Kevin Durant broke down how LeBron James and Rajon Rondo played the Miami Heat’s defense in the NBA Finals.
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The Los Angeles Lakers were ridiculed for acquiring veteran point guard Rajon Rondo in the 2018-19 season as many believed that Rondo was ‘washed up’.
Even going into these 2020 Playoffs, almost every single Lakers fan and NBA analyst reiterated that Frank Vogel should not give Rondo any minutes off the bench as they claimed, “having rondo on the floor would mean taking the ball away from LeBron which is not a good thing.”
Upon coming back from his thumb injury, he hitting the ground running and immediately started to silence his doubters.
Kevin Durant praises the LeBron-Rondo duo
One of the biggest doubts going into this season was whether or not LeBron James and Rajon Rondo could coexist on the hardwood together.
Not only could they coexist, but the LeBron-Rondo tandem thrived when on the floor together, dismissing any narrative built up around them not being to mesh well together.
Kevin Durant took to his show on ESPN called Detail to break down how LeBron James and Rajon Rondo dismantled the Miami Heat’s zone defense in the Finals.
Lebron James and Rajon Rondo are smart basketball players -Kevin Durant https://t.co/xmHhskpvLw
— 🗿 (@fredseeghosts) October 20, 2020
Durant praises the duo for being patient when dealing with a zone, saying, “If you got Rondo and LeBron James in the game at the same time and you throw a zone out there, they just looking, waiting for you react so they can throw a dime.”
How did Rondo and LeBron James attack Miami’s zone defense?
Miami’s zone defense was quite successful in the first 3 rounds of the Playoffs but the Lakers had their number in the Finals.
The 3 simple things the Lakers did to beat the Miami zone was put the primary ball handler in and around the free throw line to force their zone to shrink, opening up 3 point opportunities, whipped the ball around quickly, and made sure someone was cutting backdoor.
