Did Bradley Take a Shot at Rondo?

After the Celtics’ fourth straight defeat — a 95-90 loss suffered at the hands of Kyrie Irving (40 points) and the Cavaliers — guard Avery Bradley tweeted: “Nobody will score 40 on [me] unless they take 40 shots.”

Irving scored his 40 on 24 shots, although just three of those attempts came against Bradley; meanwhile, the Cavs point guard made 6-of-11 attempts against Celtics point Rajon Rondo, according to Synergy Sports (h/t @ESPNForsberg. That may not even include plays like Irving’s isolation drive past with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter, when he blew by Rondo and got (questionably) fouled by Jared Sullinger on a three-point play.

So, why wasn’t Bradley — considered by many the best on-ball defender in the NBA — facing the surefire All-Star, particularly in that situation? While he’s recovering from a rib injury, Bradley played 26 effective minutes and was on the floor for the span from 2:31 to 0:22 of the fourth quarter, when Irving scored nine points on four layups.

When the C’s guard took to Twitter just minutes after the conclusion of the game, many considered it a veiled shot at Rondo, although Bradley quickly deleted the tweet and posted instead: “No shots at anybody. It’s confidence.”



Was Avery Bradley firing a Twitter shot at Rajon Rondo?

I don't really have an informed opinion, but I voted anyway, for "No shot, just confidence."

But I would throw another option in -- issuing a challenge. It's different than taking a shot at Rondo, which sounds negative to me. Issuing a challenge in my imagined scenario is having confidence in your teammate and prodding him to rise up and meet the challenge.

Considering how discombobulated the team appears to be at the moment from the outside looking in, who knows what the real deal is. Maybe it's a little of everything BobH listed.

I'll take him on his word when he says, "No shots at anybody. It's confidence".

Hi,
I'd say - none of the above. IMO, he's just "peacocking" after a frustrating loss.
I like AB very much, he's a great defender but sometimes other players smoke you down. So, get used to it and next time smoke him down, then you wouldn't have to write about it - everybody else will.

AK

AB did not cover Irving most of the night. When he did, Irving hit shots...but they were much tougher shots. You can live with pull up 3 pointers with 6 on the shot clock. You cannot live with a blow by on the way to the hoop in the final seconds.

I dont think AB was calling out Rondo as much as calling out Doc. And Bradley ir right in this case.