Lonzo Ball must be learning from Rajon Rondo when it comes to getting high-assist games without scoring a lot of points. In fact, I just came up with a new term for a statistical achievement, “The Rondo”: when a player gets a double-double with points and assists, but gets more assists than points. I could also call it the “Ricky Rubio” or the “Jose Calderon”, or maybe even the “Tim Frazier”, although that last one is a little bit obscure for the general NBA fandom.
Lonzo Ball has had ten point/assist double-doubles in his career, including this one, but only one was a “Rajon Rondo”. He’s just slightly too scoring-oriented to be consistently pulling it off. Prime Rondo would regularly have assist games in the high teens, but was also well-known for his unwillingness to score the ball even on open attempts, so he was the perfect guy for this stat. Ball was billed as a scorer, and I still think he can be a good one, so he’s not the guy who’s going to be pulling of a lot of “Rajon Rondos” over the course of his career.
Speaking of which, is Rondo injured or did he just say something stupid to his coach again?