After game 5 there are lot of different ways I could go with this recap. First the bad:
1. Rajon Rondo continues to struggle from the floor. It’s one thing that he misses jump shots. I can live with that. However, Detroit’s shot blockers have definitely altered his shot and as a result Rondo is struggling with his bread and butter – lay ups.
2. More on Rondo. I don’t remember him making as many foolish, flashy passes in the regular season. He’s had some Jason Williams style turnovers.
3. The over passing continues to be an issue and Kevin Garnett is the biggest culprit.
4. It was another one of those games were it was unclear whether or not anyone wanted to step up down the stretch.
5. Boston’s bench scored 3 points. The bigger issue of course is that Celtics fans have very little faith in the second unit at this point.
However, despite all that Boston did enough to win. That can’t be overlooked. It’s easy to criticize guys for the shots they missed or did not take. But what about the ones they hit? Ray Allen’s corner jumper that made it 102-99 was absolutely huge. Or how about Kevin Garnett? I’d love it if he were more aggressive down the stretch. And one of his turnovers was particularly frustrating as he was in the paint and threw it directly to a Piston. And the Celtic he was passing to (Pierce?) was in a much worse position. But even with the 5 turnovers KG's final stat line - 33 points (11-17 from the field, 10-12 from the line), 7 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal – was awesome. And the degree of difficulty on some of those shots was through the roof. Yet I would be remiss if I did not talk about Kendrick Perkins and his 18 points and 16 rebounds. In fact Perk deserves his own post. And that’s what he is going to get.
One more thing. The Celtics starters played a lot of minutes. And I’m okay with that. They rested over the final month of the season and even before that Doc Rives had lowered their minutes. Given the age of Allen, KG and Pierce there might not be a next season. Leave everything out there on the court.
Filed under: