Game 7: Who Needs To Step Up?
Posted by Brian Robb on Jun 17, 2010
It’s going to take a extraordinary effort, a team effort for the Celtics to win Game 7 tonight in The Staples Center. And while much of the focus heading into this contest has been on the looming absence of Kendrick Perkins and how the Celtics backup bigs will have to step up in his absence, there’s one person I’m looking to put this team on his back tonight. That man? The team’s MVP this entire season: Rajon Rondo
Why Rondo? Especially when there are three other future Hall of Famers waiting to step up tonight to cement their legacy in NBA and Celtic history? Well, to be pure and simple, everything on this team starts with Rondo on both ends of the court.
Throughout this postseason, this team has come away with road wins despite subpar games from each member of The Big Three at varying junctures. KG and Pierce laid an egg in Game 2 of the Finals. C’s still pulled it out. Ray Allen scored 2 points in Orlando during Game 2 in Orlando. C’s still held on.
Boston has won 6 road games games throughout this postseason and Rajon Rondo has had a strong outing in every single one of those wins. Not a stinker to be found. In fact, let’s take a look on Rondo’s averages during those 6 wins:
16.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 10 assists, 50% FG
That trend must continue tonight. Rondo is not good enough to do it by himself, Pierce or Ray Allen will have to step up their scoring load as well, but one thing is clear about this team. They aren’t good enough to get it done on the road without getting a major contribution out of their team MVP.
All that being said, there are a few concerns I have about the four year point guard heading into tonight. Let’s start with the elephant in the room, the free throw shooting. Have you taken a look at it lately? No? You might want to shield your eyes then from this.
Rondo is shooting 23.5% from the free throw line during these NBA Finals (4/17). That’s an NBA Finals record low through six games of play. His free throw numbers have fallen through every round of this postseason, but it’s now reached unforeseen depths. The confidence there is clearly gone, however Rondo needs to rebound. 50 percent is a low and reasonable expectation….it’s all I’m asking for tonight from the little man.
On the other side of the floor, defending dribble penetration will loom larger than ever with the absence of Kendrick Perkins in the middle of the floor. KG, Sheed and Big Baby will have their hands full trying to keep the Laker bigs off the offensive glass, so it is up to Rondo, Ray and TA to keep their guys out of the paint, to let the C’s frontline focus on keeping a body on their guys around the hoop.
The open 3′s, offensive rebounds, and other countless problems the Celtics had in Game 6 defensively all started with the dribble penetration. They have to clamp down early on tonight, if they want to have a chance and keep the Lakers role players at bay.
A pu pu platter of other thoughts on the fesitivies tonight:
- On Going Small
Zach wrote a great piece on this possibility last night, which I strongly encourage you to check out. I’m with it on it, and I think Doc Rivers gave us a quick sneak preview on what we could expect from them tonight as far as going small:
“Yeah, there could be a lineup we can throw out and there’s probably one we’ll work on today that we haven’t shown. I can probably guarantee you that. Honestly I hope we’re not using it. I wouldn’t bank on that. I’ll put it that way.”
To me, that sounds like the small lineup will be in a “Break in case of emergency” glass case tonight. The Celtics will have it ready, but will only use it if there is foul trouble or they are in dire need of offense, two scenarios they hope not to see anyway.
-Gang Rebounding
The Celtics did a great job at this during the Orlando series and with Perk out, need to take a similar mentality towards tonight. Remember, Pierce actually led the team in rebounding against the Magic, so he is fully capable of being a beast on the defensive glass. Kobe did a sneaky job in that role in Game 6 (11 boards) but The Truth and Rondo are two of the best at their positions in that department. They will need to get their hands dirty tonight as the C’s big men attempt to clear out the trees.
-Sheed 3′s
They haven’t been falling (23 percent this series). We need at least one tonight.
-Baby vs. Sheed in starting lineup
I keep going back and forth on who I expect Doc to go with here. Sheed is the obvious and logical choice, but Baby always steps up to the plate when Doc inserts him in the starting five. Extremely curious to hear what you guys think on this.
-Scal Will Not Be A Factor
Listen, I’m one of the biggest Scal fans you will find out there, but I’ve already read countless articles on him potentially being a factor tonight. There’s two problems with this:
1) Scal has a bum right shoulder and has been putting off surgery on it for the past couple months.
2) He hasn’t played in a postseason game yet this year.
Now, all that being said I would take Scal over Shelden for minutes tonight, but I don’t think it’s going to come down to either. Doc will likely go small, where he better options before turning to either of these guys with the season on the line. Believe me though, I hope both of these guys make me eat my words if I see them out there tonight.
Now win.
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