As I watched last night’s NBA Playoff games, I couldn’t help but notice some very interesting similarities. The Celtics played like crap and the Lakers had no fire. But it wasn’t until I looked at the box score did I realize why those two games ended the way they did.
Rajon Rondo had a horrible-but-somehow-not game for Boston. Rondo had 14 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, but it was the absolute WORST near-triple-double I’ve ever witnessed. But he shot a mere 2-for-12 from the field. For good measure, he had 7 turnovers (would that have been a quadruple-double?) and nearly showed us one of the dumbest moves in sports history. Seriously, we’re talking dumb….imagine Leon Lett and Manny Ramirez having a child and then teaching it everything they know about sports.
With 3:45 left in the game, Rondo was trying to leave time on the clock, and like so many NBA players do, he let the ball roll upcourt so no time would expire until he touched it somewhere near midcourt. Only thing is, he let an Orlando player get WAY too close to it before he made his move. Orlando’s Rafer Alston (who was as shocked by Rondo’s mistake as he was when he was told he could play in a second-round NBA game) nearly stole the ball before the hand of God stripped the ball free, chucked it forward, off the enormous forehead of Brian Scalabrine and into the basket.
But Rondo’s bad shooting, poor decision-making, and excess of turnovers eventually led to his team’s 95-90 loss in Game 1.
Meanwhile, out in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant was putting together a similar box-score delight – 31 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. The only problem was that Bryant was ball-hogging it all night and pulling up for jumpers WAY too much.
Kobe ended up taking 31 shots on the night. Thirty-one shots, and he only managed to get 32 points out of the deal.
For those of you who are aghast at a Cleveland Cavalier fan bashing a player for taking too many shots, I can easily say that I know you think LeBron James shoots too much. But what you don’t know is that when LeBron is having an ineffective day, he STOPS SHOOTING FROM THE OUTSIDE SO MUCH!
This year, LeBron has had only three games where he took 30 or more shots. He scored an AVERAGE of 45.7 points per game in those three nights. Translation – when he jacks up that many shots, it’s because he’s hot and scoring, not because he’s trying to break out of a shooting slump like Kobe did last night.
Kobe, incidentally, only went to the line 5 times last night. A player who has 31 shot attempts had better be driving the lane on some of those and drawing fouls. Hell, if he’s got the ball that often, he should have 5 FT attempts per quarter.
From those two games, I can draw one conclusion – when Kobe Bryant or Rajon Rondo have bad games, it spells trouble for their teams. When they’re on, their teams show great success – when they’re off, it’s not pretty.
The same can be said for LeBron James. If he’s on, you’re in trouble. If he’s bad…..
But then again, LeBron is very rarely in the “bad” column. That’s why he’s the MVP, and it’s why his team is likely to be up 1-0 after the first game in the series. Something Rondo and Bryant will not be able to say.
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