Rondo's Game 1

[Yogi]

   Wow.  Unbelievable.  Rondo gets 9 assists.  He gets 10 points.  The smallest guy on the floor gets 10 rebounds.  He did a tremendous job on the 2004 finals MVP, Mr, Big Shot.  Don't let the stat line fool you.  He attacked the basket like people have been asking him to.  Whatever the reason, he just does not get these calls no matter how much contact he draws.  Turiaf came up with a couple of big blocks too.  There were a few shots where he had to put it up to beat the shot clock including a 3 pointer. 
   The end result his field goal % was low, but his jumper was true and he was aggressive the whole game like people have been asking him to.  Rondo's long passes were not terrible passes.  They were average.  Ray and Paul simply don't have the explosive speed like they used to.  Doc has been constantly screaming at Rondo to push the ball and that's what he did.  If Paul and Ray caught those they were an easy 2 with a possible 3.  His passing was fantastic (The inbounds play to KG was absolutely perfect), unfortunately many great looks he created for Baby and Kristic were unconverted. 
   This was also the first game of the playoffs.  There are certainly some nerves playing on a young player.  Yet he pulled off an impressive game.  Please stop with this unfair attacking of Rondo.  Seriously guys, decide on your expectations of a 6 ft, 25 year old point guard.  He was second to KG in rebounds.  He lead the team in assists.  He knocked down his jumpers.  He played playoff defense on a great point guard.  He played for nearly the entire game.  Unfortunately Delonte was not able to give Rondo the type of rest he needed, but he's just coming back from an injury. 

[radiohead]

Rondo didn't have a great game, but it wasn't as bad as how a lot of posters here are saying. The guy fought hard to get those rebounds and defend Billups. And while those two outlet passes late in the game were not caught, let's not forget that he threw that perfect alley-oop pass to KG to cut the lead to one. I guess we all just got spoiled from his play early in the season.   

[celtics2]

Well unless he gets a jump shot he won't improve which means the Celts can't build around him. Danny has to take a long look at this team after the playoffs. I'm sure he see's whats going on and will make the right moves. Rondo has made himself expendable. Never thought I'd see this day.

[Drucci]

A "bad" near triple double. I thought he was at his best in the 3d during our comeback. Other than that I would be fine with the number of shot attempts if they were taken at the rim but they mostly were jumpshots. Also the two terrible halfcourt passes at the end were terrible and should have cost us the game if it wasn't for Ray's game winner.

Hopefully Rondo can only improve from there.

[2short]

   Wow.  Unbelievable.  Rondo gets 9 assists.  He gets 10 points.  The smallest guy on the floor gets 10 rebounds.  He did a tremendous job on the 2004 finals MVP, Mr, Big Shot.  Don't let the stat line fool you.  He attacked the basket like people have been asking him to.  Whatever the reason, he just does not get these calls no matter how much contact he draws.  Turiaf came up with a couple of big blocks too.  There were a few shots where he had to put it up to beat the shot clock including a 3 pointer. 
   The end result his field goal % was low, but his jumper was true and he was aggressive the whole game like people have been asking him to.  Rondo's long passes were not terrible passes.  They were average.  Ray and Paul simply don't have the explosive speed like they used to.  Doc has been constantly screaming at Rondo to push the ball and that's what he did.  If Paul and Ray caught those they were an easy 2 with a possible 3.  His passing was fantastic (The inbounds play to KG was absolutely perfect), unfortunately many great looks he created for Baby and Kristic were unconverted. 
   This was also the first game of the playoffs.  There are certainly some nerves playing on a young player.  Yet he pulled off an impressive game.  Please stop with this unfair attacking of Rondo.  Seriously guys, decide on your expectations of a 6 ft, 25 year old point guard.  He was second to KG in rebounds.  He lead the team in assists.  He knocked down his jumpers.  He played playoff defense on a great point guard.  He played for nearly the entire game.  Unfortunately Delonte was not able to give Rondo the type of rest he needed, but he's just coming back from an injury. 

I guess ubuntu doesn't extend to the bloggers.  We won game 1 and we are criticizing one of our team who happened to be a BIG reason we won.
 

[ram]

Wow. Simply amazing. The critics just astound me.

The 2 long passes were great decisions but poor passes.

Rondo was the game changer; he was super aggressive in the 2nd half and rebounded like a man possessed.

And, we will never know exactly how important the timeout call he made with 21 seconds left was but Ray hit the winning shot after the time out. So I'm going to guess that call was HUGE since the Celts won the game on the new play call.

