Celtics Win Four Straight, Despite Loss of Rondo

Boston Starts to Win After Losing Rajon Rondo to a Torn ACL

By Ali Koskoris

Last Sunday it was confirmed that Celtics’ star point guard Rajon Rondo had a torn ACL and would be out for the rest of the season.  The loss of Rondo is a big blow to Boston, a team that is not performing as well as they hoped they might this season.

Reportedly, Rondo injured himself in a loss to the Hawks, but finished out the double-overtime game, thinking he had only tweaked his hamstring.  He was in Doc Rivers’ starting lineup for last Sunday’s game against Miami until about 25 minutes before the start.  Instead, Rondo headed to the hospital to get an MRI.

AP Photo/ Tony Dejak

Boston players played against the Heat in an epic double-overtime win without knowing that the situation with Rondo would be dire, and were not told until after the game was over.

The win against Miami broke a six-game losing streak, and started a four-game winning streak.  The Celtics have gone on to defeat the Kings, the Magic, and the Clippers. 

The wins against the Heat and Los Angeles are especially important because Miami leads the Eastern Conference and the Clippers lead the Pacific division of the Western Conference. 

The Kings and the Magic both have losing records, so, although the wins are important in the standings, they are less important to the mental state of the team.  It is important for Boston, now exactly .500, with 23 wins and 23 losses, to defeat teams with .500 records and higher—and the fact that the Celtics have done that without Rondo is significant.

When Rivers found out the news of Rondo, his main concern was ball-handling, not assists. “We have a lot of guards,” he said, “we just don’t have a lot of point guards.”  Rivers said the situation is going to be addressed on a game-to-game basis.

His plan is to have two guards and a forward who can handle the ball well enough. That way, if one is pressured, one of the others can bring the ball up.  Courtney Lee has taken Rondo’s place in the lineup, but Leandro Barbosa, Paul Pierce, Jeff Green and maybe even Avery Bradley will have to take the responsibility as well.

In the past four games, Pierce has stepped up his game, scoring, rebounding, and assisting.  The Celtics will need him, as well as many others on the team, to continue to play well (even above average) if they want to continue to win and make it to the playoffs.