Boston Celtics Need More Than Rajon Rondo Injury

An injury to Rajon Rondo alone is not going to be enough for the Boston Celtics to turn things around

After hearing the devastating news that Rajon Rondo suffered a thumb injury and will be out indefinitely for the Chicago Bulls (Via ESPN), the Boston Celtics appear to have a bit of new life in this series. You cannot understate how important Rondo has been in this series. This is the best he has looked since he was traded away from the Celtics, and he was causing problems for the Celtics every time he touched the ball.

Losing Rondo means things will be easier for the Celtics on both ends, but do not fool you into thinking they will automatically play better. It will be a lot easier for the Celtics to defend an offense that does not have the ball movement and play making ability generated by Rondo, but they still have other issues that need to be attended to.

Less Rondo means more Jimmy Butler and more Dwyane Wade. The benefit of Rondo is that he created all kinds of easy looks, and forced the Celtics into much more difficult positions. That being said, if the Celtics let Butler or Wade walk all over them, then the loss of Rondo will not be felt that much.

It is true that it will be easier for the Celtics to prevent Robin Lopez from hitting every 18 footer he takes, and it will be easier to keep Nikola Mirotic away from open three point shots. Easier does not guarantee anything, and nothing matters if the Celtics do not take advantage of the difficulties created by losing Rondo, something that many people may be taking for granted right now.

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The Bulls do not have an adequate backup point guard, but we still have not seen Butler or Wade really assert themselves over a full game, and that is what they will have to try to do now. As a unit, things get a lot easier for the Celtics, who should be able to benefit from forcing more mistakes. The two toughest individual matchups, however, have not changed.

The best way to look at it now is that if the Celtics manage to slow down Butler and Wade, then the Bulls will have absolutely nothing else. The Celtics have less to do on defense, but they still need to be playing much better than they have over the last two games.

The same goes for rebounding. Rondo has been drawing double teams that have opened things up more for offensive rebounds on the inside. Even if the Celtics get another body closer to the paint, Lopez has been rebounding over two and even three players on a regular basis. Taking Rondo out of the lineup does not solve any of the issues the Celtics have been having, it just makes it a lot easier to overcome these issues.

This series is going to look a lot different for at least two more games. Losing Rondo completely changes how the Bulls are going to play on the offensive end, and we already know that the Celtics need to make some changes to try and figure out how to put together a strong four quarters.

With the series shifting over into Chicago, we know now that things will be getting a lot harder for the Bulls, and easier on the Celtics. The Celtics do not need a perfect game, and they do not need to play quite as well as they needed to in the first two games, but this cannot be an excuse to feel any kind of complacency or confidence in what they have already been doing.

It will be interesting to see how the Bulls will handle their starting point guard position, and the Celtics need to be ready to pounce on a team that may have difficulty establishing offensive rhythm, especially in this first game without Rondo. Game three in a 2-0 series is always an opportunity for a turning point. Losing home court was awful for this Celtics team, but being down 2-1 is a completely different world form being down 3-0.