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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 4, 2010

Rajon Rondo

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. In the playoffs you've seen a bunch of different shot blockers, Dwight, Shaq. Them having multiple seven-footers, did that change things at all?
RAJON RONDO: A little bit. You could say that. They're still shot blockers. They're all different shot blockers at the same time. Shaq is different from Dwight and Dwight is different from Gasol and Bynum. They all change shots, so it's a difference but it's not really a difference.

Q. Did you find yourself at all having to adjust your shot going in?
RAJON RONDO: No, because when they step up I try to dish it off or use my flow -- they still have to go get it. Gasol blocked a couple of my lay-ups so I have to change a couple of my shots. He made good plays on the ball.

Q. Pau Gasol was in here earlier talking about Kevin Garnett, and he said he thinks he's lost some explosiveness. What do you think about that?
RAJON RONDO: Every man is entitled to his own opinion. You know, Kevin is fine. It's just one game. We'll see in Game 2. We'll see in Game 2.

Q. What do you know about Kevin, that if the guy he's going up against --
RAJON RONDO: I mean, hey, obviously he knows what he's saying, so I don't have anything to say. I just can't wait -- I didn't know he said that, but I'll be excited to see how it goes in Game 2.

Q. Last night was pretty much a game that didn't have any flow to it for a variety of reasons. What can you try to do to get that flow back?
RAJON RONDO: Me or my team?

Q. Well, you as the point guard.
RAJON RONDO: There was a lot of loose balls that were out there that I usually come up with. I couldn't get to them yesterday. A lot of long rebounds that I usually get. I can just try to be a better rebounder, have a better knack for the ball in Game 2. And when I get it on the break just try to be aggressive.

Q. How do you feel like Kobe's defense affected you last night and what do you have to do to adjust to whatever his style to be more effective the next game?
RAJON RONDO: I don't know, I've faced Kobe a bunch of times. He's guarded me since 2008 in The Finals. I've just got to continue to play my game. If we get stops, it's a different ballgame. But you've got to give him credit that when we did get stops, they got offensive rebounds. So it was difficult for us to come down and get any transition buckets because we were setting up the offense every time down. Kobe did a great job on me. Give him credit.

Q. He talked about how he wanted to keep you out of transition. Was he doing anything he hasn't done before or is it always the same kind of style that he's played?
RAJON RONDO: Same style, it was just -- I think it's not hard to keep out of transition if we're taking the ball out of the net every time. It seemed like to me they didn't miss a shot or we couldn't get a stop.

Q. Ray Allen was saying that you guys could do a better job not just getting stops but taking the ball out of the net and putting it in your hands faster. Did you see anything like that? Were you ready for the ball, not getting it fast enough out of the net?
RAJON RONDO: You know, it's a little bit of both. Sometimes it may be discouraging when you take it out of the net four or five times in a row, so it may not come out as fast as I would like to or the team would like to, to set the pace. But that's just how the game goes.
But like I said, we want to start off by not putting the ball through the net. And if it does, they're going to score points obviously, we've just got to continue to get the ball out of the net fast. It might be easier if one guy was assigned to do his job or say Perk takes it out every time do whether it's a miss or make or Kevin. It might be easier because sometimes you don't know who's taking the ball out of bounds, but it's just something to figure out sooner or later.

Q. Beyond Kobe their bigs seemed to not want to overcommit to you so when you get in the paint create for your teammates and try to stay in front of you. Did you sense last night that they were trying to not react to you before you made up your mind to go?
RAJON RONDO: No, no. I missed a couple easy lay-ups last night that I usually make, and I made some that I don't usually make. I don't know, I think I drew the bigs a couple times and got Perk to the free-throw line. A couple times he converted on a couple of buckets. But other than that, it's my read really. It's nothing that a big can do or sense. It's all on me, my judgment, knowing how to play the game.

Q. How would you compare your current situation to post Game 3 against Cleveland after they blew you out, were up two games to one. I don't know how similar it feels to you. How would you compare that?
RAJON RONDO: It's not similar at all. It's Game 1. It's one game. In the series, the Cleveland series, they were up 2-1? That's closer to elimination. We still have a couple more games to play here. It's only Game 1. Those games, it was three games in, heading into Game 4. Now it's just going into Game 2.
The only thing I can probably relate it to is maybe a couple years back, 2008, when Detroit came in in Game 1 and stole a game from us. That's how I feel. I feel like they stole a game from us.

Q. Did you see during the films how precise you guys weren't? Everyone is saying you guys didn't execute just the little things that you guys need to do and have done during the playoffs. What did you see, and did you see how disheveled you guys were at times doing the little things?
RAJON RONDO: Well, they had a clip -- we had a film clip with all the 50/50 plays, and I don't think we won none of them. They got all the loose balls. They dove on the floor first. They were the more aggressive team. Winning none of those categories, it's hard to win a game.

Q. Last night Doc was saying that the Celtics guards needed to do a better job of stopping their dribble penetration. Talk about what you need to do in the next game to prevent that.
RAJON RONDO: I think guys need to see guys on their elbows. Our perimeter defense, we were spaced out. If Kobe had the ball on the right wing, either myself or Paul or someone else was hugged up on the opposite wing, we didn't make them see us on the nail or on the elbow to help the situation. It's not a big adjustment that we need to make, but I think it's something that we can easily make a decision for or make an adjustment to.

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