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Taking Stock: Celtics – Pistons

John - Red's Army November 19, 2012 Taking Stock 13 Comments

After every game, we’ll take stock of how each individual performance affects the player’s overall value.

Everybody

Let’s not sugar coat this sucker. It was pretty bad all the way around. So I’m not going to waste my time running through every single player.

But there were are a couple of bright spots:

KG shot 6 of 9. I don’t know why he didn’t get more shots, since he was hitting them.

Jared Sullinger shot 7 of 12, which is nice. 16 point and 5 rebounds really is the equivalent of a parent finding the quarter their child swallowed in his poop the next morning.

Rajon Rondo shot 5 of 7. And that’s why some people are pissed about the assist streak, because they see him over-passing.

Here’s the thing with Rondo:

1: He’s a point guard. He’s supposed to pass the ball. But I get it, yes, there are definitely times where Rondo has chances to score on his own and he passes the ball. This is not a new thing. Don’t start blaming “the streak” for him passing up his own chances to score. It’s been my biggest criticism of him over the years.

2: He’s a point guard on a team full of scorers. Run down the roster.. Garnett, Pierce, Terry, Bass, Lee, Green… all of them are scorers first. All of them need to get into a rhythm. All of them need shots. And when one or more is struggling, whose job is it to get them easy shots to get them going? He’s not Chris Paul or Deron Williams where he’s scoring option number 1.

Obviously the streak is important to him. It’s the same way the 3-point record was important to RayAllen, passing Larry Bird was important to Paul Pierce (remember how he couldn’t buy a shot that night because it weighed so heavily on his mind?), and any other record most players are coming up on are important to them. If it was you, and you had a chance to break some kind of record at whatever you do, it would be important to you too. Doc Rivers knows it, and he let the kid keep the streak alive. Rajon gets and appreciates what Doc did. So in the muck of yesterday’s mess, building up some more goodwill with one of your stars isn’t such a bad thing.

eddysamson

I didn’t watch much of the first half of last season but we must have had some similar inexcusable losses. I’m still not completely worried. But not it seems instead of them being a guaranteed championship possibility, they are going to have to actually show it and prove themselves now.
- eddysamson
  
  but now*
- http://redsarmy.com John – Red’s Army
  
  It happens every year. They lost to the Bobcats in 2008 and went on to win the title. Obviously they’re in different spots, but good teams lose to bad teams all the time.
  - Drew
    
    The Ray Allen game winner in Charlotte is another great Celtic moment that makes me want to vomit now. I’d give my left nut to be sitting behind The Miami bench when they come to Boston.
Nate

I agree; there’s no reason to panic. The C’s just finished their ‘lockout’ portion of the schedule and escaped with a winning record. I’ll take it.
RedsLoveChild

My main concern right now is Paul Pierce.

Before anyone starts screaming “it`s early, he`ll be ok”…make no mistake about it, he has slowed down to a walk and is now 35.

That .409 FG% of his may not be getting much attention 11 games into the seaaon…but, that won`t be the case if it`s still this anemic one month from now. His fall-off will be the talk of the NBA.
- JBcelticsFan
  
  I have to disagree with you. Pierce’s ppg is up and so is his 3pt%. Pierce is running the floor much better and more active on defense. He looks much more in shape than last year. Your main concern(s) should be rebounding and consistency from the bench. Pierce is playing like a top 5 SF still at his age.
  - RedsLoveChild
    
    The rebounding issue goes without saying…it deprives them of being a realistic title threat.
    
    The question is whether Ainge or Rivers has any serious plans of ever dealing with it?
- eddysamson
  
  And I’m going to keep disagreeing with you because he looks fine MOST of the time. Its when the rest of the team is sucking and he has to keep putting up shot after shot drive after drive that his FG % goes down.
  
  I mean shit he drives more often than he shoots a jumper and his layups rarely go in because he makes such a hard, challenging drive to get the foul. Your FG % is going to go down from that kinda shit.
Astarot

He’s a passing-first PG and that’s he’s biggest adventage don’t forget that. He’s the best passer in the NBA and one of the best penetrators when he’s aggressive Cs win. Rondo’s passing ability makes Boston that good maybe he’s over- passing from time to time but that’s who he is he makes everybody on the floor better.
Cameron

Everyone will forget Rondo extending the streak with the Pistons in about 2-3 games. Reporters just want something to complain about
tim

teams dont play defense on rondo we need him to make more shots and attack more so they actually play defense on him
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