Love the steal, but...

[lightspeed5]

cant believe people are saying he choked. the circumstances were  all against him.

[libermaniac]

Rondo just needed to try to take Horford baseline, odds are he would've drawn the foul ... Horford was starting to put his arm out when Rondo let him off the hook by changing directions.  As someone else pointed out, however, there was no guarantee he'd make his FTs anyway.  They'll get the next one.

[green7]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

agreed and we should've fouled,when doc said so when there was 15 on the clock.

[Tai]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

We didn't have anymore timeouts.

ANYWAYS, I'm glad I haven't seen another "Trade Rondo" thread. I may have just lost it. 

[ejk3489]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

We didn't have anymore timeouts.

ANYWAYS, I'm glad I haven't seen another "Trade Rondo" thread. I may have just lost it. 

Yup, my bad...just realized that.

[greg683x]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

We didn't have anymore timeouts.

ANYWAYS, I'm glad I haven't seen another "Trade Rondo" thread. I may have just lost it. 

wait til tomorrow sir

[Change]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

We didn't have anymore timeouts.

ANYWAYS, I'm glad I haven't seen another "Trade Rondo" thread. I may have just lost it. 

For Chris Paul?

[Yoki_IsTheName]

THIS is exactly why we need to TRADE Rondo...

Some fans just never appreciate his efforts. He deserves better than this.

He got te steal to put us in the position to WIN and not to tie. No timeouts, not a lot of time left and NOT A SINGLE ONE of the four other Celtic was even trying to get the ball. He was defended well, no time to call a play mind you and while trying to make a one last effort to dribble out the ball hit his knee. So it's his fault we lost. Never mind that he anchored a comeback. Nevermind that he puts us in a position to win.

We should trade him. He does not deserve the treatment that some of these fans give him.

[bostonman1]

Just to clear up a couple things from earlier posts on this thread ---

Whether Rondo "choked" or not can be debated. He did make the steal to even put the team in position to win.  However you HAVE to get a shot off in that situation.  It's one thing to take a bad shot or miss but when you have a team with KG, Pierce and Rondo on court there is NO EXCUSE not to at least get a potential game winning shot off.

And the Chris Paul situation last night was similar only in that Paul failed to get himself or a teammate a shot.  TOTALLY different situation though as the game was tied, at worst case he knew it was going to OT which is what happened.  Then in OT Paul totally redeemed his play by hitting huge baskets to win the game for his team.

The worst part of this whole mess is how the Celtic's entire TEAM failed in crunch time once again.  They scored ONE basket in the final 2:40 seconds of the game which is pathetic.

SO many make fun of the Hawks for their stupid plays and often weak minded team.  However the Celtic's were the ones who couldn't get enough stops, couldn't score enough and completely failed to even get a shot off on the last possession.  To see Rondo and 3 Hall of Famers on the court for much of the last 2:40 of the game and only score ONE basket is laughable, and something everyone would be ridiculing another team for...

[JoT]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

We didn't have anymore timeouts.

ANYWAYS, I'm glad I haven't seen another "Trade Rondo" thread. I may have just lost it. 

Oh that's coming up either tonight or tomorrow.
I'm mad about the loss, but I knew they weren't gonna win. The blame goes to more than Rondo though,

[GDAbraham]

Just to clear up a couple things from earlier posts on this thread ---

Whether Rondo "choked" or not can be debated. He did make the steal to even put the team in position to win.  However you HAVE to get a shot off in that situation.  It's one thing to take a bad shot or miss but when you have a team with KG, Pierce and Rondo on court there is NO EXCUSE not to at least get a potential game winning shot off.

And the Chris Paul situation last night was similar only in that Paul failed to get himself or a teammate a shot.  TOTALLY different situation though as the game was tied, at worst case he knew it was going to OT which is what happened.  Then in OT Paul totally redeemed his play by hitting huge baskets to win the game for his team.

The worst part of this whole mess is how the Celtic's entire TEAM failed in crunch time once again.  They scored ONE basket in the final 2:40 seconds of the game which is pathetic.

SO many make fun of the Hawks for their stupid plays and often weak minded team.  However the Celtic's were the ones who couldn't get enough stops, couldn't score enough and completely failed to even get a shot off on the last possession.  To see Rondo and 3 Hall of Famers on the court for much of the last 2:40 of the game and only score ONE basket is laughable, and something everyone would be ridiculing another team for...

If it were *totally* different, it would be completely. Different with a couple aspects. You can't ignore the fact that it was clutch time and he had all the time in the world with a timeout going into it to get a good shot off. He redeemed himself. He did. That doesn't change the fact it never should've gone to overtime. And how many times have the Big Four come through in regulation and over time? It's only magnified in reactions because everyone was crossing their fingers for rest.

There's no excuse for getting trapped, bad spacing, and excellent D played by the opposition with pure desperation and no gameplan when you didn't even start with a posession? The cap on a bad wheel? How about Atlanta did just enough and took advantage? Plenty Hall of Famers had moments in time like this. Is it inexcusable to fight back with people going in and out and having a shot to win it on their home floor? I agree the moment was bad. I don't believe it should be exaggerated into more than it is just because we wanted them to rest.

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

Jeez. No one else on The Celtics did anything that could even be construed as productive on that final possession. No screen, no proper spacing.

And tie game or not everyone's savior, CP3, did the exact same thing in the Clips/Griz game.

PP missed a layup and airballed a J.

Give me a break with scapegoating Rondo.

It is a broken record and a bad one at that. It reveals far more about personal bias than it does about what occured on the court.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

the shot that pierce took ruined the game for us anyway, down by 1 could've made a better play than that.

Why we didn't take a timeout before that, I will never know. They were clearly rushing things.

We didn't have anymore timeouts.

ANYWAYS, I'm glad I haven't seen another "Trade Rondo" thread. I may have just lost it. 

For Chris Paul?

Sure I want him but he does not want to be here. Get over it. You do realize the CP-3 pretty much did the exact same thing Rondo did yesterday right? Oh, with more time to think what to do. Only difference is the Clippers weren't down by one.

[get_banners]

Disappointed by this thread. Rondo single-handedly got us back in this game. He should have dribbled to the center of the court, but still...nobody really tried to get open for him, and he had two of the most athletic bigs (Smith, Horford) in his way. I think the game was lost when Pierce hurt himself in the previous game. Paul will always try to gut it out...Doc needed to sit him down. Yeah, he made the 3, but how many open looks did Marvin Williams have? Paul killed us on defense tonight. That being said, I'm not going to scapegoat him for the loss, either. Not everything goes right in all playoff games.

[Celtics18]

Great game.  I give the Hawks credit for showing up for this contest.  I half thought they might just pack it in.  

Josh Smith and Al Horford both did an exceptional job playing D on that last possession.  KG was never open.  Josh Smith was draped all over him.  I would have liked to have seen Rajon go up the middle, though.  It was wide open, as Doc said.

Despite what happened on that last 7 second scramble, Rajon Rondo is playing like he's one of the top ten, if not a little higher, players in the league right now.