What to make of Rajon's Game 5 performance

[ma11l]

I'm really confused as to my opinion on this.  Many of us in the game thread including myself were complaining and knocking Rondo for his play last night, especially in the fourth quarter.  There was even one person who wanted him traded right away (as we all know emotions were running high, we all say things we don't mean during crucial moments of the game, this was the most over the top of the night in my opinion). 

All this being what it is, I look at the box score and see Rajon had 13 assists and 1 turnover.  He also threw in 4 steals.  When looking at these numbers you would think that he had a break out performance similar to Game 5 of the Cleveland series.  You would think that he showed up big time in the biggest game of the year.

He may have only had one turnover, but he threw a lot of those rainbow passes.  The ones to KG I'm okay with, the one to Paul I am not.  There were other deflections and near turnovers.  Many of his shots were poor decisions and could be seen as turnover as they had no chance of going in.  He also made poor decisions by passing up shots he can make and should be shooting.

Overall he shot the ball poorly 3-14, however he made a huge, timely shot with that beautiful left hand lay in. 

He played a game high 46 minutes.  I was all for his minutes going up, but in my opinion this was too drastic of a change, going from 30 a game in this series to 46 is a big jump.  I would like to have seen 40 or 41 minutes.  He could've been very tired both physically and mentally in the fourth quarter.


I know I'm rambling a lot here, but there were just a lot of contradictions in his game last night.  The numbers were solid, the perception of his floor game were not.  Help me out here boys and girls, how are you all looking at how he played last night?

[Redz]

Yeh Ma, if you read into the thread I started about Champs & Chokers you'll see you can count me as one of the "elatedly confused" crowd.  Rondo's stat line is nutso from last night.  The one turnover is amazing.  So many of those lazy loft passes were near turnovers, and a few of those assists were bail outs by KG.  But the results are the results.

[crownsy]

I'm really confused as to my opinion on this.  Many of us in the game thread including myself were complaining and knocking Rondo for his play last night, especially in the fourth quarter.  There was even one person who wanted him traded right away (as we all know emotions were running high, we all say things we don't mean during crucial moments of the game, this was the most over the top of the night in my opinion). 

All this being what it is, I look at the box score and see Rajon had 13 assists and 1 turnover.  He also threw in 4 steals.  When looking at these numbers you would think that he had a break out performance similar to Game 5 of the Cleveland series.  You would think that he showed up big time in the biggest game of the year.

He may have only had one turnover, but he threw a lot of those rainbow passes.  The ones to KG I'm okay with, the one to Paul I am not.  There were other deflections and near turnovers.  Many of his shots were poor decisions and could be seen as turnover as they had no chance of going in.  He also made poor decisions by passing up shots he can make and should be shooting.

Overall he shot the ball poorly 3-14, however he made a huge, timely shot with that beautiful left hand lay in. 

He played a game high 46 minutes.  I was all for his minutes going up, but in my opinion this was too drastic of a change, going from 30 a game in this series to 46 is a big jump.  I would like to have seen 40 or 41 minutes.  He could've been very tired both physically and mentally in the fourth quarter.


I know I'm rambling a lot here, but there were just a lot of contradictions in his game last night.  The numbers were solid, the perception of his floor game were not.  Help me out here boys and girls, how are you all looking at how he played last night?

where stuck with that jump though, sam can't even get the ball up the floor.

lets be honest, we have no one better behind him right now.

and thats his only real knock i have, he's making (to no ones suprise) rookie mistakes in his first playoffs. and i can't fault him for it one bit, in fact i think he's doing a better job than an objective observer could have ever hoped.

i mean, we know he can be better, we saw it all year, but if you step back, he's a ballsy (hope thats not filtered) 22 year old with one season of winning basketball under his belt with what, 8 new guys in the rotation?

[Who]

I thought Rondo did a lot of great things and a few bad things. I loved how he pushed the tempo and got the team several fastbreak points, especially those Ray Allen baskets. I loved how quickly he got the team into their halfcourt offense. His penetration was solid. He got his teammates the ball in good situations. As long as Rondo does that I could care less if he shoots as poorly as he did. Big layup too late in the game.

