Via ESPN Boston:

Garnett walked through the locker room after the game with a limp and his left ankle wrapped in ice. Asked later about a potential ailment, he gave his trademark, “Y’all take it easy,” before departing to catch the team’s midnight flight to Indianapolis for the second half of a back-to-back against the Pacers on Saturday night.

It’s bad that I’m actually hoping he’s hurt, right? Because then at least there’s some type of excuse.

At some point, the Celtics evolved (or devolved, if you will) into an upside-down version of their former selves,. They are now a team that treats the regular season like a regular season, rather than a team that treats the regular season like a set of 82 death matches, like the 2007-08 Celtics did.

There was a joy to watching that Celtics team compete, partially because we weren’t watching Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair anymore, but also due to the knowledge that teamwork and passion were a given on every night and those Celtics would rarely, if ever, get outworked. A few half-assed regular seasons (and one gutsy regular season during which the Celtics finished 62-20 despite Kevin Garnett falling to injury at midseason) later, we no longer enter game days knowing the type of effort the Celtics will provide.

Once unequivocally the league’s toughest team, the Celtics now have their grit questioned by the leader of their own locker room. (WEEI)

“The difference in the game was Indiana was tougher,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “They made tougher plays, they were more physical. The game was there to be won by either team, it was who was going to grab it.”

“We can get along but I want to win too,” Rivers said. “The chemistry is phenomenal. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys, but I may be asking for a tougher group of guys. I’m not sure yet.” …

“We watched a long film today and it showed them everything,” Rivers said. “It’s guards getting beat off the dribble, bigs helping, opposite weakside guard not cracking back on box outs. We had five times [against Indiana] where we had the inside position on a rebound, and it was our bigs and they still got the rebound. To me, that’s physicality. It’s not boxing out, it’s relying on your athleticism. Five times they came and scored on every single possession. That’s the game the other night.”

It’s too early to determine whether this will be another long regular season in Boston filled with many uninspired nights, but the Celtics do need to address a number of issues that have contributed to an underwhelming 4-4 start.

The Celtics have yet to defeat a winning team and they are defending and rebounding at an unacceptable rate. According to John Hollinger’s statistics, they are 21st in defensive efficiency and 21st in rebounding rate. The Celtics have always been a poor offensive rebounding team, but now their woes on the glass have also extended to the defensive end, where the Celtics are now ranked 19th, as opposed to ninth last season. These are troublesome signs for an older, smaller team that lost a lot of brute size and strength in the middle of last season — namely Perk and Shaq. Shaq was technically still around for the entire season, but hardly contributed anything down the stretch.

Yet it was never strength that set the Celtics apart in the toughness department. It used to be their mentality that established the tone; the mindset to contest every shot, box out on every release and rotate to every open opponent. Sure, every once in a while Perk would throw a well-aimed elbow or P.J. Brown would level an airborn opponent, aspects that contributed to Boston’s reputation as a team that never backed down from physicality. But the Celtics thrived defensively in the past because they were committed to a game plan and dedicated to winning every night. They played with a sense of purpose that was unmatched.

That sense of urgency no longer exists, nor does the ability within certain Celtics to summon their five-star legs every night. But even the eldest, most injury-ravaged Celtics should be able to reach within themselves each day and retrieve 48 minutes of complete effort. There are some mistakes that are forgivable, turnovers and missed shots among them, but there is no excuse for a team that doesn’t play hard during every game.

It has been a long time since the Celtics approached every contest like it was a heavyweight title bout, and I understand those days are probably gone forever, a beautiful deer that pranced into my life and then migrated into the dark shadows of the forest. But toughness once paved the road and illuminated the highway for these Celtics. It would be nice to see that defining characteristic return.

Rajon Rondo is a complex person, a dream within a dream within a dream, consisting of layers of architecture that only make perfect sense to him.

We’ve heard rumors of Rondo’s stubbornness, the way he can occasionally be a thumb tack into the side of teammates and coaches. He entered the NBA and immediately wanted things done his way. He butts heads with Doc Rivers. He clashes periodically with the Big Three. He’s unafraid to speak his mind, may or may not have struggled last season while mourning the loss of his friend Kendrick Perkins, plays through injuries that would sideline Vince Carter for his entire career, unofficially leads the NBA in “utterly unselfish and sometimes stupidly unselfish” plays, became a leader among several Hall of Famers, and once in a while throws a water bottle (or an iced tea container, depending on who you trust) at a video screen while assistant coaches point out his flaws during a film session, then continues into a diatribe lacing into his teammates.

