Rondo had 20 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and five steals as the Celtics used a powerful offense to outlast the Bulls.
Rajon Rondo had 20 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and five steals to help Boston to a 101-95 win Monday night in Chicago.The television camera cut to Jason Terry, showing him smiling and chirping at an opponent, or perhaps to nobody in particular.
Terry had just scored four points in two minutes, the first two of which snapped a 5:15 scoring drought for the Boston Celtics and gave them a five-point lead with five minutes left on their way to a 101-95 victory Monday night at the United Center.
Later the Celtics would stave off defeat, a feat that seemed like it would be unnecessary when they were exploding offensively and entered the fourth quarter with a 12-point margin. Boston eventually needed to feed Rajon Rondo down the stretch, calling a number of pick-and-rolls featuring the point guard, and the tactic worked, worked well enough, at least, to fend off the Derrick Rose-less, Kirk Hinrich-less, raw-rookie-Marquis-Teague-as-crunch-time-point-guard Bulls.
Rondo hit Kevin Garnett for two alley oops in the final 2:31, and the point guard found Brandon Bass for a dunk with 0:22 remaining to extend his double-digit assists streak (barely) to 31, and the Celtics held on (barely) for their best win so far this season.
Terry's two free throws with 0:16 left sealed the final margin. Celtics fans exhaled, and then perhaps some thought back to the image, Terry chatting, maybe to himself, maybe to an opponent, maybe to anybody who would listen.
The amount of words coming from his mouth reminded of Garnett's most intense verbal waterfalls, except the attitude was different. Terry seemed to be having more fun than Garnett ever does. He was smiling. He was loose. He was speaking like the Celtics first-half offense would have, if NBA offenses could grow tongues and larynges and communicate fluently. That offense was beautiful, flowing, enjoyable. It didn't last for the entire game, but Terry, Rondo and Garnett provided enough at the end to let the Celtics regain their smiles, to allow them to continue speaking, to anyone and everyone, with joy.
A few thoughts on Boston's win follow:
Rajon Rondo can sometimes seem to do whatever he wants
It helped that Rose and Hinrich were gone. It helped that Nate Robinson is not the most committed defender and Teague is just a young rookie whose older brother is still substantially better. But Rondo made everything look simple.
He meandered into the paint for layups when the action required patience. He sprinted past defenders when they were not on the balls of their feet. He had one of his patented Rondos, the fake-around-the-back-passes that always seem to work, for a layup. He finished with 10 assists and should have had several more, except the Celtics shot just 3-16 from the 3-point arc, many of them open looks after Rondo dishes. He scored 20 points on 10-16 shooting, continuing to display an improved jumper. He had nine rebounds, falling one board shy of a triple-double, and added five steals as if trying to prove there was nothing he couldn't do.
And best yet:
The Celtics weren't afraid to call for a large dose of Rondo at the end. Pretty much every play they ran in crunch time revolved around Rondo, and he delivered with four assists in the final 3:12. Boston has never been more Rondo-centric than they have been to begin this season, and they could become more dangerous down the stretch of games because of it.
Where'd the offense go?
The Celtics shot 59.5 percent in the first half with 14 assists compared to just four turnovers. They were still shooting 55.7 percent with just six turnovers after three quarters. And then, suddenly, Garnett began shooting airballs and bricks and everything devolved into chaos and my oh my where on earth did the beautiful offense go?
First, let's start with what worked: The Celtics pushed the pace off misses, existed in constant motion without the basketball and swung the ball back and forth like the hands of a pendulum clock. They played offense with a purpose, very much unlike they had, at least for long stretches, in any of their first six games. They grabbed rebounds (a valiant achievement against Chicago, especially for Boston) and hit Rondo with outlet passes to run the fast break. They sprinted their lanes. They attacked the rim when they had opportunities, including three jet-like maneuvers by Leandro Barbosa (or, as Tommy Heinsohn once mistakenly called him Monday, Leonardo). In summary, they began to utilize all of their talent in a cohesive manner that highlighted their improved skill and athleticism all at once. Synergy was beautiful, and even more so considering it came against Tom Thibodeau's fierce Bulls.
And then, at some point near the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth, everything stalled. The worst came midway through the fourth in the aforementioned 5:15 stretch of scoreless basketball, but really, Boston's offense lost its rhythm for a considerably longer span than that. Part of the sudden shortage had to do with the opponent, Chicago, whose defense hardly ever allows teams to score with ease. Part of it had to do with Boston missing open shots (some of Garnett's shanks were particularly good looks). Part of it was that Rondo sat down, and part of it was that the Celtics stopped moving the basketball from side to side. Still, despite being ice-cold from behind the arc, the Celtics shot 50.6 percent and scored 101 points against the Chicago Bulls, who hadn't allowed more than 97 points in a regular season game since April 8 of last season.
