When does stat-grubbing go too far?

I was watching the Celtics-Rockets on mute Monday, and when I saw Rajon Rondo slow down to a halt with nothing but an open court in front of him during the play below, I assumed the officials had called a foul off the ball and stopped play.

Nope. Rondo had just decided he didn’t feel like cruising in for an uncontested layup, and that he’d rather pause long enough for Ray Allen to catch up so that he could toss the ball to his teammate for a dunk.

This is not an isolated thing, as any Boston fan knows. On Saturday against the Bulls, Rondo did this:

Does this bother anyone? It bothers me just a little bit, because Rondo is passing up the simplest play to pad his assist totals. Please note I said bothers me only a little bit. This is not a case of a guy failing to get back on defense or tossing up a shot on his own basket in order to secure a triple-double or picking up needless technical fouls during crunch time.

And I can hear the most passionate Celtics fans saying two things:

1) Rondo’s job as point guard is to keep everyone happy, and giving Allen a few tasty dunks helps in that regard. Fine. But Ray Allen is not some 22-year-old finding his confidence in the NBA. He’s Ray Allen. He doesn’t need anyone’s help.

2) Rondo didn’t create any real risk on either of these plays. The Bulls and Rockets blatantly failed to hustle back on defense, and no defender was near Allen even though Allen started each play far behind Rondo. With no defenders around, the chances of anything going wrong on either pass were minimal.

This second point is legit. Rondo is one of the smartest players in the league — did you see him nearly goad Aaron Brooks into an eight-second violation Monday? — and he wouldn’t gamble irresponsibly in order to pad his stats. He chronically passes up shots he should probably take, but most of those are contested looks in the lane that Rondo might be hesitant to take for other reasons — a belief that he can get a teammate a better look, his own poor foul shooting, etc.

The two plays highlighted here are different. They are blatant stat-padding with almost no risk attached. A minor thing, but slightly distasteful, and I’d rather see Rondo just finish these babies himself.

A related question: What’s the difference between what Rondo does in each of these plays and Russell Westbrook gunning for his 10th assist in the waning seconds of a decided game on New Year’s Eve in order to secure a triple-double? A lot of folks ripped Westbrook for the stat-grubbing. As you can see starting at about the 2:10 mark of the clip below, the Thunder are up by nine with 12 seconds to go when Westbrook, sitting on nine assists, gets the ball under Oklahoma City’s basket.

The Hawks elect not to foul, conceding the game, and most of the players are basically standing around waiting for the clock to run out. Westbrook looks up, sees Serge Ibaka jogging lightly at half court and senses his chance. Even Ibaka is surprised, but he obliges Westbrook, speeds up, catches a pass and dunks to give the Thunder an 11-point lead with 6.9 seconds left.

The main difference between the Westbrook and Rondo plays comes down to score and time. Rondo padded his stats early, with the game in the balance, while Westbrook did so after the Hawks had already given up. Most folks would agree the sporting thing for Westbrook to do would have been to let the clock run out, though there is some merit to the notion that the Hawks are professionals who should be above crying over some late-game stat-padding.

Still: All three of these situations leave me a bit perturbed.