Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle revealed that Rajon Rondo had been calling out the Mavericks plays after Game 2 of their playoff series vs. the LA Clippers.
If Rajon Rondo knew the plays, the LA Clippers really messed up in Games 1 and 2.
The LA Clippers shouldn’t be dropping games where opposing plays are being tipped in.
Rondo recalls the plays from when he was a Maverick for a brief time in the 2014-2015 season. Interestingly, Rondo didn’t have a good run there.
At one point, he was suspended for arguing with Carlisle during a game. In the playoffs, he was benched and then agreed to part ways with the team after that game. He didn’t appear in the playoffs again.
After the season, his teammates refused to share their playoff bonus with him.
Regardless of his tough experience playing there, he seems to remember much about their system.
Carlisle admitted that this is one reason his squad didn’t run many plays in those two contests.
We knew the Clippers had been struggling on defense, but we didn’t know that the Mavericks weren’t even running their plays and still lighting up the Clips.
The worrisome part of this situation is that eventually the Mavericks should be able to adjust to this. If they already had so much success offensively with Rondo revealing plays, how are they going to perform once they’re able to get into the lab and find ways to disguise parts of their offense?
Rondo needs more minutes if he’s this savvy. He only played 43 minutes in those first two games despite giving a very loud reintroduction to ‘Playoff Rondo’ in Game 1, and despite having a +/- of +13 while he went 2-3 with seven assists in Game 2.
It’s only going to get tougher in Game 3 and beyond if they weren’t even running many offensive plays and having success early in the series.
Good teams are capable of overcoming a high-basketball IQ move like Rondo’s, which is why it’s so important to win when the opposing team’s intel is already in your hands.