NBA Sunday: Celtics move to 4-0 without Rajon Rondo, Lakers survive Pistons

Look at how open Drummond is on this frame.

The pass still got over Gasol’s outstretched arm, but Drummond was bothered enough to miss the stuff.

After the game, World Peace seemed to go out of his way to compliment Knight, emphasizing to Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles that the Pistons’ youngster is a “tough kid:”

Knight was not as gracious in his postgame comments. The point guard accused World Peace of throwing a punch and said the play needs to be reviewed by the league for possible further discipline. Knight also cited the fact that World Peace grabbed him around the neck as a reason for his own somewhat-hostile reaction.

“We stopped playing. You could see it in the third quarter. It’s back-to-back games, and I told our guys that. I hate as a coach when you’re telling them that and they’re agreeing with you after the game, and we still did it. That’s back-to-back games where we were playing really good basketball. We were pressuring, we were getting up the floor, we were playing in space, our offense was early clock -- and we get into the third quarter in the middle of it and all of a sudden they’re scoring in five seconds, we’re walking the ball off the floor. And I’m trying to tell them, ‘That’s not who we are. We can’t be that anymore.’ We just can’t. We can’t play that way.”

There’s a reason why players who can create offense in this league are so valuable. It’s possible to play well without them for a time and it’s even possible to thrive without them if everyone is committed to playing a certain way. But it’s a very, very thin line and the Celtics had no real margin for error even when Rondo was healthy. Now they have none. That’s the crux of the Not Better Without Rondo argument.

Metta World Peace knows a thing or two about wrestling matches. If he needs to sneak in a punch while nobody is looking, he’s very capable.

On this play, he did just that to Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Knight. The two got tangled up fighting for a rebound, and instead of immediately removing his arm, World Peace snuck it underneath Knight’s and came straight through with an uppercut to Knight’s jaw. Knight responded with an elbow punch before the two were separated.

The sports schedule on Super Bowl Sunday is always light. This weekend, there will be just three NBA games on Sunday to keep you occupied.