Dissecting Game 2: Rondo’s Records, Ray’s Rebounds & How Bad Were Refs?
Posted by Brian Robb on May 4, 2010
You know those games after a win, when you find yourself staying up to watch any kind of postgame coverage available? Even re-watching the same highlight segment on Sportscenter two or three times, just to relish in the moment? Last night was one of those.
Given that we have three full days to dissect this bad boy, one of best ways to do this is to explore that old box score, which was filled with a complete treasure trove of goodies from last night, of both the good and bad variety. Without further ado, let’s have some fun with this and start with the series MVP thus far, Rajon Rondo:
Rajon Rondo had 19 assists last night, two more than the entire Cavs team combined.
Those 19 assists tied Rondo’s career high and also tied Bob Cousy’s playoff record for most assists in a game.
Not impressed yet? How about this? Rondo had complied all 19 of his assists at the 3:36 mark in the third quarter! How ridiculous is that? I don’t know whether to be impressed, or simply mad that he didn’t chalk up a few more over the final 15 minutes. Hell, Rondo was on pace for the playoff record for assists in a game (24). What’s that you say? Ok fine, I guess that might be getting a little greedy. Still, that record is within that guy’s grasp. More on Rondo and company after the jump
There really just aren’t enough words to describe Rondo’s performance last night, in the first three frames. He picked the Cavs apart, picking his spots to be aggressive, while attacking the hoop enough to help keep Cleveland’s D honest, and back on their heels all night.
I drool at the possibilities of what his numbers would have looked like, if the team didn’t get so complacent and passive, in the final frame. But you know what? That stretch just gives Doc Rivers plenty of ammo to ride this crew with, over the next couple days of practice.
Oh, just one more thing with Rondo. Those six turnovers last night. Still that’s an over a 3 to 1 assists to turnover ratio. We’ll take it!
Ray Allen had a rather pedestrian overall shooting night at first glance, going 7 of 15 from the field and 3 of 7 from deep for 22 points. However, anyone who watched the game, knows the degree of difficulty on a lot of those makes were about 9.5, at the bare minimum.
The quick release, the silky smooth stroke, the AND 1 jumper, Ray had it all going during his 9 point stretch in the 3rd quarter, which enabled Boston to go on a 21-4 run to break this contest wide open.
The other blip from Ray that has to pop out at you during the box score is his 7 rebounds. Ray Allen is a lot of things, but a rebounder is not one of them. So when you see him fill up that column, you know he’s made a major effort to help out on the glass.
Those 7 boards tied a season high for Ray, and brought the team’s record this year to 4-1 when he reached that plateau.
Don’t underestimate the value of Ray’s relentlessness on the boards either, as his effort carried over to the overall rebounding battle as the C’s destroyed the Cavs 43-32.
Cleveland, like Boston, is not a good offensive rebounding team, but are 2nd in the league in defensive rebounding, so to beat them soundly on the glass is nothing to sneeze at.
Perhaps more impressively, they limited Cleveland to just three offensive rebounds in the final 3 quarters. That takes a complete team effort and given all 5 starters had 4 boards or more, it paid great dividends.
Not much you can say about Rasheed’s performance. It was his 3rd highest scoring output of the season with 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting. His defense while not amazing, took a big step up from Game 1.
And out of those 7 looks he hit, 3 or 4 of those were not easy shots. When he hit that contested three from the top of the key, all bets were off. Plus he didn’t talk after the game. I liked it. Let your game do the talking Sheed. For at least one game anyway.
KG took 21 shots, easily taking the lead for the C’s in attempts for the night. Zach covered this earlier today in a must read post, so I won’t go too far in-depth here, but as long as his shot percentages go up, I’m content with the offense running through him for large portions of this game, since he has a huge edge on Antwan Jamison in the post.
Cleveland’s backcourt combined offensive numbers for the night: 4 of 21 shooting, 2 of 10 from long distance, 6 rebounds, 14 points. Rondo and Ray Allen deserves a boatload of credit for shutting down these guys all night long.
Lebron James had five turnovers and just 15 shot attempts. Those are both numbers the C’s would like to see more of in Boston.
Perk did a tremendous job guarding Shaq down low all night long.
The C’s fouled the Cavs 31 times last night and allowed them to get to the line 38 times.
In comparison, the Cavs were hit with just 16 fouls and the C’s given 22 chances at the charity stripe.
I’m not going to argue with any of the C’s foul calls. They played very aggressive defense last night and did a lot of fouling. This is a good thing. You want to make a team like Cleveland earn it at the line, when they are one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the league.
Boston, on the other hand, isn’t going to get any favors when they attack the basket in this series it appears. Last night, Cleveland outscored them in the paint by 42-40. That shouldn’t equate into 20 free throw shot discrepancy. We will see if a change in venues help on Friday even out this number….it certainly can’t hurt it.
Another fun nugget, via Sportscenter. The Cavs lost six games at home this year by a combined 24 points. Last night, they lost by 18. No one blows the Cavs out at home…..no one, except the C’s that is.
One final point, before we go. I have to give some accolades to Big Baby’s 2nd quarter performance last night. Sheed got a lot of the deserved props, but check out this Baby sequence on a series of possessions during the first two minutes of that frame:
Offensive rebound/Steal/Layup/Charge Taken
I love that guy and love this team when it competes like this. Let’s hope they can keep up that sense of urgency at the Jungle.
The scary thing for the Cavs perhaps? Paul Pierce still has not had a good game in this series. The C’s can play better than this.
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