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Recap: Slow start, Rondo, kill Celtics

John - Red's Army (@RedsArmy_John) January 2, 2015 Rajon Rondo, Recaps 37 Comments

This night was all about one thing: Rajon Rondo… and Rondo gave Celtics fans a taste of what might have been with a bit of a surprising Rondo performance that saw him shoot a lot, and well, to control a game with his scoring rather than his passing. The Celtics made their runs tonight, but the Mavs answered each shot with a bigger one en route to an ultimately easy win.

Rondo came out hot, hitting a layup, a pair of threes, and another layup to score Dallas’ first 10 points of the game, but the Celtics hung around getting a basket from each starter over the first 6 minutes. The Celtics got the lead down to 1 before a Dallas 8-0 run opened the lead back up to 9. Then Rondo kept going with his hot first quarter, hitting a buzzer beating 3 to finish the quarter with 15 points on 6-6 shooting, including 3-3 from 3.

The Dallas run grew to 17-0 as the Celtics fell behind by 18 before a Marcus Smart three broke the skid. The lead hung around there until an 8-0 run by the Celtics cut it to 11 with just under 4 minutes to go in the half. Zeller’s 7 point, 3 rebound quarter helped the C’s actually cut a point from the Mavs lead and go into the half down 13.

The Celtics whipped off another 8-0 run at the top of the third quarter to cut the lead to 7 as Rondo and the Mavs came out cold. The Mavs promptly erased that with an 8-0 run of their own. The game floated around a 13 point lead from there until a terrible stretch to end the quarter. The Mavs closed on a 17-1 run capped off by an embarrassing 3/4 court pass and uncontested dunk with 2 seconds on the clock. The Celtics gave up 92 points in 3 quarters and went into the 4th down 28 points.

The Celtics, to their credit, did not roll over… opening the 4th on a 7-0 run. That extended to 21-5 behind Tyler Zeller and Avery Bradley. Bradley cut the lead to 10 before a Rondo jumper stopped the run. The Celtics would get no closer as the Mavs pushed the lead back up as high as 21, thanks in part to a Rondo drive and career-high 5th 3. In the end, it goes down as a 119-101 loss.

The Green:

Avery Bradley’s 4th quarter: 17 points on 7-9 shooting to lead a comeback after the Celtics looked dead in the 3rd.

Zeller’s 17 and 10 in 25 minutes is an impressive line.

The Gross:

Rondo’s shooting, which is weird to see in this section… but when he’s doing it for the other team, it’s gross. The Celtics dared Rondo to shoot it, and he burned them by hitting a career-high 5 3’s while scoring 29 points on 12-19 shooting.

Avery Bradley’s 1st-3rd quarters, where he shot 2-11 for 5 points.

The Celtics defense vs. the Dallas offense is not a fair matchup. When Dallas applied itself, they went on big runs. The end of the third quarter was about as bad as it gets.

Once again, the Celtics got out to a slow start. You just can’t recover from being down 31-17 to a Western Conference contender.

The Grid:

Rebounds: 52-38 Dallas
Jeff Green: 18 points (7-15 fg), 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Evan Turner: 9 points (3-7 fg), 3 assists

Box Score

Video: Brad Stevens says "I told you so" about Rajon Rondo's shot making ability after his 29-point game

A video posted by Mike Petraglia (@trags1) on Jan 1, 2015 at 7:02pm PST

Coolrapquote

Can’t wait for play off Rondo. I’m glad he’s in this situation. The Mavs are a FUN team to watch!
- dontevertreadonme
  
  scary good. can score in bunches and move the ball well. theyre looking like this years san antonio
  - KGino
    
    I predicted them to make the finals BEFORE the rondo trade lol. They took the spurs to 7 last year and are a much better team this year. If their defense gels, watch out
Brad P

Just pistol-whipped.

And isn’t it funny(and annoying) how the majority of Bradley’s “hot” games are when the team is down 15 or more late in the game.
- dontevertreadonme
  
  yeah that’s pretty accurate. he’s not a starter good god. he always takes like 2 and half quarters to warm up and find his shot. ainge truly should be on the hot seat, when you look at what teams like Dallas have done to assemble a roster like theirs, you scratch your head at some of the moves ainge made especially with some of the pieces he brought in during the Big 3 era. and gives AB a bench scrub that fat contract in the offseason?? and overpaid a sorry Jeff Green a couple years ago? he was a stubborn cuss as a player and he still is
  - zippittyay
    
    These guys are ‘overpaid’ compared to whom?
    - dontevertreadonme
      
      8 mil a year for a bench scrub in Bradley? he’s shown nothing, he’s actually regressed and gotten worse. another Ainge thinks he knows it all contract. he’s thinks he knows talent when he really doesn’t. Former players make the worst GM’s.
      - Nick
        
        I do recall Ainge building a championship team not too long ago when the C’s had two assets to trade….the 5th pick and Al Jeff.
forever_green

Can we fire Danny Ainge now???
- KGino
  
  Can we not play jameer Nelson unless its garbage time!?!
  - forever_green
    
    Now did you cheer Rondo on every shot or just shake your head and say damn on every shot..I’m jealous you went to this one.
    - KGino
      