The Celtics experienced one long drought, sure. But they showed a lot more positives than negatives.
Boston finally starting to make sense?
Players seem to be starting to find their roles. Terry (13 points, 5-10 from the field) hit big shots like he's supposed to. Barbosa (six points, three assists) provided instant offense in 15 bench minutes. Jeff Green (seven points) contributed in several fashions, including five rebounds (!) in just 15 minutes. Sullinger (three points, four assists, one rebound) played low-post defense and sealed people off in the paint. Chris Wilcox (seven points, two rebounds) had a couple huge dunks from Rondo and tried his best to stop opponents in the post, though he occasionally got beaten, somewhat badly, by Chicago's big men.
Rondo ran the show, Bass (16 points, five rebounds) drilled midrange jumpers, and Garnett (15 points, five rebounds) and Pierce (10 points, six rebounds, five assists) were active and reasonably productive whenever their numbers were called. Courtney Lee didn't do much during his 18 minutes, but he was always destined to play a complementary role. Players looked to finally be starting to understand what Doc Rivers wants from them, and that's probably the most positive takeaway from Monday.
Leftovers
- During the first quarter, Bass dislocated his finger. CSNNE showed team trainer Eddie Lacerte popping it back in on the sideline, which was probably a bit too much, especially for those who have queasy stomachs like mine.
- Bass had perhaps the game's best sequence, blocking a Carlos Boozer jump shot, chasing down the ensuing loose ball, hitting Rondo with an outlet pass and then sprinting up the court to clean up a Barbosa miss on the fast break. Tommy Points galore.
- Familiar face Nate Robinson had 11 points and seven assists for Chicago, earning the start due to injuries. He was also bad enough defensively that he sat in favor of Teague during crunch time. As one friend emailed, "Rondo vs. Robinson was always going to be unfair."
- In the third quarter, Wilcox allowed Joakim Noah to drive by him and finish a layup. It was at least the third time Wilcox had been beaten; on one sequence during the first quarter, he got left in the dust by Carlos Boozer, then fouled him meekly for an and-one. When Boozer missed the resulting free throw, Wilcox failed to box out and Noah snatched the rebound. While I was preparing to Tweet something about Wilcox struggling for the first time this season, he took the occasion to rudely dunk on Taj Gibson's face. Nobody has yet posted it to YouTube, but I assure you it was quite rude.
- Marco Belinelli, playing fourth-quarter minutes for reasons not immediately clear, tried to loft a shot over the backboard from behind it with 4:30 left, failing quite miserably as one might expect.
- Boozer was very, very good in the first quarter with 10 points on 5-6 shooting. He was 2-8 the rest of the way for just five more points. The Kevin Garnett effect, y'all.
- Not a very long or particularly interesting story, but: Sullinger drilled a three to end the third quarter.
- Within the past couple days, Rivers said he wants to limit Garnett's minutes to 27 per game and that Garnett now gets tired whenever he has to play for more than five minutes at a time. I kind of scoffed at the comments, like, "I know he's 36 years old, but Garnett 's a finely-tuned athletic machine and still in great shape."
But then Garnett played seven and a half straight minutes in one stretch, most coming at the beginning of the fourth quarter. After he airballed one jumper and shanked two others, I started thinking maybe Rivers knows his players better than I do. Just to further his own point and highlight my moronic ignorance, Rivers subbed out Garnett briefly with 4:52 left. The Big Ticket returned two minutes later and looked excessively refreshed, finishing two alley oops as the Celtics put Chicago away. The lesson, methinks: Rest for Garnett is good, as long as the Celtics can survive without their best big man.
- Luol Deng, who (without looking at the stats) always seems to do a great job defending Pierce, finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and several impressive defensive plays. His efforts certainly deserve mention.
- We don't know for sure what this game meant. We do know it was Boston's most impressive victory to date, and maybe, just maybe, it's something the Celtics can use as a foundation to blossom into something better.
At the very least, even if it was a little closer than Rivers probably hoped, the win was the most enjoyable yet.
Just ask Terry, who might still be smiling and chatting with nobody in particular, perhaps describing his two critical jumpers or explaining how Rondo's pick-and-roll brilliance helped to finally put the Bulls away.