An apology to Playoff Rondo: sorry, I doubted you

I have a confession to make: I doubted Playoff Rondo. I didn’t think it was real. After watching two years of regular season stats and a movie indicating the Lakers were better when Rajon Rondo sat than when he played, I thought Rondo might be a toast. I didn’t think I could activate playoff mode. I wrote almost 1,300 words wondering why the Lakers kept playing him after a playoff game.

Boy, was I wrong.

It was just one game, but last night in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Houston Rockets, Playoff Rondo was on full display and got to the ball. He scored 10 points and 9 assists, but even that didn’t fully capture his impact. Rondo was picking James Harden all over the court on defense, everywhere on the passing lanes and helping the Lakers control the pace of the game.

Rondo finished the night with a team record of +28 in plus-minus, which comes closest to reflecting his impact, but Lakers head coach Frank Vogel might be right that no number invented by race human can really capture Rondo’s impact. As Vogel likes to say this season, there’s really only one way to measure it.

“His impact on our team is measured in loot,” Vogel said after the 117-109 victory. “The confidence it brings to our group.”

And it’s like I always say: you can’t spell loot without a W. Rondo made sure the Lakers got one on Sunday.

Photo by Jim Poorten / NBAE via Getty Images

What makes me feel better for not believing in Playoff Rondo, at least, is that Rondo himself has bristled in the nickname in the past. But even if it can’t be captured by most statistics, or explained by the limits of human logic and reason, Playoff Rondo, National TV Rondo, whatever you want to call it, is still very real, and apparently it’s a level that Lakers Rondo can still access. Even if you don’t like the involvement, Rondo has been noticeably and statistically better when playing on national television for years. His new Lakers teammates – and those of us who watched the team – just got our first taste of it Sunday night.

“Playoff Rondo, man,” said Markieff Morris, clearly in awe of the magic, as were the rest of us. “He is a floor general. It’s going to put us in our right places. He will always speak to us. He’s been here before, he’s done it on every level. We’re happy to have him back, man, to lead the team. “

“That’s classic ‘Do, or vintage, whatever you want to say,” added Lakers guard Danny Green. “Tonight on the defensive end he was able to do what he obviously hasn’t done in a long time, play the full court, be active, be a mosquito, be physical, and then offensively keep up with what we want to be. , run the offense and give ‘Bron a break from handling the ball, getting it onto the court and getting the guys where they need to be, and capitalizing on the mismatches.

The part where Green says Rondo hasn’t done this in a long time may seem like an incidental or subtle shadow, and while it was probably not intentional, it’s not wrong either. The Lakers were significantly better on defense with Rondo on the bench all season, but Playoff Rondo is not governed by the rules of our world. He’s chaos in human form, activating because he’s a natural force in this physical realm destined to hunt down opponents in the NBA playoffs. He’s not limited by what nerdy calculators like me think he is could do, or whatever probability suggests is possible. Playoff Rondo simply decides that he is going to have the biggest statistical impact of any Lakers defender, to force the Rockets to score at a rate that would translate to 41.1 fewer points per 100 possessions while on the court, and reality is left with no choice but to bend to his will.

Or, as LeBron James put it more simply, “That’s what ‘Do is, he’s a leader, and for us to have him back in the postseason, he’s key to our team.

“He comes in, he pushes the beat, he gets the guys involved,” James continued. “That doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet with ‘Do, the intangibles it does, offensively and defensively. His nose is always around the ball. He just makes plays for us, and tonight was another example of that. “

However, on Sunday night, it appeared on the stat sheet, as well as jumping off the screen, and it is forcing this blogger to apologize, even if there is almost zero chance that Rondo will ever read it. Playoff Rondo, sorry. You are not the Loch Ness Monster, nor Bigfoot, and at this point I am confident that you could lock them up, if that was what you wanted to do. In the first place, I should never have doubted you, and I never will again. You may not do this in every game, but when you do, it is as magical as anything in basketball.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast at iTunes, Spotify, Stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.