He’s about as simple as rocket science, as normal as a blue duck, and as volatile as a volcano. He’s Rajon Rondo, a player who has overcome a crushing flaw, yet a person still working to overcome temperamental issues that have scarred and sometimes threatened to fracture relationships with his closest co-workers.

In a wonderful piece in the Boston Herald, Steve Bulpett unearthed the anecdote I briefly mentioned earlier, the one where Rondo throws a water bottle and destroys a video screen during a film session. It’s a startling description of an event that would normally take place behind closed doors and remain behind closed doors, depicting Rondo as a hothead capable of losing his scruples, verbally attacking his teammates and destroying team property, all in one outburst.

But it was later in the story that I thought the most productive quote came.

“I’m not going to point the fingers on anybody,” Rondo said. “Any relationship problems I have with anybody on the team or anybody on the coaching staff, I have to do better as a player and as a leader. You know, I didn’t ask for this role, but it’s part of it — for one, being a point guard, for two, the way I play. So I just have to embrace it better. Each year I think I’m getting better. I may have my incidents, but each year I think I’ve handled criticism a lot better, I’ve been a lot more patient, and I think I’ve grown. KG actually came up to me and told me he was proud of me at how mature I’ve seemed in the first few days. But it’s not just two days; it’s going to have to be consistent throughout the season. That’s what P (captain Paul Pierce) told me the other day: You can’t pick and choose when you’re going to be a leader. You have to do it every day. That’s the biggest thing for me. It’s not just in the games, it’s in practice and in shootarounds in the morning. . . . I’m the first guy out there that people are looking at. You know, I’ve got the ball, so if I’m going to lollygag, then it’s like, OK, well, we’ve got the day off. That can’t be.

“There can’t be any inconsistency about that as far as in my game this year. And there won’t be, because I’ve embraced that role. All eyes are on me, and I’m OK with that.”

The symmetry of Paul Pierce telling Rondo he needs to be a consistent leader is perfect. In his younger days, Pierce was a lot like Rondo, a volatile, head-strong young buck not yet willing or able to coalesce with his teammates at all times. He had spats with Doc Rivers. He took bad shots. He almost requested a trade. He wore mocking head bandages to press conferences. He was Boston’s leader and normally well-behaved, but he was also capable of mind-boggling lapses just when it seemed like he had turned the proverbial corner.

Rondo was put in a different situation career-wise than Pierce, but their evolution is eerily similar. Several small steps toward maturation, one giant leap backward, a self-destructive path that simultaneously leaves fans in love and disappointed. Pierce eventually attained the point of complete maturation, but it took years of petty outbursts and occasionally selfish play before he fully committed himself to the team culture.

In the book Shaq wrote this summer, which talked crap about anybody and everybody, the Big Diesel called Pierce Boston’s unquestioned leader, even in a locker room that includes Kevin Garnett. The next step for Rondo is to become the leader Pierce has developed into, to eliminate the occasional mental lapses and temper tantrums and put aside all the bullshit that clouds his relationships with teammates and coaches.

Rondo is a uniquely talented individual, a point guard who can create assists out of dust, an unselfish passing demigod who should be a dream to play with, and now he must follow Pierce’s lead. He must continue his development into a full-time leader, because really, that’s the only true kind of leader there is.

Rajon Rondo can be stubborn, aloof and moody. He can rub teammates and coaches the wrong way. He’s steadfast in his beliefs and willing to share them with any member of the Boston Celtics. But even when he struggled during the second half of last season, there was a belief he had turned the corner personally and become a player the Celtics admired and (mostly) got along with, on and off the court.

Or maybe not.

Donny Marshall told NBC SportsTalk that Rondo still causes trouble in Boston’s locker room.

“My sources tell me he’s started to wear his welcome out a little bit,” Marshall said.

In his book (I haven’t read it yet, so my knowledge is second-hand), Shaq noted that Rondo occasionally ticked off his older teammates. Shaq called Rondo stubborn and said he wouldn’t change. But that’s nothing new. We’ve known Rondo to be stubborn and set in his ways, ever since he was a rookie coming out of the University of Kentucky. Calling Rondo stubborn is like calling Kevin Garnett crazy — yeah, no kidding, but his team needs to learn to deal with it, because like it or not, that’s just part of his personality. Good luck potty training a 25-year old dog.

