Rajon R
ondo made his debut count with the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night against the San Antonio Spurs. The Mavs new point guard scored six points on 3-of-11 shooting and dished out nine assists, adding seven rebounds in a 99-93 victory.
It seems like a typical Rondo night. He didn’t score until the third quarter, was well below 40% from the floor, but made all the plays we’ve seen him make in Boston the past eight plus years.
The Mavericks did get the win, which is great for them to build chemistry on going forward with their new additions, but it was ugly.
If you watched the past couple games the Spurs played prior to Saturday’s meeting, you’ll recall them going to triple overtime against the Grizzlies last Wednesday, then again on Friday against the Trail Blazers. Not exactly ideal situations for the second game of a back-to-back.
Gregg Popovich rested Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobli after playing 90 and 71 minutes respectively in the triple overtime losses. Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard, along with Patty Mills, didn’t play due to injury. The Spurs dressed ten players and only played eight of them.
The Spurs fill-ins shouldn’t have even competed against the firepower the Mavs boast. But a team coached by Popovich is never out of a game, which we saw Saturday night.
Anyways, Rondo lands in a great spot for himself and his career. He has offensive talent galore surrounding him, perfect for making easy buckets for his new teammates, his favorite thing to do.
However, there was one question surrounding Mark Cuban’s trading for Rondo: Can he fit with Monta Ellis?
We’ve heard and seen this before. When Ellis played in Golden State with Steph Curry, it seemed as if he was limiting the potential and ability of Curry to be the player he could be. Apparently the Warriors got that right by shipping him to Milwaukee in a deal that helped land them Andrew Bogut.
It is a tiny sample size, but the two seemed to coexist well together on Saturday. Ellis tied a season-high by scoring 38 points in the win on a smooth 15-of-23 from the floor, going 5-of-6 from downtown. He played 40 minutes compared to Rondo’s 34, so the two were on the court for a majority of the game.
Liam Boylan-Pett of SBNation.com has more on the two guards playing together:
There are questions as to whether the two guards can coexist, but if their first game together is any indication, they’ll be fine. Rondo and Ellis both like to have the ball in their hands, but Rondo has been in situations like this before. He doesn’t have to be the go-to guy — he was happy to let Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen take over. And he appears ready to do the same in Dallas.
“He scored 38 points so I didn’t hold him back too much,” Rondo told SB Nation after the game. “We both like to dominate the ball but I think we both played well off each other.”
Ellis was appreciative of his new backcourt mate. “[Rondo] was great,” Ellis said. “He’s still got to get a feel for it, but he did a wonderful job of finding guys.”
It seems the two are capable of playing together from their first game, but that’s not exactly a guarantee. When the competition gets tougher, it’ll be interesting to see how these two mesh, and something to watch as the season goes on.
CAVS HANDLE SHORT-HANDED GRIZZ
The Cleveland Cavaliers have had a rough going against Western Conference opponents this season, a measly 2-6 before Sunday’s contest with the short-handed Memphis Grizzlies.
Although the Grizz were missing Zach Randolph and Tony Allen, they’re still one of the best teams in the West and the NBA as a whole. Boasting a 21-5 record before Sunday, they stopped the Warriors 16-game win streak earlier in the week, then took the Spurs to triple overtime before beating them by one on the road.
But, a loss to the Bulls on Friday was followed by a defeat at the hands of King James and the Cavaliers in Cleveland 105-91, dropping the Grizzlies to 21-6 and losers of two straight for the second time this year.
The Cavs boosted their record to 3-6 against the difficult Western Conference, with two of their victories coming at home. They’re now 16-10 overall.
They were led by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, who each posted a double-double in points and assists. James finished with 25 points and 11 assists, while Irving chipped in 17 points and dished out 12 dimes.
The bench was huge for Cleveland, who had big time contributions from Dion Waiters and Shawn Marion, the latter of which is now in a bench role for David Blatt.
Perhaps the most incredible part of the victory was the Cavs efficiency.
