PORTLAND – Nikola Mirotic shook his head late Saturday evening, then smiled, while sitting in front of his stall in the Moda Center visiting locker room. He’d seen this exact scenario before, roughly 365 days earlier, while playing for Chicago in Boston’s TD Garden: Rajon Rondo controlling a road playoff game, in the point guard’s unique and incomparable way.
“This was the playoff-mentality Rondo,” said Mirotic, a Bulls teammate last spring when Rondo staked Chicago to consecutive road wins in Beantown to open Round 1. “You see what he’s capable of doing. He’s on a completely different level than the regular season.”
Indeed, the 12-year NBA veteran wasted no time demonstrating how “Playoff Rondo” can make a postseason impact, tying a New Orleans franchise playoff record with 17 assists in a 97-95 Game 1 win. Rondo also grabbed eight rebounds, but his stamp on Saturday’s game may have been greatest on the defensive end. En route to helping hold Portland to 37.8 percent shooting and a meager 36 first-half points, the 6-foot-1, 186-pounder seemed to have already memorized large portions of the Trail Blazers’ playbook.
“Defensively, he was talking to our guys all game,” said Mirotic (16 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks in Game 1). “Every time he knew what (Portland) was running, so he was telling us, ‘Here comes the pindown. Now it’s a flare (screen).’ He was a huge piece. That’s why we won this game.”
“It was huge. He’s in a different mindset,” said Pelicans five-time All-Star big Anthony Davis (35 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks). “He was up all night watching film. He’s definitely mentally locked in. Even when (Portland) was calling plays out tonight, he was telling us what it was, before they even got a chance to run it. He’s definitely locked in. The way he plays, getting 17 assists, talking, making sure we’re huddling up after free throws, making sure we know what we’re doing out of timeouts. He’s just in a different mode.”
Pelicans players said Rondo was a calming influence in the fourth quarter Saturday, reassuring teammates that they were still in good position, even after the Trail Blazers had sliced what was a 19-point deficit down to a single possession. For his part, Rondo was pleased that New Orleans able to withstand a Portland surge and prevail in Game 1.
“Mental toughness,” he said of what he liked most about Saturday’s win. “We kept our composure. We never doubted ourselves.”
New Orleans was encouraged to win on the home floor of a quality opponent, despite having a few rough stretches and a second-half dry spell. Rondo, who now has 97 games of NBA postseason experience under his belt, noted that the Pelicans must use upcoming team practices to improve in a few areas.
“It’s the playoffs. Obviously it probably won’t look how it did in the regular season,” he said of it being more difficult now for teams to perform at a high level offensively. “There are going to be some ugly games in the playoffs. It’s about setting better screens, continuing to move the ball and then executing better.”
Mirotic sounded confident that Rondo will do everything possible between now and Tuesday’s Game 2 to put the Pelicans in optimal position to do exactly that.
“I can tell he’s going to be even better the next game,” Mirotic said, grinning. “He’s going to go back to the hotel right now and watch the film at least twice tonight, and then again (Sunday), to see what we can do better. Having Rondo in the playoffs, it’s a blessing.”