Rivers: Celtics need Rondo to be an ‘aggressive scorer'

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BOSTONCourtesy of a hip injury suffered last week, Rajon Rondo's availability wasn't known until shortly before Wednesday's tip-off against Memphis. 
He finished with a double-double of 11 points and 10 assists, but that performance -- like so many this season -- was not enough as the Celtics suffered a 93-83 loss to extend their season long losing streak to four in a row. 
Rondo is already charged with orchestrating the C's attack, one that Celtics coach Doc Rivers was pleased with at the start of Wednesday's game. 
Boston led 26-25 after the first quarter, which was the C's first lead after a quarter of play since they defeated Brooklyn on Christmas Day.
But many of the things Rondo did well in the first didn't necessarily translate throughout the rest of the game. 
"With the way we were not scoring," Rivers said, "and you could see Kevin (Garnett) struggle today with his shot, we really need him to be more aggressive in our pick-and-roll package, in our offense."
While Rondo has embraced the role of being more of a scorer this season, Rivers needs him to pick it up even more on nights like Wednesday when the C's offense seems to be stuck in neutral.
"And that's not second-nature to him, to be an aggressive scorer," Rivers said. "But we really need him to be that. We need him to get in the open court, attack the basket, look for baskets in transition instead of guys shooting 3s that aren't going in."
While Rondo refuses to acknowledge it, the injury has clearly limited his effectiveness at both ends of the floor. 
Defensively he has been beaten repeatedly off the dribble. And on offense, he doesn't attack the basket nearly as much which might also be because more often than not, his drive attempts rarely result in fouls against the other team even when contact is made. 
"I just didn't get the calls tonight," Rondo said.
And as far as the injury impacting his play, Rondo said, "I'm out there playing. I don't really blame anything on my injury."

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