Then his passing fell apart late in the game. Those looping passes were backbreakers for the Celtics. Not only did they present Detroit with plenty of opportunities to steal possession but more importantly that completely stopped the Celtics from taking advantage of Detroit's traps. The player he was passing to should have an easy shot, an open lane, or a pass to another open teammate but none of those things were available because the ball took so long to get over there. To make matters worse the rest of the team (Pierce especially) thought it was a good idea to copy his looping passes.

Odd game but overall a very strong game from Rondo. His shaky play at the end was costly but they survived it.

[BASSTHUMPER]

rondo has played great good and bad games

he needs more good games now~

[CoachBo]

Good assessments. Rondo is what he is: A young player who is struggling mightily with his decision-making. He makes some outstanding decisions and plays, then follows that up with some horrific decisions.

There's zero question that his stat line last night could have been more like 13 assists and eight turnovers with a bounce here and a second later. It wasn't, though.

We're just going to have to live with his inconsistency, because the point that we have nothing behind him is absolutely correct. We MUST come up with another quality point in the off-season. Factor in the fact that Rondo will be incrementally better next year for this experience and we should be fine.

[looseball]

I don't buy the idea that Rondo has to play so many minutes because the other point guards are having trouble against the backcourt pressure.
This is just an area where the coaches have to make adjustments.  The backup point guards need to be given more help in breaking the pressure.  The big guys can set picks, and Pierce and Allen can do some of the dribbling; and you only lose a second or two by passing the ball a little more bringing it up.

I thought Sam Cassel should have been in there in the 4th quarter, when Rondo was making nothing happen whatsoever.  This is precisely why they got Sam.  They went through a stretch where no one wanted to take the shot, and everyone was passing very tentatively.  This is where Sam I Am shines.

I think Sam's game is off (as is that of the entire bench) because Doc has been very erratic in his subtitutions.  Aside from Brown and Posey, no one knows if they are going to play or not.  It's like you have 3 minutes to make something happen or you get yanked and the starters go back in.  This isn't the pattern they followed during the regular season.

When the coach loses faith in the bench, the bench lose faith in themselves. 

[ma11l]

I'm gonna take the cue from a recent thread put up with my final opinion on  his game, "it is what it is".  What it was was a solid all around effort, a lot of minutes on the floor, and some passes that were "almost" turnovers that he got away with.  Learn from it, move on to have a solid Game 6.


As far as that zone trap that Detroit throws at us when they're down and pressing, that is the most frustrating thing I've had to watch these last few games.  It's SO EASY to break, high school stuff really.  Put the off guard parallel to Rondo.  Get the ball moving back and forth between the two.  They can't trap you if they don't know which side to attack.  Once at half court we need to ATTACK the trap.  You can't be coming over half court passively or they will get you every time.  After that set up a big, preferably KG in the middle of the court.  Once over half court get it to him right away.  From there turn and face and you have the option of going with KG to the basket, or having the two wings either cutting to the hoop or faking down and coming up for a J, preferably that would be Ray Ray.  The two guards up top, one cuts or sets a pick for the other wing, the other is safety up top. 

It's a lot easier to draw up on a blackboard, unfortunately that's not an option here.  Basically your offense forms a big X and you attack the trap and once it is broken you attack the hoop. 

[Jon]

On offense, when he was one, he was great.  When he got tentative, he was bad.  He's lucky he didn't blow the game for the C's with his horrendous lob passes in the fourth quarter. 

Defensively, while he had some good steals, I hated how he cheated off his man.  Detroit has nobody worth double teaming, so he should never be cheating off his man.  It seems like he still thinks they're playing the Cavs.  Moreover, I hated how much room he gave Lindsay Hunter.  Hunter's a great defender, but a mediocre point guard at best.  Just as Hunter harasses House and makes him a liability, Rondo should be pressuring Hunter defensively and making him an offensive liability for Detroit.  If he did that, Saunders would be forced to decrease his minutes.  Hopefully, he/they figure that out for next game. 

