Rajon Rondo had a vintage Jason Kidd performance last night against the Indiana Pacers. I'm talking Kidd on the Nets, during the wife-beating, ugly kid courtside days when New Jersey made back-to-back NBA Finals.
It's safe to say he's the best point guard in the East (which isn't saying much). The West is still loaded with the likes of Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Baron Davis, Chauncey Billups and Steve Nash. There's no reason that Rondo shouldn't be playing in the All-Star game this year with such a weak conference for point guards.
Rondo dropped the first triple-double of his young career with 16 points, 17 assists (career-high) and 13 rebounds with three steals.
The Celts (18-2) made up for one of their two losses on the season by drilling Indiana (7-11), 114-96 at the Garden. Boston has now won 10 games in a row.
It wasn't all about Rondo though as Ray Allen had a game-high 31 points, Kevin Garnett (26 points, 14 boards, 4 blocks) and Kendrick Perkins (16 points, 10 rebounds) each posted double-doubles and Paul Pierce added 16 points.
Danny Granger led the Pacers with 20 points while T.J. Ford had 15 points and eight assists, Marquis Daniels scored 14 and Troy Murphy put up 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Boston led 28-27 after one quarter and 57-51 at the half. The third quarter was the money frame as the C's used a 31-22 advantage to cruise into the fourth and the win. For good measure, Boston outscored Indiana, 26-23 in the final 12 minutes.
The C's shot 50% to the Pacers' 44%. Boston got to the line much more (26-32) and made them count as the Pacers only went 9-for-13. Finally, Boston had an absurd 23 more rebounds (54-31) which you almost never see in an NBA game.
The Portland Trailblazers-winners of six straight-one of the NBA's other hottest teams comes to the Garden tomorrow night in what should be an intriguing matchup. Brandon Roy is a rising star while LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden (when healthy) make Portland a contender for the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment