This from Scott Souza on his Courtside View Blog:

Doc Rivers spoke with the media at length about the team’s recent troubles and how he hoped to fix them on the upcoming road trip. But a player’s opinion was hard to find. No Kevin Garnett. No Paul Pierce. Not even a word from the normally very accesible Ray Allen.

Only Rajon Rondo stepped up to the mics.

“Every game we play is important,” he said. “We’re battling for second, third place every night.”

Rondo said it is not a matter of the team being overly buddy, buddy – “The guys can hate each other on the other side of the locker room. But when we come together on the court, you have to be one team, one unit.”

Scott's assessment? (read the whole blog)

Nothing groundbreaking here, and a lot of the same stuff he said following yesterday’s 96-89 loss to the Magic, but it said something about Rondo’s expanding leadership role on the team with the normally elusive point guard’s willingness to face the music when his veteran teammates were hard to find. …