For a team allowing their opponents to shoot an average of 43.8% from the floor this season, Cleveland left Memphis wondering if that number was accurate on Sunday. The Cavs finished the game shooting an incredible 61% from the floor, by far a season high for Memphis.
Here’s more from Marc Gasol on the Grizzlies’ defense and missing two important players, courtesy of NBA.com:
(On tonight’s game): “I thought we couldn’t get enough stops to get in a rhythm. We feed off of defense. We scored a little bit, but we couldn’t get enough of them to get going. They got way too many easy baskets in the paint. I know they have shooters, but our principles went away pretty quick and we went away from the game plan too fast.”
(On his team playing without Tony Allen and Zach Randolph): “It’s not me (to blame the loss on their absence). It’s never been me and it’s not going to be me now. We are who we are, we play who we have and who’s not here is not here. So I’m not going to make excuses. We have enough talent in this locker room not just to win tonight, but to win the same amount of games that we’ve won so far. I have a lot of faith in the people and the personnel that we have. It was not about not having those two outstanding players tonight.”
The Cavs host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday, while the Grizzlies travel home to take on the Utah Jazz on Monday.
KYRIE IRVING NAMED USAB MALE ATHLETE OF YEAR
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving continues to have the best year of his young career after being named the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year on Sunday, just prior to the Cavs game versus the Grizzlies.
In a wild summer and year in general, Irving signed a five-year $90 million contract extension with the Cavaliers, just ten days before LeBron James decided to come back home to play with the young superstar in Cleveland.
A little more than a month later, the Cavs traded for friend and Pepsi Max commercial partner in Kevin Love (Wes in the commercials).
The trade went down just before the start of the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, which Irving was a huge part of for Team USA. He helped the United States bring home the gold medal, and earned MVP honors after he averaged 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals in 24.4 minutes per game throughout the tournament.
In the gold medal game, Irving finished with 26 points on 10-of-13 from the floor to go along with four assists. He was a USA World Cup record 6-of-6 from the three-point line.
Irving on him being named USAB Male Athlete of the Year, per USAB.com:
“It’s truly an honor and a blessing to be among such a great lineage of award winners, and USA Basketball was the best experience of my life thus far, just being a part of a team that’s bigger than myself,” Irving said. “The sacrifice we all had to make in order to make that team work and the adversity that we faced – and we came home with a gold medal. We were together through it all, and we won a gold medal together, so I’m going to remember it for the rest of my life.”
Kyrie joins the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan on the list of USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year awards.
GALLINARI OUT WITH MENISCUS TEAR
Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari is coming off of a 19 month absence from basketball after he tore his ACL in his left knee in April 2013 that caused him to miss the entire 2013-14 season.
After his initial surgery to repair the torn ligament, Gallo had a setback in workouts the following year in January 2014, causing him to have another reconstructive surgery on the same knee. Of course, this forced him to miss the remained of the season that he had yet to even play in.
This year, the Nuggets were happy to let fans and the league know that Gallinari was expected to be ready for the beginning of the season, which he most certainly was. However, it hasn’t been as smooth as he and the Nugs were hoping it might be.
He’s shut himself down on a couple different occasions, citing knee soreness as the reason for his rest.
On Sunday, the struggles and soreness became real. The Nuggets released a statement saying the Gallinari tore his meniscus in his right knee. He will require surgery to repair the tear, and is “tentatively expected to miss three weeks”.
The 26-year-old Italian seemed happy to be back as well, and for good reason. Missing nearly two years of basketball is certainly no easy obstacle to come back from.
He seemed to be hitting a hot streak, getting close to being the player he was before his ACL tear. He scored a season-high 19 points in Denver’s 76-73 victory over Indiana on Saturday, his third consecutive game scoring in double figures.
This is a devastating blow for Gallo. Fans and players alike seem to really love Gallinari, and it’s a shame he’ll be spending more time recovering from an injury.
For his and the Nuggets’ sake, hopefully he’ll be back missing only three weeks, but that’s difficult to bank on regarding his injury history.
All stats via Basketball-Reference, USAB and NBA.com.