Sporting News reporter Sean Deveney wrote a column this week saying the Boston Celtics are just using these trade rumors to motivate Rondo.

Fast forward to this bizarre offseason, and you can’t help but get the sense that the Celtics are leaning on the “trade Rondo” tactic yet again—not because they are actually looking to trade Rondo, but because they want to snap him out of the funk he seemed to fall into after the team traded his good friend Kendrick Perkins in a surprise move last February. Before the trade, Rondo averaged 10.8 points on 50.9 percent shooting, with 12.3 assists. After, he was down to 9.8 points on 41.6 percent shooting, with 9.2 assists. The Celtics were 41-14 before the deal, and 15-12 after. Rondo played hurt against the Heat in the second round of the playoffs, where the Celtics lost in five games. …

What it all comes down to is the Celtics looking to give Rondo a kick in the trousers at a time when they know they need their point guard to be at his best. Rondo might not want to admit it, but Pierce, Allen and Garnett are getting older and the championship window is closing. If the Celtics do have another run in them, they need their point man to be well-adjusted and ready to produce the way he had done before Perkins was traded.

These trade rumors will likely prove to be little more than a way to assure Rondo comes in with sharpened focus.

But if that’s the case, why didn’t they try motivating him during the regular season? If what Rondo needs to play well is a kick in the rump, why didn’t Doc Rivers just come out and say, “Look, guys, our point guard’s playing like a drunken Jose Calderon. We know he’s capable of better. Hell, he spent the first half of the season threatening to break NBA assist records and generally playing like a top-three point guard in the NBA. But right now, we’re not getting much of anything from him.”

Here’s what Rivers said instead:

“I don’t know if he’s slumping. He’s not playing great right now, but I don’t think he’s slumping or anything,” said Rivers, who told reporters in New Jersey that Rondo’s ankle was fine. “He’s just going through a stretch. It’s a long season. He’s human the last time I checked, and he’s going to go through stretches just like Paul [Pierce] and Ray [Allen] and Kevin [Garnett]. They’ve all gone through stretches.”

Rivers always publicly backed Rondo, no matter how poorly or disinterested the All-Star played at times last season. Maybe that’s because Rondo’s moody — maybe one negative word from Rivers could send him into a tailspin. But that never stopped Rivers with other players. Glen Davis is as moody as an eight-months pregnant woman, yet Rivers took (admittedly subdued) public shots at him fairly frequently. They didn’t work out — Davis just kept spiraling deeper and deeper into the world of bricked jumpers and shaky decisions. But Rivers didn’t hold his tongue with Davis, even though Davis clearly is the type to be adversely affected by being called out in the press.

Kevin Garnett backed Rondo, too, even during the depths of last season’s slump. After Rondo went scoreless and rebound-less against the Indiana Pacers, Garnett had this to say:

“Rondo’s playing hurt,” said Garnett. “He’s hurting. He’s giving us everything he has. He’s grinding. He’s playing countless minutes for us, and he’s not playing like a washed-up guy.”

That doesn’t sound like someone fed up with his teammate. Nor does the following comment from Jermaine O’Neal, taken after Rondo returned to the Miami Heat game with one arm (pretty much) tied behind his back.

“He’s one of the tougher point guards in this league and he wants to win. And that’s the first thing I asked him when he came back, I asked him, ‘Are you sure that you want to be back out here?’ And he said, ‘Look, we don’t have any games to give,’ and that’s Rondo.”

Rondo can obviously be a nuisance sometimes. He’s prideful, and not always in a good way. He’s stubborn. Nobody would argue with that. But his teammates and coaches speak about him with respect and sometimes even awe. At one of the games I covered last season, I forget which one, Rivers noted that Rondo occasionally disagreed with sets Rivers called. But Rivers wasn’t upset. He was just impressed, because Rondo saw (and understood) things on the court that even Rivers didn’t.

Would I be surprised to hear that Rondo can still be an asshole sometimes? No, not at all. In fact, given his personality, I’m sure he occasionally causes problems in the locker room, at least minor ones. But would I be surprised to hear the Celtics are shopping him around because they’re fed up with his act? Yes. They’re not trying to trade him for 75 cents on the dollar, after all. They’re trying to trade him for Chris Effing Paul, the best damn point guard in the league. If Danny Ainge isn’t simply looking to improve his basketball team, I’d be surprised.