      My brother bought them for me as an Xmas gift before the rondo trade even happened so we lucked out really. I cheered him the first couple. Towards the end i started jokingly yelling F U RONDO! Lol.
      - forever_green
        
        What a gift! Good for you. Should have been F U DA! Lol.
  - dontevertreadonme
    
    he was horrendous last night
    - KGino
      
      he’s horrendous every night. 6 games played with the Celtics, shooting 22% from the field and 20% from 3 with two TO’s per game. Awful.
      - eddysamson
        
        I called this the second the trade was announced.
      - dontevertreadonme
        
        yeah he needs some minutes reduction
- Coolrapquote
  
  Rondo wouldn’t have been playing hard like this if he were still on the celtics. Do you agree?
  - wil
    
    If he played with as much effort, i doubt he wouldve been traded.
  - dontevertreadonme
    
    agree. he’s had 2 years of up and down up and down. rondo’s in his own world and he’s gonna do what he wants to do. the fact he admitted he stopped playing D tells a lot. its not somebody you can entrust when trying to rebuild a winning a franchise like the Celtics.
- Mike C
  
  AMEN! People had to see this coming! You knew Rondo was going to ‘Torch’ the Celtics in his first game back in Boston. Good for him. Ainge is a Moron! Nice trade Danny!
- dontevertreadonme
  
  I knew everyone was gonna be in told you so mo
- KGino
  
  There was 0 doubt in my mind Rondo would dominate this game. If any player would come back with an F-U attitude/something to prove/chip on his shoulder after being traded it would be Rondo. So i’m not surprised by his performance even a little bit. I know exactly what he’s capable of when he gives it his all, which is why I was always quick to tell the rondo haters that PLAYOFF Rondo is worth a max contract, but regular season is not (because he doesn’t give you his full effort every game, and it was obvious).
  
  The real frustrating thing is that his trade value suffered do to his lack of effort. And we got such crap back for him. I’da rather let him walk to be honest, because like I said I know what type of player he CAN be, and he’s worth way more than what we got
Frank Aziza

Tonight was a big game for Rondo, he can down play it like all players do. Rondo did what he always does in a big game and thats DONINATE!!!! That was his first big game since his last playoffs in 2012. This kid is deadly in a big game!!! I can’t wait to watch a Mavs-Wizards finals.
KGino

Man I love celtics games, snuck from the back most row of the balcony to right behind mike n tommy, shook mikes hand and took a few pictures on the court. Mike is the man, tommy reminds me of an old angry grandfather lol. Mike said “thanks for hanging in there” I said of course! I forget what else I said I was struck haha
- dontevertreadonme
  
  true story? thats pretty dope. theyre pretty lax with seating right now at celtics games. no sense in buying a loge ticket when theres plenty of emptys you can move down to. cant pull that stuff at bruins games.
  - KGino
    
    I’ve snuck behind them multiple games this is the first time I was able to speak to them haha. I always buy the cheapest tix possible, scout seats first half and take them at half time. Been doing it for about 10 years now but I’d say the last 4-5 years I’ve been 5th row or better at every game I’ve been to
swissflix

Good game by Smart again. Really benefits coming off the bench.
Now: Where is Young and who was that Rondo guy?

We should wait with the Ainge firing until summer….cuz Rondo isn’t going to be playing like this every game. Remember: Our team sucks and the p&r is easy with a big guy like Chandler.
- dontevertreadonme
  
  would like to see smart attack the rim. celts have no dribble penetration beside turner at times. way too easy to defend the celtics as they’ve all become spear checkers from beyond the arc.
  - KGino
    
    Spot on. Was screaming at smart to attack the paint all night! He was so great at it in college, seems to have lost that confidence now he’s with the pros. Maybe taking it easy cuz of his ankle too? Idk, would love to see him 10x more aggressive on the offensive end
    - dontevertreadonme
      
      yeah idk he was used to kind of bull rushing his way to the hoop in college. hes not the most gifted ball handler in terms of crossing anyone up or creating off the dribble. now hes up against a lot bigger and a lot better players in the pros. but he should try at least jesus they gotta stop with the 3’s already my god.
      - swissflix
        
        I think it is because of the system they are playing? Note how he had 6 assists and zero turnovers. So it’s not all bad.
zippittyay

I have no regrets they traded Rondo and I’m happy for him being on a contender. I stated a long time ago that if he ever became a legit 3-point threat and put effort into his defense every night he would be MVP material. Who knows, maybe it can still happen. It just wasn’t going to happen here unfortunately.
- dontevertreadonme
  
  true that. he’s back to playing for that max contract he wants. who knows if he’ll keep it up once he gets paid.
- Coolrapquote
  
  Yeah, I’m glad he’s on a contender as well. I know it’s human nature to be selfish and want your favorite player on your team. But the celtics were holding him back. He just entered his prime, and might have been stuck on a bad team the entire time, wasting it away. Rondo shines when he has a loaded team behind him. He needs big players to be big himself. players who add 10-15 wins a season to teams just by being on the roster are the guys who average 24-28 points a game. Being responsible for assists isn’t propelling teams to the next level. You gotta score. It’s a simple as that. And I’m sorry, but no one was going to come to play in Boston with a rondo who gave up on playing basketball. He wasn’t attracting any big free agents. Good on you, Rondo. I’m happy for you
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