[Chris]

Rondo played hard last night, but he just seemed lost.  He really has lost his rhythm, and needs to get it back.  

Luckily, I don't think they need him playing out of his mind to win this series...however, they do need that from him to beat the Heat.  So, the way I see it is he has 3-6 more games to get his act together, figure out the defense (because the Heat will be playing the same type of defense, just with better defenders), and return to form.  

[EJPLAYA]

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Rondo was bad in that first half. He isn't taking care of the ball like he has the ability to do. He has lately been standing there dribbling the ball at the top way too long which puts us in some awkward situations offensively. I think he really does a mediocre job when he is out there with that second unit as the only starter. He hasn't done a very good job the past couple months of attacking offensively. He also hasn't been a great defender of late.

He did however do a better job last night of attacking in that second half. He did a solid job of pulling up for that jumper when they forced him to take it. He also had a great rebounding night and kept a lot of balls alive. He wasn't amazing Rondo like we want to demand every night, however was much better. He definitely is in a funk lately though. Hopefully this game will get him going and he can return to the Rondo we know he has the skills to be.

[2short]

My follow up:
game changers not in order, jo defense, rays hustle and rebounding and rondo pushing it and rebounding

i guess the haters would say rondo wasted the shot clock and forced in a pass to kg when he has a big mismatch with carmelo (i think) in 2nd half, kg drew an easy foul

rondo forced the offense and thereby made our players run and fill lanes, something that has been missing
not knocking ray on the break out but he did hesitate, the pierce pass was perfectly broken down by tommy, you don't make that pass as pp was beyond foul line

also tommy was yelling for rondo to push it more but too many times i noticed our 43 minute pg being the only guy on the break and he was dribbling

the lineups (davis, green, ray?, rondo and dwest) were unique at times and i would like to see more of green but ballsy/good coaching job by doc last night

[StartOrien]

I thought he played terrible in the first half, great in the second half despite a few poor passes (I thought those 'gambles' were the right play).

The first half I was amazed at how passive he was playing. I understand you can't run as well off makes, but I'd like to see Rondo force the issue w/ some penetration.

[Capricious]

I still think hes too afraid of contact when driving to the hoop.  Last night he was really elevating to grab a lot of those rebounds - the kid can jump...yet, when he goes to the hoop he barely leaves his feet.

Some will complain about the 14 shot attempts, but they'll also complain when he doesn't take the open jumper (which he was hitting tonight).

The homerun passes were poorly executed, and if the celts lost the last one to ray would have been a big reason why.

Rondo certainly contributed to the win and I think his activity was a good sign to start the playoffs.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

What are everyone's thoughts on Rondo's Game 1?

Interesting line, that's for sure.

5-14 from the field for 10 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists, +2 overall, 0-2 from the line.

I thought he struggled in the first half for sure and got into a bit of a rhythm in the second.

The Knicks weren't even guarding him in the second half - Jeffries was above the free throw line when Rondo was at the top of the key. He's got to take better advantage of that. Overall though, he was aggressive, which was nice - but his inability to hit a jumper is continuing to bring down the overall offense.

Defensively, he was his pesky and aggressive self, no? That was nice to see.

What about those 2 hail-mary turnovers which were....gulp, SHELDON WILLIAMS-ESQUE!

[Eeyore III]

Rondo was also responsible for at least three offensive 3-second calls, when he had a wide-open shot (in one case an open lay-up) and he didn't take it, leaving the guys in rebounding position hanging out to dry. Rondo has got to shoot the darn ball!

I agree with those who think Rondo just HAS to take the ball to the rim and go to the FT line a LOT more.

If I were GM, I wouldn't re-build around Rondo.

[Jaycelt]

 Big plus to Rondo for his board work.  No question those offensive rebounds were huge plays and we needed every one of them.  Everything else, blah!
Tons of people in the game thread complaining about our offense and I see some of those same people here saying Rondo played ok.  Well the offense looked horrible because Rondo's man was everywhere except for in front of Rondo.  How do you expect our offense to look good when our scorers are constantly doubled, sometimes before the ball even gets to them.  It throws off everything, even the spacing for passes.
Rondo looked better in the second half because our defense picked it up and we were able to get looks in transition.  That's the secret to the difference between the first and second halves, not exactly rocket science.
But everyone knows that typically playoff basketball are grind it out affairs.  So get used to some ugly offense as long as the Knicks employ the Lakers style defense on Rondo.  Just understand why the offense looks ugly and don't excuse Rondo's part in it.

[18isGREATERthan72]

The irony is, most of the shots Rondo made were jumpshots, and most of the ones he missed were layups..