Here's something to think about, when you consider the pro's and con's of regular season rondo. When Rondo goes to the hoops he gets hit hard, and goes down hard.
In the interest of longevity, it only makes sense to change your style of play in the regular season, and while it is slightly less efficient to go for 13/13 instead of 20/10 that you tend to see from playoff rondo. It's not to the point where it will cost us many games.
When Rondo manipulates the defense and finds the open man. The open man tends to find the open shot and doesn't take any physical toll at all.
It's not a perfect mindset, but you also don't KNOW when you're going to take the hard set. So I think occasionally rondo will anticipate a hits coming a defer, and the hit doesn't come.
I don't think Rondo likes it when he does that, it probably eats at him a little, but its part of the game for regular season rondo.