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

Starters

 It’s really little shock that games flow as Rondo’s performance does.  And that’s not to say he alone is personally responsible for everything that goes right or wrong, but he does set the tone.  There was a general lack of aggression with the entire Celtics offense in the first half, and part of that falls on Rondo.  I’m not going to kill him too much, though… he was running an offense full of shooters.  With Bass and Terry in the lineup, it’s tough to be the guy tasked with distributing the ball to everyone, but still look for your own offense as well.  It’s hard to argue with 10 assists and, by the way, a 4 point-5 assist game out of Brandon Jennings.

 This is a professional scorer.  He’s still, after all these years, the guy you can turn to when you  need points.  He shot 5-11 on shots from 16 feet and beyond.

Once the Monta Ellis-Paul Pierce show subsided, it was time for Kevin Garnett to take over and hit clutch shots down the stretch.

He hit half the shots he took, he grabbed 7 rebounds, he was aggressive.  I know he only finished with 8 points, but considering the “now you’re starting, now you’re not” routine going on right now, he’s doing pretty well with whatever the team needs him to do.

15 points on 7 shots in 22 minutes?  We’re finally seeing JET’s scoring take off.

Bench

I’m being generous with this one, I know.  For much of the game, he was typically lost.  But he stepped up with a great 4th quarter to help propel the team to a win.  And make no mistake about it, the Celtics don’t win this game without Jeff Green’s contribution.  He aggressively rebounded, he played some D, and he scored 8 points in the 4th.  When you consider everything up until then, I have to give him the green arrow for how he finished.

Sullinger’s minutes are dwindling, especially with the emergence of Chris Wilcox.  There are only so many minutes to go around.  Still, 4 rebounds in 7 minutes is pretty nice.

 28 minutes, 0 points, 1 assist.  Ouch.

He’s just more comfortable on both ends of the floor than Sullinger is right now, which really isn’t much of a surprise.  Sullinger will be here long-term, and he’ll learn.  Wilcox, right now, give the C’s a better chance to win.

Six shots in 8 minutes?  You’re lucky I’m being nice today.

Coaching

The starting rotation dance continues.  I’m sure he’d like to find a little more consistency, but that’s not going to happen until Avery Bradley is back and the bench rotations are more set.  Until then, the guys just have to stay ready to do their jobs.

Overall

I’ll play off what I said in the preview:  The Celtics have been struggling and they were playing a back-to-back game on the road.  If there was ever a set up for them to fail, this was it.  But they didn’t.  I’m not going to pretend any problems were solved, or that some of the things we saw (like Jeff Green’s 4th quarter) are sustainable yet, but this is actually the best win of the young season.