Rondo impresses with strong showing, play calling

Share

BOSTONYou know you're a pretty good point guard when you can have an 11 assist night, your team wins on the road, and most believe you had a not-so-great game.

Welcome to the world that Rajon Rondo lives in.

While his performance in Tuesday's win at Cleveland might have left some questions about his play (he was scoreless, missed all six shots he took and had five turnovers), there was no mistaking the strong showing he had in Wednesday's 102-96 win over Milwaukee.

Rondo had the kind of bounce-back game the Celtics desperately needed, tallying 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his third triple-double this season.

And on top of that, he kept Milwaukee's high scoring guard Brandon Jennings in check most of the night.

Jennings, an 18.2 points per game scorer, had just six points against Boston on 2-for-11 shooting. The two shots he made, a pair of 3s, both came when Rondo was not on the floor.

As much as Rondo's numbers stood out, even more significant was the pace at which he played.

"Rondo's pace is important for us," said Kevin Garnett. "When nine (Rondo) in control of the ball, and he's not only rebounding but getting guys open shots and scoring the ball himself, it makes us a hard team to deal with."

Part of that pace had to do with Rondo's play-calling, which head coach Doc Rivers felt was particularly impressive in the second half.

"The first half we scored points," Rivers said. "But the second half was the first time in a while where he and the whole teamhe just kept calling different sets and we ran our stuff to score instead of just trying to play out of random and figure it out. That's what we did in the first half. Even though we had 50 points, it was almost happenstance."

In the second half, Rivers recalled Rondo calling out 12 different sets.

"And we got to the first option, the second option and it just looked organized and good," Rivers said. "That's who we are, and that's who we have to be. And I thought it was Rondo's doing."

Contact Us