Rondo Another Great Game

[Change]

Unbelievable, how good is this guy? People like to fault him 4 his lack of shooting touch, but look how he is outplaying the greatest shooter in NBA history (Ray). Every game he gives us 110%. He is making plays by dishing, rebounding, scoring, and playing great D. He, Perk, and Glen are carrying this team, while our superstars ($35+ million investment) are lackadaisical as if the season is over. Its boggles my mind to see Lebron who is triple-teamed every night dominate, compared to our two superstars who can't even break 20 points. Unbelievable!

Thank You Rondo, Perk, Glen

[celticinorlando]

he has got to have that again sunday with some ray allen mixed in

[pengaloo]

I wish it used to be like the old days, where we're guaranteed a win every time Rondo has a great game.

His aggressiveness dropped a bit in the second half though.. maybe Dwight elbowing him the head had something to do with it.

[illantari]

What, you mean someone on this blog DOESN'T think he's a huge liability for this team, other than me?    I have to agree with you here, great game for R2.  He even made 2/3 of the team's 3 pointers! (oi...) Now if only people would stop hitting him in the head, that'd be great.

On a side note, I've always wondered about the $$ thing.  I mean, if Ray and PP could choose to give this team $20million worth every night, would they really choose not to?  I don't think so.  I think sometimes they can't.  I don't know if it's fatigue, injuries, or just the fact that they're old and Lebron is not.  But these aren't the kind of guys that just take your money and sit on it.  I've had ridiculously off days for seemingly no reason what so ever, mental and physical, so I assume they do too.

[johnnyrondo]

He's averaging 17/10/10 through 13 playoff games. Not too shabby. He's definitely been the team MVP of this playoffs.

[Change]

Correction: Its a $35+ million investment

[CoachBo]

The kind of game we HAVE to have from Rondo Sunday to stay in the game.

Problem is, he hasn't put two of them back to back in this series.

[pengaloo]

The kind of game we HAVE to have from Rondo Sunday to stay in the game.

Problem is, he hasn't put two of them back to back in this series.

You're right about that. But the way I like to think about it is that because he's still "inconsistent," we shouldn't expect him to play poorly in the next game

Did anyone notice that Rondo actually looked different tonight? I'm not just talking about his game. I noticed that unlike the last few games where his eyes are kind of emotionless, his eyes looked bright today. Or maybe it's just the espn cameras, but hopefully we'll see that on Sunday, because it means he'll be playing with energy.

[BrickJames]

Yeah great game...until the last 4 minutes where he deferred to Pierce FAR too much, and put up a PUTRID three pointer with 10 seconds left on the shotclock.  Getting a 2 on that possession could have cut the Magic lead to 1 with 1 min+ to go.  Instead, a TurkeyGlue 3 in transition to make it 6.

Stats and having a great game are not the same thing.  Sure, he hit some jumpers, but most where bad shots.  He was crashing the glass as usual, but I've seen him steal about 20 rebounds from teammates in this series.  It's like all he cares about is his numbers at this point.

I also notice that he's not hitting Ray off the screens.  Yes, Ray is wearing a sleeve on his leg now so maybe he's hurt, but the worst thing a PG can do to a struggling shooter is not give him the ball because of fear he'll miss a shot.

Not a great game in my opinion.

[CoachBo]

It's rather tough for any PG to be perfect and Rondo wasn't. However, he wasn't stagnating the offense by holding the ball at the top of the key watching the shot clock evaporate, either.

My point is he spent most of the game attacking - which has been something he really doesn't seem like he wants to do.

[Steve Weinman]

It's rather tough for any PG to be perfect and Rondo wasn't. However, he wasn't stagnating the offense by holding the ball at the top of the key watching the shot clock evaporate, either.

My point is he spent most of the game attacking - which has been something he really doesn't seem like he wants to do.

I'd agree in the first half - but I think he was little more part of the solution than anyone else to what I saw as brutal ball movement in the second half.  No matter who was handling the ball (a lot of Pierce, a little Rondo), it looked to me like there was plenty of standing around down the stretch, some traveling by the bigs, a couple of ill-advised offensive fouls and some bad passes all around.  The Magic were content to lay off Rondo and let him shoot, and while he hit the two threes, he had to take far more shots from outside the paint than I would have liked.  The inbounds pass late in the game was an out-and-out mess.

