Rajon Rondo’s 11 trips to the line on Sunday were his most of the series. Rondo’s struggles at the line continued calling into question why teams fail to out right foul him as much as humanly possible? The theory seems like one of  the only ways to shut or at the very least slow Rondo down. Rondo devastated the Knicks with his willingness and determination to drive to the hoop on virtually every possession. Opposing teams need to work to keep Rondo out of the paint in order to increase their odds of hoping to contain him.  Rondo is not going to beat teams with his jump shot, he is the most deadly driving to the lane and either laying it in or handing the ball off for an easy bucket.

The Celtics offense is only as effective as Rondo makes it. His tentativeness over the last few weeks grew apparent as he was not driving to the hoop as much and even when he did, he looked to pass first. This sluggish stretch is what many Boston fans like to refer to as the time when Rondo was dealing with the sadness of losing his BFF Kendrick Perkins.

This sudden wake up call in the playoffs has opposing coaches freaking out as to how they are going to stop the 2010-2011 Boston Celtics. At at least one point in the Knicks series, each member of the starting five was unstoppable and that can only lead to good things this post season. As of right now, a major weakness for the team is Rondo’s inability to convert from the free thrown line and coaches may begin to hone in on this looking to exploit it to their advantage.

On the series, Rondo was 14-for-26 or 53.9% from the line.

Following the same trend as an earlier post that focused on why the Celtics would win and lose, we get to see how Knicks fans view their team’s chances against the Celtics in this epic round one match up:

Reasons Why The Knicks Will Lose:

Health—After continuously fighting through two games and losing by a combined 5 points while holding the lead with under a minute left in each, the Knicks have found more obstacles to overcome than most would suspect possible. Amar’e has an always unpredictable back injury that forced him to miss almost all of Game 2, possibly more. And Chauncey Billups strained his knee at the end of Game 1, forcing him to miss all of Game 2 and leaving the word questionable next to his name on the official press release. These are two extremely important players for New York, and if they can’t go the Knicks chances of victory plummets to very little.

Transition Defense—In the half court, the Knicks are surprising a lot of people (Boston included) with their tenacious defensive play. The Celtics forced bad shot after bad shot in Game 1, but, thanks to Rondo, Game 2 was a different story. The Celtics point guard pushed defensive rebounds up the court and attacked the rim with reckless abandon. With Chauncey out and the Knicks not especially looking to give Anthony Carter heavy minutes, Toney Douglas kept giving Rondo the matador defense, allowing him to score a personal playoff high 30 points. If the Knicks want to win Game 3, they’ll need to make over 50% of their jump shots and then hustle back on defense.

Coaching Discrepancy—Doc Rivers is absolutely owning D’Antoni through two games. It’s almost like the Knicks coach only comes to the table with a brilliant Plan A, and when Rivers’ Celtics take it away all of New York’s players look lost. From the Kevin Garnett alley-oop to the Carmelo double team which forced the ball to Jared Jeffries in crunch time, Rivers is dominating this matchup to the point where it could cost D’Antoni his job.

Reasons Why The Knicks Will Win:

Rebounding—After facing a rebound deficit in Game 1, the Knicks responded by out rebounding the C’s 53-37. New York had 20 (!) offensive boards and it was easily the biggest reason they were able to hang in the game. If New York can continue to dominate the offensive glass, they may not need Chauncey to win.

Toney Douglas—He was the looming X-Factor before this series started and as of now he remains in the role. So far, Douglas has disappointed on the defensive end, but offensively he’s making some huge shots. If his aggressiveness is able to grow and he’s somehow able to find the hot hand, Douglas could be a huge difference maker.

Carmelo Anthony—Why not? We know one guy can’t beat five, but Carmelo came damn close in Game 2. He finished with 17 rebounds to go along with his 482 points, and drew instant double teams down the stretch—something the Celtics don’t normally like to do. Should Anthony have another game like this and a few mistakes are corrected, the Knicks can easily even this thing up.

Kevin Garnett earned at least 5 Tommy points with his hustle in game 2.

The Knicks went to Jared to end the game.

Rajon Rondo just scored another 15 points on Toney Douglas in the time it took to write this post.

Bill Walker also missed another 11 shots in that same time period.

Bill Walker ended as a +14 despite his 0-for-11 night.

Ray Allen was 4-for-4 from behind the arc.

The Celtics bench chipped in with 14 points, the Knicks bench had 23.

Rondo’s 30 points were a post season career high.

The Celtics were out rebounded 53-37 by the Knicks in game 2 after out rebounding the Knicks by 10 in game 1.

The Knicks also out rebounded the Celtics 20-9 on the offensive glass in game 2.

Spike Lee looks old.

Jermaine O’Neal exited in the first half with a wrist sprain, but later returned.

Said Carmelo Anthony speaking about the in bounds pass to Delonte West with 4 seconds remaining in the game: “I couldn’t get to him. Doc Rivers drew up a hell of a play.”

At the end of the third quarter, Carmelo Anthony was 10-of-22 shooting, the rest of the team as 12-of-47.

Paul Pierce finished with 20 points after missing his first five shots.