[PerkinsERA43]

On the surface it seemed pretty poor but 13 assists and 1 turnover ain't no joke. 13-1 TO ratio? I'll take that any day, regardless of shooting.

[erniecormier]

Let me begin by saying that I love the kid, but I was screaming at the TV last night when he was sloppy on defense and too [dang] casual leading the offense.  The one turnover was a behind the back pass to KG that was ill advised and indicative of his youth.  It's ok to put the skills ( flashy passes and his famous ball fakes ) on display during the regular season but in round 3 of the playoffs he needs to stay focused and stick to the basics.

I agree with looseball, the other guards are entirely capable of bringing the ball up with a little help from one of the bigs setting a pick.  Eddie House brings a ton of energy to the court every time he steps out there and his overall play, albeit limited, has been great.  Cassell is a double-edged sword, you may get some quick points but the pase of the offense inevitably slows.

We saw 3 solid quarters of Celtics basketball in game 5, the problem is you have to play 4 !  The pressure and the traps are not being handled well by this team and that's a major concern. They lost their composure again last night and it nearly cost them the game.  The panic and confusion that we've been seeing late in the games is something that the coaching staff needs to address quickly ( and no doubt they're doing that )

Rondo will continue to be a key to their success.  If Doc, and his teammates, can keep him calm while urging him to keep pushing the ball up the court and taking care of the ball, he'll pile up the assists.  We don't need him to score, that's a bonus, we need him to get the offense moving and make good decisions.

I'll finish the way I started, I love the kid and think he's had a remarkable season.

Go Celtics !!!

[Bahku]

Funny, but I don't see the big contradiction in his game last night ... he didn't have the best shooting game, but 45+ minutes, 13 assists, 4 steals, 6 rebounds, 7 points, and only 1 turnover ... in a playoff game of his 2nd year?!? Man, there's not much more you can ask of the guy!

This game was a perfect example of how amazingly diverse and multi-talented this kid is, and that he takes more physical punsihment than most in the game, yet always gets back up. I can't remember all the times this year when I thought he would be seriously hurt, and yet he somehow popped back up and went to work.

If anyone is seriously disappointed in his game last night, then all I can say is they know very little about good basketball and how it's played. Rondo was huge last night, and that's really what should be made of his Game 5 performance!

[Sweet17]

Rondo's a little overrated. I think our priority in the offseason should be finding another PG to back him up. I think he hurts the C's offense with his scared to shoot mentality and his lack of strength isn't much of a plus.

I have to say and most people will likely think I am crazy but it's a shame Banks didn't work out. He would have made an nice backup to Rondo. A more offensive minded player with better strength and a good handle. I think we can find someone like this in the offseason.

Contrary to common opinion PG's are actually easy to find. No not guys like Chris Paul but PGs that can play.

Pete

[crownsy]

Rondo's a little overrated. I think our priority in the offseason should be finding another PG to back him up. I think he hurts the C's offense with his scared to shoot mentality and his lack of strength isn't much of a plus.

I have to say and most people will likely think I am crazy but it's a shame Banks didn't work out. He would have made an nice backup to Rondo. A more offensive minded player with better strength and a good handle. I think we can find someone like this in the offseason.

Contrary to common opinion PG's are actually easy to find. No not guys like Chris Paul but PGs that can play.

Pete

you might want to let the league in on that little secert, because outside of about 12 teams, who range from exceptional PG to good developing PG, PG play as a whole is terrable league wide.

as to rondo being overrated, how could you possably know that yet? theres nothing to rate. the kid is in his 1st full year of playing, ask me again in 3 or 4 years and we can talk about how he is as a PG.

also, overrated? he was thought of at the begining of the season as a below par starter who couldn't shoot or run an offense of this calaber. now he's seen as a slightly above average point gaurd at best by the media.

at what point is he overrated? i lvoe when people throw out that blanket statment against players, espcailly young ones, with no back up or even analyisis.

[Bankshot]

Is it possible that Rondo was fatigued both physically and mentally at the end of game 5?  I know he's young, but he played 46 minutes, the most he's every played.  I thought that was the biggest reason they let down in the 4th, they were all a bit tired.