With three minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Celtics were trailing the Detroit Pistons by 12, 66-54. After a set play took too long to develop, Rajon Rondo attempted to get to the free throw line by driving to the lane. Brandon Knight appeared to foul him as he got to the rim, but nothing was called. Compiling the issue was when Greg Monroe collapsed on Rondo, trying to block his lay-up.
Rondo got up, said a few choice words to referee Sean Wright, then decides to toss the ball underhanded at him, hitting him point blank in the chest. Clearly a boneheaded decision by Rondo as he let his emotions get the best of him. There is no excuse for that as it was clear that the lack of calls were starting to boil over for Rondo. Detroit shot about 457 free throws in this game, but they were the aggressive team.
The Celtics can't use the free throws or officiating as an excuse. Once again, they looked listless and got destroyed on the glass (don't be fooled by the final 43-40 tally, it was much worse than that). It serves little purpose to delve deep into the numbers for this game. There wasn't much good from anyone. There's something not right about this team right now. Perhaps Rondo's ball toss is an example of collective frustrations mounting within the team, or it could just be a single act of stupidity. It could possibly be just a (huge) bump on the road that is the shortened NBA season. Whatever it is, there's something going on here and time is not of the essence.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8BPf2Bz5uA]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
