Rajon Rondo Hits Wall at Worst Time for Celtics, Who Need Guard to Step Up

PHILADELPHIA — Like a dad handing over the car keys to his son on prom night, Celtics coach Doc Rivers placed his team’s fate in Rajon Rondo‘s hands on Wednesday. It was time to trust the point guard.

Instead of triumphantly justifying Rivers’ decision, however, Rondo ground the gears, spilled soda on the upholstery and returned the family sedan with a big scratch on the side. There was very little to find appealing about the Celtics’ Game 6 loss to the Sixers, and the least attractive aspect was a sputtering offense Rivers had entrusted to Rondo.

“He wanted to play well,” Rivers said after Boston shot 33 percent from the field and turned the ball over 16 times. “I think he attacked early and missed some shots. He probably got caught in between [running plays and running the offense at random] because he saw the offense wasn’t working. I thought he was trying to orchestrate the offense and try to go, and he probably got caught in the middle. It happens, but he’ll be better.”

The Celtics will need Rondo to be better in Saturday’s Game 7, because Ray Allen‘s ankle and Avery Bradley‘s shoulders do not appear to be getting any healthier. Rondo finished Wednesday’s game with nine points on 4-for-14 shooting with nine rebounds and a playoff-low six assists, which were canceled out by his four turnovers.

Rondo placed the offensive shortcomings on himself, as he usually does when the Celtics offense is ineffective.

“We could probably have had better ball movement, get into our sets quicker,” Rondo said. “That lies on me. I’ve got to do a better job of calling sets.”

Rivers likes to defer to Rondo, who the coach says has a better feel on the court for what the team needs than Rivers, a former point guard, could ever have from the bench. Rondo did sound like he recognized some of the issues with Boston’s attack, but the next step was to make the necessary adjustments. For the most part, he did not.

Rondo acknowledged after the game, for instance, that the Celtics’ free throw shooting “kept us in the game.” He was spot-on. Boston’s 20-for-23 shooting from the foul line was the main reason they scored enough points to be within striking distance in the fourth quarter, yet Rondo never made a concerted effort to get himself or his teammates moving to the basket to force the Sixers to foul. Rondo’s first and only trip to the free throw line came with 10 minutes left in the game. Paul Pierce, who was perfect on 13 foul shots, was the only Celtics player to recognize the trend and capitalize on it.

The offense was not the only place Rondo seemed passive. Rondo’s selection to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team seemed like a curious choice after the Sixers’ top three guards combined for 43 points in Game 6. Sixers coach Doug Collins astutely had Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner and Lou Williams attack Allen at every opportunity, but Rondo was assigned to Holiday for many of the Sixers point guard’s 20 points, almost all of which came on layups or short jumpers.

The Celtics were minus-four with Rondo on the court Wednesday and the starting lineup of Rondo, Pierce, Allen, Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass was minus-seven. Most damningly, though, that lineup without Rondo posted an identical minus-seven rating — which meant that Rondo had no impact, positive or negative, on Boston’s most-used unit. A negligible impact or no impact whatsoever might be worse than an adverse impact for a player who is relied upon to push the tempo and make something happen, for better or worse.

“I thought we hurt ourselves with our pace,” Rivers said. “I never thought we established any pace in the game. It was, basically, we walked the ball up the floor the entire game. We have to get Rondo running. We keep saying we don’t want Philly to run, but we need to run, and the best way for us is to have a running game offensively and a slow-down game on the other end.”

The responsibility for that pace lies with the point guard. Rivers has handed over the keys and asked Rondo to mash the pedal to the floor, yet Rondo still looks reluctant at times to see what this baby can do.

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