Rajon Rondo goes around the back and finds Rudy Gay for a dunk
The early returns on the marriage of convenience between Rajon Rondo and the Sacramento Kings have been very positive, although not without slight hiccups. DeMarcus Cousins remains the player most responsible for both the good and bad of the team’s comfortably below-.500 record, but Rondo has put the horrors of his Dallas Mavericks stint behind him to reclaim the mad genius that made him such a fascinating figure during his Boston Celtics heyday. Win or lose, the Kings are now well worth watching.
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Rondo showed just one reason why in Tuesday’s 114-106 home win over the Utah Jazz at Sleep Train Arena. This fastbreak could have been a pretty standard transition moment, but Rondo turned into a fantastic one with a behind-the-back dribble that shook Trey Burke and opened up an and-one dunk for Rudy Gay:
That pass went down as one of Rondo’s 13 assists. He added 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting (plus 6-of-7 from the line), seven rebounds, two steals, and six turnovers. Cousins was equally stellar with 23 points (8-of-14 FG), 12 boards, and six assists, and Gay put up 23 of his own on 10-of-13 from the field.
It’s hard to say what all this adds up to for the Kings, because they’re still well outside of the West playoff picture and would need a previously unseen run of form to get in it. Everything negative we said this summer about the Rondo signing still holds — he really only helps the team’s long-term prospects insofar as he makes them vaguely relevant.
But, jeez, all that analysis seems a lot less important as soon as the guy does something basketball just don’t see very often. The Kings made a good move for the rest of the NBA if only because they allowed one of the league’s unique talents a chance to be himself. Plays like this one make the destination seem irrelevant.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
