Rajon Rondo and Doc Rivers Ransack the Cavaliers: Does Mike Brown Know What he is Dong,? Part One

Quest for the Ring is taking time out from other projects to focus on the 2010 round two series between the Celtics and the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had home court advantage and won game one in Cleveland 101-93. Game two, however, was won big by the Celtics in Cleveland, 104-86. The following is based mostly on the huge game two win by the Celtics over the mighty Cavaliers.

FOUR REASONS WHY WE ARE BREAKING DOWN THE 2010 SECOND ROUND SERIES BETWEEN THE CELTICS AND THE CAVALIERS
1. This game makes Celtics Coach Doc Rivers look like a genius and Nuggets Coach George Karl look like an idiot. Rivers has obviously told Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo to get as many assists as he possibly can, whereas were George Karl his coach God only knows exactly how lame Rondo's instructions would be, but they would obviously be very lame indeed compared with instructions from Rivers. George Karl and others believe that although the point guard will often get more assists than anyone, that it really doesn't matter who gets the most assists, and that that all players are almost equally responsible for assists and for the passing game. Karl's approach is clearly inferior to Doc Rivers'.

Doc Rivers clearly operates what Quest calls the power point guard concept, which is where the point guard is fully responsible for assists and for the passing game, and he takes pride in it. Rajon Rondo loves making assists and he is proud of them and this is a wonderful thing that will win you playoff games that you will probably lose if you don't have any players who think assists and passing first (and scoring second). The game two big Boston win over mighty Cleveland (104-86) reminds you that the power point guard thing is a very powerful and winning concept indeed. You can't win much bigger than beating LeBron James in Cleveland!

Would Rondo, as he did in this game, ever ever make 19 assists in a playoff game were George Karl his coach? Maybe when cows learn how to fly or when Tupac Shakur is found alive living in a fleabag motel in Joplin, Missouri, laugh out loud.

2. We want historical superstar Rajon Rondo to get more rings (he already has one) perhaps starting this year if he earns one, which he has clearly started to do in this series.

3. We wanted to start to establish an historical record of a possible monumental and historical upset which this series will be if Boston takes this best of seven series over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. We will do Real Player Rating breakdowns for every game should the Celtics in fact upset the Cavaliers.

4. We wanted to take the opportunity to point out that Celtics Coach Doc Rivers is a high quality coach who definitely passes high Quest for the Ring standards, but the jury is still out on Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown. But the jury is leaning toward guilty because Mike Brown screwed up big time in this game, game two of the series...

Anderson Varajao was starved for minutes. But Varajao was the second best Cavaliers player this year and he was the best defensive player. And yet Brown played Varajao for only 21 measly minutes in this game! Twenty-one freaking' minutes! 21 god-... oh well, you get it. Coach Brown: Varajao is a superstar and he is better than over the hill Shaquille O'Neal, who played 19 minutes and was mediocre at best, whereas Varajao in this game was the best Cavalier on the court. But he played for only 21 minutes!

Damn, Mike Brown, do you really want to join George Karl on the Quest "Coaches who Will Never Ever Win the Quest for the Ring" list?

Although according to some injury listings Brown has the excuse that Varajao has "back spasms," why is it that Varajao can play for 21 minutes and not 31 minutes? I just don't get that, and this whole thing seems fishy to me. It sounds as if the Cavaliers are trying to come up with an excuse for playing mostly Jamison and O'Neal and for making Varajao nothing more than a second string for this series, even though it was Varajao who along with LeBron earned home court throughout the playoffs for Cleveland.

But any how, you insist, surely Coach Brown is not crazy or incompetent! He must have played the second best defensive player a lot of minutes! Um, I hate to break it to you, but Brown does appear at the moment to be rather incompetent. The second best defensive player for the Cavaliers this year was Jamario Moon. Moon was only the 7th best player overall, but we are talking about the Cavaliers here, so 7th best for them was good enough to put Moon (RPR .809) in the Very Good / Solid Starter range.

In this game, small forward Moon played a grand total of seven minutes. Seven freaking minutes! There I go again getting upset with Brown’s apparent incompetence.

So if neither Varajao nor O'Neal played major minutes and Zydrunas Ilgauskas did not play at all, who exactly did play up front? Well, lets check the evidence at the scene of Coach Brown’s crime:

MINUTES PLAYED BY CAVALIERS CENTERS AND POWER FORWARDS
Antawn Jamison 36 minutes
Anderson Varejao 21 minutes
Shaquille O'Neal 19 minutes
JJ Hickson 19 minutes

Varajao should be playing about as much as Jamison.

Second year man Hickson played about as much as the much more playoff experienced and far better player Varajao. In fact, Hickson (RPR .593: satisfactory role player) should not be playing at all in this series unless Varajao is really injured and maybe not even then.

All in all, my blind faith in Mike Brown is coming to an inglorious ending. Mike Brown: you failed in this game and LeBron is going to find out and may leave town as a result, laugh out loud.