Great aggressiveness at times, superb job on the glass all the way through.  But I think Brick makes some valid points here as well.

-sw

[gagvirk]

did anyone notice that Rondo missed the exact same type of spin off the glass/ reverse sccop with English- layup 3 times? He managed to sneak past the D all those times but i wish he'd finsihed a few of those.

Ah well, cant have everything. i couldnt believe he was matching Superman rebound for rebound. that was awesome. Also, i liked the effort that KP and Big baby put on Dwight on D- muscling him and not giving him easy looks.

Credit to Dwight for just jumping like a freak and getting every board posible- he created tons of 2nd chance pts for his team mates..

[pengaloo]

Yeah great game...until the last 4 minutes where he deferred to Pierce FAR too much, and put up a PUTRID three pointer with 10 seconds left on the shotclock.  Getting a 2 on that possession could have cut the Magic lead to 1 with 1 min+ to go.  Instead, a TurkeyGlue 3 in transition to make it 6.

Stats and having a great game are not the same thing.  Sure, he hit some jumpers, but most where bad shots.  He was crashing the glass as usual, but I've seen him steal about 20 rebounds from teammates in this series.  It's like all he cares about is his numbers at this point.

I also notice that he's not hitting Ray off the screens.  Yes, Ray is wearing a sleeve on his leg now so maybe he's hurt, but the worst thing a PG can do to a struggling shooter is not give him the ball because of fear he'll miss a shot.

Not a great game in my opinion.

Those last few minutes were cringeworthy to be sure. But how did you look at his rebounding effort and come up with the conclusion that "all he cares about is his numbers?" I think he's doing us a service by competing with his teammates for rebounds so that fans never have to see the horror of our guys just standing around watching the ball just float slow-motion into the hands of the other team. And with Baby being such a bad rebounder (except ironically in clutch situations where he often ends up with the ball), Perk's injured shoulder, Ray possibly getting open looks in transition, and the ridiculous Dwight Howard... I think Rajon is rebounding for the team.

[johnnyrondo]

Yeah great game...until the last 4 minutes where he deferred to Pierce FAR too much, and put up a PUTRID three pointer with 10 seconds left on the shotclock.  Getting a 2 on that possession could have cut the Magic lead to 1 with 1 min+ to go.  Instead, a TurkeyGlue 3 in transition to make it 6.

Stats and having a great game are not the same thing.  Sure, he hit some jumpers, but most where bad shots.  He was crashing the glass as usual, but I've seen him steal about 20 rebounds from teammates in this series.  It's like all he cares about is his numbers at this point.

I also notice that he's not hitting Ray off the screens.  Yes, Ray is wearing a sleeve on his leg now so maybe he's hurt, but the worst thing a PG can do to a struggling shooter is not give him the ball because of fear he'll miss a shot.

Not a great game in my opinion.

I disagree with almost everything you just wrote. He and Perkins are the only guys rebounding. When he goes to the bench, the rebounding suffers and when both he and Perk are on the bench, they get killed. When KG and Powe were here, his rebounding wasn't as needed, but now it is. The only other guy possible of putting up many extra rebounds in KG/Powe's absence would be Pierce, but I think he's a little too old to do that. Rondo should be commended for his rebounding (like nationally he is). It's just a minority of negative Boston fans that love to nitpick on certain players.

He is looking for Ray imo. Ray just continues to miss. And Paul is the captain of the team and tries to take over at the end. It's like you're trying to say he's too selfish for going for rebounds, but too unselfish for deferring to Pierce. Which is it?    You know what really grind's my gears? This "he's stealing other's rebounds" nonsense. 

[johnnyrondo]

It's like all he cares about is his numbers at this point.

This is slanderous and supported by what? That's a huge accusation to make. Who's even alluded to this ever? KG? Paul? Ray? Doc? Perk? Baby? You're accusing him of caring about his numbers more than winning, so I'd like some supported evidence. I love the resiliency and "ubuntu" of this team. Have some respect.