Ugly Game 3 All-Around, But Rondo Injury Key

This really WAS a game that neither team seemed to WANT to win ...

The Lakers' terrible free throw shooting was their most egregious problem,

and the Celtics just played a piss-poor game in general ...

That said, they were in it all the way through, which is a good sign for them,

because it means they have really gotten into the Lakers' heads and unnerved them ...

Since I had to teach all day today, and saw the first half only in glimpses, and couldn't catch the second half until I came home around 5,

I had a chance to briefly check out all the post-game commentary in the Globe and the re-cap in the Times,

and am quite surprised to see that no one hit on what I see as the key to the Cs playing so unintelligently, except for brief stretches, both defensively -- no matter what Doc Rivers said -- and offensively,

namely, Rondo's being out for all of the third quarter and then used sparingly in the fourth ...

Now it IS true that the Celts played very well in the 3rd, coming back from a half time deficit to take the lead ...

But it all fell apart -- at both ends of the court -- in the fourth, and I will make a quick argument that it was due to Rondo's absence ...

The defensive part is easy: while I like Eddie House on offense -- who doesn't ;-) -- he CANNOT play defense ... at all ...

And so while he's good in stretches, he definitely should NOT be in the game in the 4th quarter ...

But he was, and so it was basically 5 on 4, which was especially problematic because Kobe needs to be doubled at clutch time, which made it 5 on 3 ...

Hence the Vujacic 3 from the side, which was a nice shot, but nothing fantastic, given his TOTALLY open look ...

Offensively, House is great with the 3s, but the Lakers had really pushed the Celtics WAAAY out,

so they were going into their offense halfway between the top of the key and the half-court line,

which, I would argue, was because Rondo wasn't there to penetrate and attack the rim, which is the start of all good things happening for the Celtics ...

Finally, after a time-out, they realized what was going on and sprung KG for an open drive to the hoop -- which only took 5 seconds --

but by then it was pretty much too late for them to establish offensive rhythm, which, combined with the absence of defense -- hence no stops -- meant there wasn't much they could do ...

So as long as Rondo is okay --

and that is TRULY a matter of serious concern, because if he isn't, it's going to be hard for the Cs to win, altho I DO think they can ...

they're just going to have to come up with a different offensive system in which Ray Allen and Pierce split the bringing-up-the-ball chores --

then the Celtics should be fine because, as I said, I really DO think they have gotten into the Lakers' heads ...

Whether they can close it out in LA is another story ... but I am positive they can win at least one game there,

and if they can, they will go back to Boston needing only one ...

Generally, tho really poor game on BOTH sides ...

Honestly, the Lakers really are lucky they're not down 3-0 ... and both they and the Celtics know it ... ;-) ...