Big game for Rondo...

[KungPoweChicken]

With New York's transition defense tonight, suit me up, I could have had 30pts. But I appreciate what he did. He seemed to play hard, which is more than what I can normally say about him. And he scored some much needed points.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I'm kinda mixed in the performance. I thought he was awesome, but needs to find a better balance of being aggressive to score and being aggressive to create shots for the rest of the team.

I would have liked to see a lot more kickouts out of his penetration attempts. This particularly true when the Knicks started collapsing the whole team on him as he went to the basket.

This also true when he started with the pull-up jumpers early in the shotclock after he has already taken it to the hoop in a couple of plays in a row.

Excellent game, but the next step is to find that balance of what it means to be aggressive. It's like when he starts to penetrate he has already made up his mind if he's going to shoot it or pass it. By this I mean, he often has a wideopen layup and yet passes the ball, and at other times he's contested and he forces the issue.

Anyways, enough of that. Really liked what he showed with the pace and going strong to the hoop.

[IrishGreen]

He was consistently are best player and without him on the floor we were terrible.

[BballTim]

With New York's transition defense tonight, suit me up, I could have had 30pts. But I appreciate what he did. He seemed to play hard, which is more than what I can normally say about him. And he scored some much needed points.

  Sure you could.

[BballTim]

Rondo had a season-high 30 points tonight, and more impressive than the production to me was the way in which he was scoring.  Rondo was playing with aggression and "with speed", as Doc likes to say.  He was the guy who was carrying us for much of this game, and he deserves major props.

  When the team gets the ball to Rondo he can do that to the defense, sometimes off of made baskets if they hustle and hurry the inbounds pass. When they don't get rebounds or don't get him the ball quickly with an outlet pass we lose an important part of our offense.

[LB3533]

He has this capability to score, he should score even more like this, if the chance presents itself.

It doesn't do this team any good if Rondo tries to be the assist monger when our other guys can't buy a basket.

But we ain't winning a heck a lot if we need Rondo to score 30 every night.

[Assassin70]

I always love the chance to post this.

[heyvik]

I'm kinda mixed in the performance. I thought he was awesome, but needs to find a better balance of being aggressive to score and being aggressive to create shots for the rest of the team.

I would have liked to see a lot more kickouts out of his penetration attempts. This particularly true when the Knicks started collapsing the whole team on him as he went to the basket.

This also true when he started with the pull-up jumpers early in the shotclock after he has already taken it to the hoop in a couple of plays in a row.

Excellent game, but the next step is to find that balance of what it means to be aggressive. It's like when he starts to penetrate he has already made up his mind if he's going to shoot it or pass it. By this I mean, he often has a wideopen layup and yet passes the ball, and at other times he's contested and he forces the issue.

Anyways, enough of that. Really liked what he showed with the pace and going strong to the hoop.

Totally agreed!  and YES I am BEING CRITICAL AFTER A WIN! I watched the game but thought that Rondo should have done more to get the team in more of a rhythm. The team is at its best when the Big 3 get the most shot attempts and Rondo shells out more than 12 assists. You see a difference in the TEAM and its a balanced attack. The defense doesn't know whether to hop out on Ray at the 3 pt line, worry about Paul creating or KG rolling to the hoop. Then as the 4th option, Rondo, taking it strong to the hoop. That behavior then will translate to the bench who will start to also play differently.

[2short]

While Rondo has had a near triple double in game 1 and a great performance ingame 2 the key is that our TEAM has different guys who can step up.  Ray has quietly had 2 good games, jermaine was very key in game 1 win.  Game 3 we can easily have PP go for 30, Delonte do great etc.

[Jaycelt]

This is precisely why the hate on Rondo was simply unwarranted after his near triple double performance in the last game.

He was incredible tonight. [dang], I've been hard on Rondo this season (not on this forum, but elsewhere), and I gotta say that I'm so happy to be wrong. This guy goes big when the stakes are at their highest.

There is a difference between knowing what he is capable of and him actually going out there and showing it.

We know he is an All-Star who can take over games. But we have also seen he can be a non-factor.

When Rondo has a great game, that usually means the Celtics are playing well.

He's had two different types of game thus far in the playoffs, but fortunately enough, we eked out wins both times.

 +1

[LB3533]

I think this is all apart of Rondo's evolution.

He needs to grow out of the "pass first" PG mold, because the Big 3 are pretty much handing over the keys to Rondo.

So Rondo has to take charge and drive where he wants to, not to where he's being told to go.

[RedsCeltics34]

Definitely was. Now I hope its cemented in his head that he IS capable of this, especially against the Knicks.

[j804]

With New York's transition defense tonight, suit me up, I could have had 30pts. But I appreciate what he did. He seemed to play hard, which is more than what I can normally say about him. And he scored some much needed points.

The thing is not just against the Knicks if Rondo is determined he can attack and score like this on anybody we've seen it before. He just needs to get back to it.

I like the adjustment he made in attacking instead of slowly laying it up like he usually does off the side of the backboard where he's blocked a lot, he actually took the ball to the rim little scoops and floaters right to the rim.