How To Stop Rajon Rondo, Just Ask The Golden State Warriors
Rajon Rondo is a solid point guard. He's not up with the NBA elites as in Chris Paul, Deron Williams, or Baron Davis. Rondo is getting there however, but he still has a lot of work to do.
Rondo is a great defensive point guard, but it's his offensive game that needs work and the Golden State Warriors on Friday night exposed what Rondo's problem is. He will not take a mid-range jumper and don't even think about Rondo taking a three.
Rondo has become one of the best finishers at the basket in the NBA today. Which, leads to another problem that Rondo has, and that is his free throw percentage isn't even close to be over 70 percent.
The Celtics like to set a lot of high screens hoping that teams fight through them, which allows for Rondo's drives to the hoop. Instead of fighting through the screens the Warriors defenders went under the screen forcing Rondo to become a passer.
With that defense employed the Celtics became more stagnant offensively usually revolving around one on one situation with either Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce. Rondo was still able to have a big game in all his normal categories coming up with 10 rebounds, and 9 assists.
The thing for Rondo though was since he was forced to become a passer instead of being able to finish at the rim he didn't get to the free throw line much only shot two free throws making one and missing the other, and just as often as Rondo was getting the assists he was turning the ball over he lead the Celtics in turnovers with seven.
I can imagine this type of defense put in by most teams forcing the Celtics to move the ball more than they would like and making them more of a one on one team. In the playoffs teams are going to sag back and force Rondo to shoot rather than drive.
It reminds me of when the Spurs won their first championship against the New York Knicks. I do realize that the Celtics have already won a championship, but the second one is tougher than the first.
When the Spurs made their first championship appearance in 1999 against the New York Knicks, the Knicks were not going to let the duo of Tim Duncan and David Robinson beat them. They forced Avery Johnson into a shooter because he was never known for his mid-range game or his scoring abilities.
The Knicks did happen to lose to the Spurs partly due to the duo of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, but because Johnson was making the shots he was supposed to miss.
In order for the Celtics to repeat Rondo is going to have to become more confident in his mid range game otherwise the Celtics are going to be in trouble maybe not in the regular season, but in the playoffs it may become increasingly tougher for them. Because teams are going to make Rondo shoot the ball.
