Rondo's Game 1

[RJ87]

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

Lol, TP for great minds thinking alike - I posted this a few pages back.. If he hadn't hit some of those jumpers in the first half, the deficit going into halftime would've been A LOT larger.

[Mr October]

Rondo's rebounding was fantastic last night! But there still seems to be something wrong with his motor. :-(

The explosive speed isn't quite there.

[KCattheStripe]

I thought he played very well. He was the victim of some uncharacteristically great defense by Turiaf and lost a couple assists when the ball refused to go in the basket in the 2nd. I thought his energy, particularly on the boards, kept the team feeling they were in the game.

[RAcker]

I think it was worst almost triple double game I have seen in my life.  His floor game was awful in the 4th Qtr.  Those two turnovers on long baseball passes are unacceptable and then when he should have pushed it he just punded the ball into the floor.  I wont even start with his shooting.  His ball pressure onb D was good though.

I'm glad someone brought up those 2 passes.  Those cannot happen in a playoff game.  Too careless.

The rest of his game was much more Rondo-like and it was good to see.  We're going to need a lot more of his hussle to keep winning.

[bbd24]

I thought his play in the 2nd half was special.  His last 20 games or so, he's been the epitomy of ' flipping the switch '.  He turns it on almost too late at times.  He needs to do it from the start, instead of waiting.

We need him to push the rock, play the great D, and need his rebounding for 4 quarters, and not just here and there.

[Atzar]

To the people who get offended every time somebody criticizes Rondo, two questions:

1) Where would you rank Rondo amongst the league's point guards today?
2) With that ranking in mind, how would you say he played last night?

Personally, I think Rondo is a top 5 PG.  I think he's clearly behind Rose, Paul and Williams, and I'd put him on the tier of Westbrook, Nash and Parker.  I also think he's capable of playing like the best PG in the league on any given night.  Do you think any of those players would have been proud of the game he had last night (10 points on 5-14 shooting, 9 assists, 9 rebounds)?  Aside from the rebounds, I doubt it.  A top 5 PG shouldn't be impressed with that kind of game, and so that's the standard I hold him to.  He played okay and I was particularly happy to see his defense and his rebounding, but he was inconsistent throughout the game and he must finish stronger around the basket and get to the line to make this team as good as it can be.  Leave the spin shots on the shelf and draw some contact.

I don't really care about the two homerun passes in the fourth quarter.  Those were tough plays to complete, but it's easy to forgive mistakes made while trying to make something happen.