Rondo’s Threes and "D" Ignite Second-Half Rally

Couper Moorhead
Celtics.com
May 14, 2008

In Game 4, Rajon Rondo pulled up for a rare three at the top of the arc and clanged it. Doc Rivers called Rondo to the sideline and said, "That's a hero shot." It was the shot so many Celtics had fallen for, and missed, in their road losses. But it was the shot that, eventually, someone would have to make.

Enter Rondo, Game 5.

In the Boston Celtics' 96-89 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Rajon Rondo launched a pair of threes that could have had nothing less than a heroic impact. With his team down 12 in the second quarter at the Garden, he nailed them, and the Celtics never looked back.

Rajon Rondo transformed the game by sparking a rally with both his outside shooting and his hustle on the defensive end.
Elsa/NBAE/Getty

"Those were shots that when they go in, you love them," Rivers said.

It's a different feeling on the other sideline when you've been daring him to take those shots.

"Rondo comes down on two occasions, he's wide open, he buries that shot," Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said. "And that's the shot that we've been giving him on the back side. But he stepped up and knocked it down and then on top of that, he was good."

Twenty points, 13 assists, two steals, two blocked shots in a team-high 42 minutes, including all 24 of the second half. Good is an understatement. Rivers called him "fantastic."

If one truth has remained honest from the regular season to the playoffs, it's that when Rondo is making his jumper -- the one defenses deem unworthy of coverage -- the Celtics' offense takes a huge leap forward.

Just before halftime, it did just that.

His first triple came in rhythm on a kickout from Kevin Garnett, the second when Ray Allen found the sophomore all by his lonesome on the break. He shot the first with confidence, but the second with some of the pause he had shown before the in the series.

"You can see when he is out there he think a little bit, should he attack if he has a shot," Allen said. "He will shoot it but [he's] not sure if he should. Tonight he just shot, and he made the shot."

This time the pause was just to check that his feet were behind the line. As Rondo released both treys, the crowd dimmed with wariness. Once the second shot hit twine to close the deficit to six, the fans erupted.

In the third quarter, the Celtics followed suit.

"We got a couple threes out of Rondo, so that really kind of started our run going into halftime and it just carried over into the third quarter," Celtics Captain Paul Pierce said.

The first 90 seconds of the third saw a Rondo steal and layup to retrieve the Boston lead. Later, he dropped in another contested shot over Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Then a dribble drive dish to Garnett for a jumper. A swat of Delonte West deserving of a Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. As his team took charge, Rondo clamped down on one end and regulated on the other, finishing with six points and two assists in the quarter and a nine point lead for Boston.

"It's all about the win," Rondo said. "The stats will come and go."

Four more assists would follow in the fourth, including a bounce pass in the paint that Garnett collected for a two-handed jam. Though the lead was at 11 once Rondo sunk a floater with 3:38 to go, he would see things through to the end, earning praise from Cleveland's All-NBA First-Teamer.

"Without Rondo tonight it would have been a much tougher game for them to win. He was the X-Factor," LeBron James said. "You know, 20 and 13 and just 1 turnover, it speaks a lot."

It provided answers to questions that had been raised after Rondo's 0-of-6 Game 2 and single assist in Game 3. But all it said to him was that the Celtics got the W, and the 3-2 series lead.

"Hopefully it's not the last important game of my career," Rondo said.

It won't be. The clinching Game 6 is Friday.