I agree with Sebastion. In fact, I will reference one of his earlier posts: The Celtics (as a team) need to move without the ball and to pass the ball to beat LA. Let’s look at the above clips again.

In Rondo Missed Jumper, 2 people (Garnett and Pierce) never move. Ray Allen makes a half hearted cut and then stands still. Even Rondo only moves about 5 feet. In Kobe Steal, noone from the entire team enters the paint for 10 seconds! No one enters the paint for the whole play. This strategy is great for energy efficiency but it ain’t gonna win basketball games.

Regarding Rondo’s cuts, I liked his position in Game 5 a lot. He delivered the ball to Pierce at the top of the key (or Garnett in the post) and then cut through the paint to just outside the lower free throw block. Kobe had to at least rotate down. @khandor, your argument is that if he makes this cut, the Lakers have a big man ready. Sometimes this is true. But I would argue that the Celtics win just by getting the ball moving and by making the Lakers rotate.

steve :
What’s the likelihood that Celtics beat the Lakers in game 7 if Rondo takes more then 20+ shots, all of which would be 2 point shots?
What happens if the Lakers allow Rondo to do all the scoring whilst the Lakers play man D and take away the 3 point shot from the Celtics?
Can Rondo beat the Lakers by himself?

Much like kobe doing it all like in game 5?

If Rondo simply cuts to the basket when the Lakers use Kobe like this defensively, he will not be open.

How come, you may ask?

i. The Lakers trapped the Celtics’ Pick and Roll/Pop action when Rondo wasn’t the dribbler; then,
ii. Used Bryant as the defender responsible for covering the first pass out of the trap; then,
iii. Used their non-trapping Big Man and Guard-Forward in a 2 player zone defense with the Big assigned to protect the basket and the G/F assigned to defend against a cross-court pass to the Weak Side of the floor.

A better alternative would be to use Rondo to set screens for his teammates off the ball … while the Pick and Roll/Pop action is developing … and then have him flash back into the middle of the lane, as a 2nd scoring option deep in the lane. [i.e. this would then put Kobe in the position of having to defend against the Celtic using the screen initially and then Rondo, himself, in the lane and eliminate the possibility of Bryant simply being able to roam off Boston's PG]

What happens if the Lakers allow Rondo to do all the scoring whilst the Lakers play man D and take away the 3 point shot from the Celtics?

Can Rondo beat the Lakers by himself?