Then, minutes later, Rondo and trainer Ed Lacerte decided that they had other plans.
"He came in literally right after I talked to you guys," Rivers told reporters after the game. "He came and said to me, 'I feel great. My hand feels great, the swelling's all gone. I know you wanted to sit me one more game, but I don't know what the difference would be.' And he was right. I told him to bring Eddie in, and Eddie agreed, and once he agreed, I was good."
Rondo and Rivers were all good on Monday night, but the rest of the team left a lot to be desired. The point guard's presence ended up not being the only surprise of the night — there was also the fact that the Celtics scored 100 points against the Pacers and still couldn't get a win.
Throughout the team's mediocre March, the defense hadn't been the problem — the anemic offense was. The Celtics were sleepwalking up the floor, getting into their sets way too late in the shot clock, and settling for jumpers all month.
Then on Monday Rondo came back, the offense was rejuvenated, and the C's bolted out to an 85-81 lead at the end of the third quarter. They were finally winning a shootout.
Then it all came apart, and the Pacers won 107-100. It was more of the same again, only this time it was different. The D was the problem this time.
"Tonight our offense was good," Rivers said. "We shot 55 percent. But we had uneven quarters — 33 in the first, then 16. Then 36 in the third, then 15. It's almost like we have great energy and then we run out. But we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. I told our guys I saw a lot of good things, but a lot of bad things, too. Defensively, I thought we were pretty much bad the entire night."
The Pacers attacked the basket all night long, taking advantage of the fact the Nenad Krstic is clearly no Kendrick Perkins on the defensive end. Roy Hibbert dominated all night long, finishing the game with 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting. But Hibbert was far from the only scoring threat — across the board, the Pacers were attacking the rim. Smaller guys like Danny Granger, Darren Collison and A.J. Price were getting good looks at the basket.
The C's lacked toughness inside, they lacked post scoring, and they sorely lacked a presence on the glass — the Pacers outrebounded them 36-29.
This team has a lot of flaws right now that Rajon Rondo can't fix.
"I just thought our defense was porous," Rivers said. "And I thought in the moment of truth, there was a ton of times we'd get a stop, but one of their guards would flick the ball alive, they'd kick the ball back out, and they'd get another possession. The bigs are getting all the heat as far as our offensive rebounds, but I think it's the guards as much as the bigs.
"When you're a good defensive team and you play good defense for 24 seconds but they still get the ball back, that's hard. Especially when it's in the fourth quarter."
Defense and rebounding aren't supposed to be the Celtics' main weaknesses, but at least for one night, they were.
Getting Rajon Rondo back was a good step for the Celtics, especially considering the All-Star guard gave them 22 points and eight assists. But Monday's game proved that a healthy and productive Rondo is only one piece of the puzzle. The C's are still waiting for the rest of the pieces to fall into place.
