I couldn't believe Ron allowed Rondo to get away with that. I don't expect Ron to go crazy and start throwing punches, but you can't let Rondo put his hands on you without retaliating. He had the perfect opportunity to send a message to Rondo, take a hard foul on the break away layup Rondo made from that crazy inbounds play. Ron Artest was garbage last night. He has zero confidence shooting in the flow of the offense and got destroyed by Paul Pierce. Every time the Lakers tried moving the ball and got to him in the corner he killed the movement. He just held the ball and didn't know where to pass it to next or whether or not to shoot it.
Ron needs to use his fouls. Then he might be able to send a message when he's struggling offensively.
He needed to play with an edge like he did in the first game. Getting tangled up with Pierce and taking him down seemed to get him going and focus on the court. Artest needs to make Pierce work harder for his shots and also be more of a threat on offense. Pierce is baiting him to take those 3 point shots and constantly cheats off Artest to help in the paint or shadow Kobe. He's done a good job of sealing off the lanes and still getting back to bother Ron.
