I know Rondo can't shoot but sagging soooo far off of him all game did more harm than good. Against regular defenses, Rondo has great court vision. With no one within five feet of him even when he had the ball, his great court vision became even better. A main part of the reason Ray Allen was able to destroy the Spurs was Rondo was able to feed him easy passes at the perfect time.
Even though the Spurs weren't really defending him, all he would have to do was feign going to the basket and the defense would have to collapse to respect his quickness. That alone allowed Big Baby to get about ten open looks.
And then with so much space, Rondo himself started knocking down jumpers. You could call those fluke shots but most those looks were so wide open than even Rondo could knock them down.
A better strategy would have been pressuring him when he had the ball and just not rotating to him when he would go up for a shot. By pressuring him, the Spurs could have at least made it difficult for him to find teammates. Pressuring him made even more sense than usual because he was obviously still not 100%. He was limping around the court and was about half as explosive as usual due to his ankle injury.
I was sure there was going to be an adjustment at halftime but it didn't happen. Rondo was able to dish out 22 assists without breaking a sweat or making a difficult pass.
The defensive gameplan the last two games have been too soft. It's no mistake the Knicks and Celtics combined to shoot about 60%. The Spurs give no resistance at the point of attack and then wonder why the opposition is getting whatever look they want. Against Rondo specifically, the Spurs' strategy was like not sending a pass rush against a quarterback with a weak arm and then watching the quarterback dink and dump their way to 400 yards.
Parker isn't exactly Mark Price but no team has the chutzpah to totally ignore him. It's just not a viable defensive strategy against a star point guard, which Rondo certainly qualifies.
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