A Most Discouraging Win

[PosImpos]

Daily Dime:

That was ... weird: The Celtics won despite Rajon Rondo, their best player, going 0-for-6 from the floor and not shooting a single free throw. Rondo did finish with 11 assists, but his level of passivity on offense has become astounding. Rondo has never been a scorer, but he at least used to attack the basket whenever he had the opportunity to. Now, it looks like he wants to pass in every single situation, even if he has a better chance of scoring than a teammate does.

-- John Krolik

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

Daily Dime:

That was ... weird: The Celtics won despite Rajon Rondo, their best player, going 0-for-6 from the floor and not shooting a single free throw. Rondo did finish with 11 assists, but his level of passivity on offense has become astounding. Rondo has never been a scorer, but he at least used to attack the basket whenever he had the opportunity to. Now, it looks like he wants to pass in every single situation, even if he has a better chance of scoring than a teammate does.

-- John Krolik

I say AMEN to that! It was really weird watching that, you can't muster ONE point but you are top 3 in PGs of the league? He wasn't driving and he was afraid to shoot or so it seemed! Irving just abused him! I was shocked with RR on offense but his defense to me is always questionable... he has good spurts on D now and then but I think RR is given too much credit on D... he almost always lets his man by only to swipe for the ball and get it less than a handful out of many plays that bite us per game! RR had 11 assist but come on man, he should have had at least 5 more EASY ones!

[Smutzy#9]

Changes definatly need to be made. I agree with everyone who says that if varejo was playing we would have got beaten by 10-15 points.

I just want a capable centre to come to boston. We all saw the start of last season when rondo had a capable centre (albeit it was shaq, but a very old shaq)

But again, a W is a W and it was great to see KG back it up and bring the intensity as he always does.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

A win is a win no matter how ugly it is. No matter who it is against. Instead of being discouraged, can't we be encouraged that, yes even though its the Cavs without their 2nd best player, we still managed to close the deal. That's a morale booster in a way and we won't know, maybe they can use it to their momentum and start some run of wins in the next weeks.

And to someone who said that we would've lost if Varejao was playing by 15 points. How about instead of having that mentality, let's go with "we would've blown this team out if Pierce and Rondo was in the zone." The negativity, during a win is not what we need.

[PosImpos]

I just want a capable centre to come to boston. We all saw the start of last season when rondo had a capable centre (albeit it was shaq, but a very old shaq)

A legit center who can play inside really does wonders for a point guard, and visa versa.  If you have one without the other, I think it's inevitable that the player you do have will seem limited by the absence of the one you don't.

The Celtics offense would be so much harder to defend if Rondo had a legit finisher with whom to run the pick and roll.  He might not have that anytime soon -- unless he gets traded to the Lakers and hooks up with Bynum.  But then, maybe we'll be watching Sessions (or Blake, or whoever) run pick and rolls with Pau.

[Bean_town fan]

This is who the Celtics are now......this is reality!

I'm just going to savour seeing Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul 'THE FREAKING TRUTH' Pierce together on the same team for as long as I can before the inevitable comes

[mctyson]

i will take any win we can get

[mctyson]

They were on the road, Rondo had ZERO points, Rondo played awful, Pierce didn't play well at all, Rondo and Pierce gave the ball away.  That is a recipe for a loss.  They won.

I'll take it.

[Celtics4ever]

It is always discouraging when your a better team ( which I think we are) and play to the level of your opponent.

Our rebounding woes continue and Thompson looked all pro versus us channeling Varejao as a rook no less.  Teamwise we did ok but that rook got like 10 boards.

[Tgro]

What I liked is even though they nearly gave it away, they looked very determined to bring us home a win. Even though Rondo and Pierce was trying to give the game away, the rest of the team looked like it wanted a win more than anything.

Pierce finally woke up at the end and decided he was still a Celtic and had a couple of good shots that were key at the right time. I give him a pass...

Rondo never did wake up. He looked more like the game is about him and he wasn't happy with it so he played like it. I was glad when he got an extended benching at the end of the 3rd and start of the 4th. I hated seeing him in at the end of the game. You could see we weren't the same with him in there. I really think he makes the offense look out of sync. And we don't attack as much. We just wait for one of his passes and shoot jump shots.

We won in spite of Rondo.

It felt like the win happened because the sum of the team was greater than the disinterest of one of its parts. I think it was a good sign. We would have lost this game under these circumstances just a week ago.

[chambers]

Defense was good for the most part.
Both Rondo and Pierce were hungover from a big All Star weekend.
Rest of the team looked good to me.
If Rondo+Pierce get back to their normal games we are looking much better. Defensive rebounding effort was good too. Bass, KG, Pietrus, Wilcox, even Pierce and Avery were going for the boards.

Not perfect, but a decent start.
Just need the PG and SF to do their job for a team round effort.

Good chance we go 5-0 or even 7-0/6-1 on this next stretch of games.
Full squad for the most part, playoff rotation, weaker teams. If we can beat NY and LAL we are on track.
We should begin to control games with our defense again now we are almost to 100%.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Defense was good for the most part.
Both Rondo and Pierce were hungover from a big All Star weekend.
Rest of the team looked good to me.
If Rondo+Pierce get back to their normal games we are looking much better. Defensive rebounding effort was good too. Bass, KG, Pietrus, Wilcox, even Pierce and Avery were going for the boards.

Not perfect, but a decent start.
Just need the PG and SF to do their job for a team round effort.

Good chance we go 5-0 or even 7-0/6-1 on this next stretch of games.
Full squad for the most part, playoff rotation, weaker teams. If we can beat NY and LAL we are on track.
We should begin to control games with our defense again now we are almost to 100%.

Agree. Looks like they are doing a better job of hustling and putting effort on the boards now. Rondo and Pierce had a bad game, but I agree, maybe it's just from the all star hang over. If they get their act together, and the team, which is now getting healthier and more complete every day, we're looking pretty good and can beat anybody.

[Bankshot]

I just dont understand why we are giving dooling more minutes, i want Bradley to average 20-25 minutes, I love watching this kid play,  hes playing good lockdown defense and is showing more confidence in his offense

and yes we also need a real center

I agree.  Dooling has been terrible.

[CelticG1]

What was encouraging for me was Bradley looking more like a point guard. He has been able to get the ball up the floor and I think he will be a pretty good mid range shooter but it remains to be seen if he can play the point.

Last night he looked more comfortable with the ball in his hands, made a few nice passes to Pietrus and KG, and he took what the defense gave him. He didn't force anything. He doesn't have to be a pass first point guard but he needs to he able to pass if needed and I thought last night he looked like a pg out there

[BballTim]

Daily Dime:

That was ... weird: The Celtics won despite Rajon Rondo, their best player, going 0-for-6 from the floor and not shooting a single free throw. Rondo did finish with 11 assists, but his level of passivity on offense has become astounding. Rondo has never been a scorer, but he at least used to attack the basket whenever he had the opportunity to. Now, it looks like he wants to pass in every single situation, even if he has a better chance of scoring than a teammate does.

-- John Krolik

  I can see why you'd post this. Rondo averaged 23 points, 18 fga and 7.5 fta per game his previous 4 games. That is a pretty astounding level of passivity on offense...