Taking Stock: Celtics – Bulls

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

Starters

 Rajon Rondo: Sometimes, when it's obvious some guys are off, Rondo has to take it upon himself to start taking over and getting more aggressive.  Even if he takes it to the hole a few straight trips… even if he takes free throws and misses all six… sometimes you have to let guys like KG and Pierce take offensive sets off to get a little more rest.  The stat line looked good, but Rondo has to take advantage of his youth this month.

Paul Pierce: Tailed off after a hot start.  He got tired, and having Luol Deng in your face all night doesn't help matters any.

Kevin Garnett:  Everything was short for KG.  Everything.  He managed 14 rebounds though… no small feat against the Bulls.  He busted his ass out there and gave everything he had.  It's too bad he didn't have enough in the tank

 Avery Bradley:  He had his moments, for sure.  Someone mentioned this somewhere and I wonder the same thing:  It's one thing for Bradley to start when Ray's hurt… but I wonder if he felt a lot of pressure starting when Ray's healthy?

Brandon Bass:  I have a hard time getting on Bass when he had his jumper going.  He also had that one huge follow dunk… but just 3 defensive rebounds in 34 minutes of work is too much to overlook.  Those defensive rebounds are stops.  Giving up second chances saps your energy.  Bass HAS to get in there and rebound better. 

Bench

Ray Allen:  He's starting to get more comfortable and he did a decent job offensively off the bench.  This will take a little getting used to, though.  Defensively, Ray has become a flat-out liability.  Sorry for harping on it, but it's true.

Ryan Hollins:  13 minutes and he showed some good energy, but he's too new to be much of a contributor right now.  He got lost a few times and it was just obvious that he still has a lot to learn about the game in general, and the Celtics system.

Greg Stiemsma: Just 11 minutes of play and I'm wondering if the injuries are catching up to him too. He's not the same guy right now.      

JaJuan Johnson, Marquis Daniels, E'Twaun Moore, Sasha Pavlovic, Keyon Dooling:  These guys are going to need to play minutes soon.   

Coaching 

Doc Rivers:  I like starting Bradley and I think that's going to work out.  I liked him tearing his team a new asshole after the game when he didn't like the effort.  I didn't like him playing KG and Paul Pierce the entire 4th quarter on back-to-back nights.  Way too much.  

Doc is going to have little choice but to play these younger guys soon.  You can't burn these guys out now. 

Overall

I have a bad feeling after this game.  I'm hoping the Doc tongue-lashing works, but the C's needed to win one of these two games, and they lost both. 

The positives of the first half were washed away with the second half and Doc's tirade after the game sealed the negative overall rating of this game.