Then again, Rondo’s play during the second half of the season can best be described as “the walking dead.” But here was Garnett’s explanation of that:

“I’ve seen him play through some (injuries). I’m not going to go through the list of injuries that you all are unaware of. I’m not going to put him out there like that but I’ve seen him play through some horrific injuries. [When he returned after the elbow injury] all of us sort of look at each other like, ‘What is he doing out here? Is he being smart right now?’ When he came in, it was just typical Rondo. Shorty is a really tough, young individual and I don’t know what he’s going to be like when he’s 35 but right now he’s playing through a lot. He’s showing a lot of heart (and) a lot of grit. We see it. That doesn’t go unspoken or unseen. We see he’s out there giving his full effort. We’re following that lead.”

I’m not completely discarding Donny Marshall’s report. But if the Celtics are really fed up with Rondo’s act, they had a funny way of talking about it last season.

Now that a missed season is a real possibility, the lockout could end the Boston Celtics’ Big Three era. It could potentially threaten Kevin Garnett’s career. It could mean that Ray Allen is 37 years old when the NBA returns, and Paul Pierce might be 35. And if all that’s not enough, a missed season could result in Danny Ainge scrambling to fill 12 roster spots for 2012-13. I don’t mean to exude pessimism, but these are now realistic possibilities.

“There will ultimately be a new collective bargaining agreement,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said after hearing of the NBPA’s decision. “But the 2011-2012 season is now in jeopardy.”

And for veteran teams that have few bodies under contract right now, like the Celtics, they could very well fall under the category of collateral damage associated with this lockout if it wipes out the entire season.

Beyond 2011-12, the Celtics only have three players under contract – Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley.

So if the season were to be wiped out entirely, the C’s would have as many as 12 roster spots to fill.

The Miami Heat certainly didn’t complain after needing to fill 12 roster spots last summer. But there were extenuating circumstances. Two of the game’s biggest stars (and Chris Bosh) were all free agents at the same time. The trio decided to combine their powers. It was a combination of luck, circumstance and the persuasive powers of Pat Riley (not to mention the persuasive powers of South Beach).

The Celtics wouldn’t be so lucky. Even if the free agency classes of 2011 and 2012 were combined, which is what would happen after a missed season, there’s STILL not the type of star power to rebuild on the fly. Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Deron Williams are the only superstars on the market. Two of them play Rondo’s position. The other, Howard, will have many other realistic suitors besides the Celtics. If Howard did sign with the Celtics, the Celtics could presumably re-sign Allen and Garnett to smaller contracts and join them with Pierce, Rondo and Howard to form an awesome starting five. But that’s assuming Howard signs. And the Boston Celtics historically don’t land high-profile free agents.

More likely, the Celtics are looking at a lengthy rebuilding process after the (rumored) 2011-12 season. The thought is sobering, but it’s reality. The final year of the Big Three era is in jeopardy, and the future is unknown.

For every NBA team, the lockout sucks. For the Boston Celtics, it sucks even more.*

*For more on “The Art of the Highly Sophisticated Lead,” I suggest calling me to set up a lesson.

Age means a lost season will affect Boston more than other teams. Age means we could be losing the end of Kevin Garnett’s career. Age means we could be losing the final season Ray Allen played at an All-Star level. Age means Paul Pierce could be a step slower when we see him next.

But according to Glen Davis, the Big Three don’t age like everyone else.

“In a way the window may be closing, but nobody knows their bodies better than those guys,” Rondo said recently. “I’m sure they’ll be ready to go.”

Davis, too, has faith.

“That’s a whole year they could miss,” he said. “That’s time gone, whether you’re running or standing still.

“But when you think about who we have on this team, you know they won’t get out of shape. Look at Ray Allen. I think he has three more years in this league, anyway. Kevin, too. I think his body can hold up. We’re really blessed on this team with our Big Three. They’re really different than a lot of other guys.”

Yes, the Big Three stay in great shape. They’re all professionals. But Ray Allen is 36 years old. Kevin Garnett is 35. Paul Pierce is 34. The lockout may not be robbing us of their last days, but it’s robbing us.