons. We alloed 103 points, 24 more than we had been allowing during home playoff games.

[Rondo_Fan]

Rondo hurt the offense, primarily because he won't take open shots. One of the leaders on the team has to tell him to hoist it up when he has a chance, because he probably will not assert himself on his own in games of this magnitude. We do better when Rondo's shooting. Even when he misses, he sparks our offense in a number of ways when he is attacking.

But seriously folks, we lost the game on the defensive end. Look at the scoreboard. 103 points? To Detroit? We were listless and slow, and Detroit had open shots on practically all of their possessions in the second half. Even if we were dog-tired, we should have had energy from adrenaline alone, realizing the importance of the game.

When we are not talking about a specific game, pretty much every poster on the board will expound on the necessity for good defense, that defense wins championships, etc. But when it's an actual game, everybody looks at the offensive end to figure out what happened. It doesn't work that way. Championships are about the unglamorous business of wearing the other team out at the defensive end. You can't take multiple possessions off on defense, like we did last night, and expect to win.

[cisco]

We lost because of defense, but, we still could have won in spite of it if the bench showed up OR if Rondo asserts himself offensively. Rondo held the ball too long, passed up open shots with the clock winding down and passes it to one of the Big 3 to take a shot with the clock winding down, resulting in turnovers. Rondo MUST be more assertive on offensive if the Celtics are to win this series. How many drives to the basket did Rondo have? I can only remember one on the break where he was fouled. The kid has to get to the rack.

I think the C's will be better on defense. I just think they didn't have their legs in this game. But Rondo and the bench must contribute in Detroit if the Celtics are to win this series.

[UGA Hayes]

I agree ultimately we lost b/c of our defense. Rondo often made the wrong play yesterday but we either scored on it anyway half the time, got an offensive board or he got a steal right after turning it over so I don't think it end up hurting us as much as it should have. Still the score is misleading. We were shooting 39% in the forst half so everything definitely wasn't rosy.

Either way I think the media-think has been off in it analysis anyway. As the OP sais our team is pretty dependent on Rondo. Which is why its kind of wrongheaded to be working so hard to get Ray Allen going at the expense of Rondo. Rondo was looking for Ray way too much yesterday and not for his shot at all. In the first half we ended up running big 3 isos to death and that inevitably ended up with Rondo open for a corner 2-not the shot we wanted. We need to at least test to see if rondo has his dribble drvie game going. I'm not sure he drove to the rim more than 1-2 times yesterday which is kind of silly with a hurt Billups on him.

[wigglestrue]

I'm not sure he drove to the rim more than 1-2 times yesterday which is kind of silly with a hurt Billups on him.

Worse than kind of silly, it's awful coaching/planning.

[celticfan42487]

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Worse than kind of silly, it's awful coaching/planning.

I dislike Doc and his small ball but at some point the player has to take responsibility for passing up layups so Pierce or KG can take a forced jumper with 1 second on the clock.

[celticfan42487]

Do you know what Rondo is? He is a Kevin Garnett poser! hear me out now. Rondo is so young that he is a baby. He's a baby in this league just like Perkins. Which is a great thing for the Celtics. However that means Rondo is looking for a role model and he found one in KG. And KG is the perfect role model so KG's spirit has rubbed off on Rondo. You can tell by the look in Rondo's eyes and his posture that he has been influenced by Garnett's presence. However, at the end of the day Rondo has to become his own man because KG won't be around as long as Rondo, Stuckey, Perkins, ect. will be. Right now, Rondo has to quit being a poser and become his own man.

wtf are you talking about?

If anything I think Rondo has taken Ray on as a role model but Rondo is his own man as shown by his confidence in the clutch with his crap jumper.

[wigglestrue]

I dislike Doc and his small ball but at some point the player has to take responsibility for passing up layups so Pierce or KG can take a forced jumper with 1 second on the clock.

It should have been part of the game plan from the start.