That was a wonderful win last night. We actually played an erratic, dicey game, but in the end we had the steel to prevail and make a major statement against a major rival. Cool.

The Big 3 were their usual wonderful selves, though a bit spotty. Ray gave up a couple dumb turnovers, Paul picked his spots for absolute brilliance (down the stretch he was clutch!) and Kevin is working his way back to top form.

What fascinated me were the roles played by the others. A few remarks on them:

- Quis: this guy is IMO the most important pickup Danny made. He isn't just a good player. He is EXACTLY the kind of player we needed to add. His slashing athleticism gives our offense just the right kind of Plan B. When he takes it to the rim, he FINISHES--better than Paul does, and certainly better than Rondo does. In that 1st quarter when we were down, Quis took it to the hoop a couple of times to break the ice. That was key even BEFORE the runs that drew us even and into the lead.

If I were Doc, I would use Quis a great deal. For example, I would at times put Quis in when Ray was struggling. I love Ray Allen as a player. I really, really do. But Ray is a perimeter shooter, and like all perimeter shooters he has cool, even cold spells. As a team, the Cs are prone to settling for and missing jump shots. It happened last night in the 4th. If it were me, I'd substitute Quis for Allen with the starters and let Quis attack the basket to break the ice in scoring and get the offense MOVING again.

- Perkins: I am a big Perkins fan. He is not and never will be a star. But I can't think of many better post defenders: he did PRECISELY what you need to do against Shaq--forcing him to shoot over him, something Shaq can't do consistently. Perk has the strength to deal with power guys like Shaq and Howard, and he knows his role.

But here's the pay-off: his role is growing! He WILL NOT ever be a star. BUT ... Perk's offensive production IS NOT, as the announcers called it, "found money." Perk has learned to score enough to be an actual presence on the offensive end. He has a nice baseline J and he has developed the rhythm to turn his back to the basket, take a dribble, manuever, and score. It's slow--too slow to work if he were ever doubled. But unlike his early years, he can now marshall his strength and half-decent athleticism and make a smooth, rhythmic power move and finish.

I'll bet Perk's scoring numbers rise this year, and we'll pretty regularly see what we saw last night: solid contributions in the 8-10 point range. And I think that, when Perk scores key hoops now and then, teams will begin to realize that they can't ignore him on the offensive end. Remember--it was PERK'S Js that broke the ice to start the game when the stars were missing!

- Sheed: I am just not as enamored of Sheed. I think I have gotten over my dislike of him, but there is a factor in Sheed which I regretted to see confirmed last night. When we would play the Pistons, I never worried too much about Sheed because I knew he would settle for perimeter shots at key times and miss them. And, last night, he fell in love with the 3-ball early, then hoisted up some speculative shots down the stretch, precisely during that characteristic Celtic cold spell when we were losing the lead because we had stopped scoring.

I always felt that Sheed was Walker-like in that he shot from the perimeter too much and scored inside too little. I think that will continue with the Cs. I know--everyone gushes over how his 3-pointer will spread the floor. But in crunch time, perimeter shooting is a pretty bad bet. I just hate to see key trips wasted on quick hoists from deep.

- Shelden Williams: listen, guys, you are going to love SW. He is an ideal supporting big who defends and rebounds. He is a far better rebounder than BBD. And he has a good FT stroke. He is currently in the perfect position--not a star and not expected to score, but there to strengthen our presence in the paint. He will do the things Scal does (apart from the myth of Scal's shooting, which I have rarely actually seen) but does it with size, strength, and talent.

SW effectively replaces Powe as a rebounder and is probably a better defender. He can't post up to score as Leon can, but we've got plenty of scorers and having him removes the sting out of losing Leon, whom I rated well ahead of BBD. Though I loved Powe and hated to see him go, I do not argue with Danny's decision: he was hurt, has been hurt before, and IMO simply cannot command the salary he wanted. Nor would he be available for months. With SW in there, I am very satisfied with how that slot in the roster has been filled out.

- Rondo: hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I dunno about you, but Rondo drives me crazy with ambivalence.

The Good: the best thing for me about Rondo's performance last night was the way he manned up on Moe Williams. One of my pet peeves for years has been that Rondo--a gifted defender--has tended to be sloppy in allowing other PGs to beat him off the dribble and penetrate. We saw the article a week or so back about Doc challenging him to play in front of other PGs and deny poenetration. I LOVED hearing that. And I thought I saw real evidence of his showing a greater commitment to simply defending MW 1 on 1. If he keeps that up, our defense will be 10-15% better than it has been! And Rondo will truly be the best defensive PG in the league.

The not-so-good: Rondo is obviously a brilliant player. There are times when he is a great player.

And there are times when he just vanishes from the game. As a point guard! And those are always the times when the Cs offense goes ice cold.

Rondo ended up with 10 assists last night. That's very good.

It's also surprising, at least to me. For long stretches of the game, especially in the 1st and the 4th, he was simply not not running the offense the way a top quality PG would do.

And that's the thing with Rondo. He is a brilliant player who often lights the game up. Some of those offensive rebounds, even against Shaq, were unbelievable.

But as a PG, he simply disappears much of the time. There are too many stretches of game in which the C's offense drifts because Rondo is not running the show effectively.

Of course, not all teams are driven by a great PG. There are other ways to do it DJ did not run the Bird/McHale Celts the way a dominant PG would.

But Rondo is looking for money appropriate to a Top 5 PG. And while as a PLAYER he might command a place among the top 5 PGs, I simply don't believe that he runs an offense at a level that belongs in the Top 5 of PGs. Not consistently.

Which leaves Danny with a tough decision. Rondo wants superstar money. He has many of the attrributes of a super star. And he IS without question the future of the Celtics. Yet that's a lot of money and cap space to commit to a PG who does not always play the position effectively. I'd hate to pay top dollar for a car that offered frequently dodgy performance.

Well, in the end, I suppose Danny has no choice. He has to sign Rondo and Rondo will very often make us happy he's a Celt. But I wish he would run the offense more decisively.