Call him the Pace Setter.
Four Celtics scored more than 20 points in defeating the Golden State Warriors 119-111.
Corey Maggette and Stephen Jackson led the Warriors with 32 and 30 points each. New comer Jamal Crawford added 18 but bore the speed and wrath of newly aggressive Rajon Rondo.
Point guard Rajon Rondo continues his climb to that proverbial “next level” of play. He is pushing the ball with gusto and the team benefits from it in many ways. Their last 5 games have been solid wins with a 13.8 point margin of victory. Clearly, he is a major reason why.
Just as important, Rondo is driving more, scoring much more, yet is maintaining a well rounded game with killer rebounding and strong assist numbers.
His line score for this game: 22 pts on 9 of 15 shooting, 4-4 foul shooting, 8 rebounds (4 offensive), 7 assists and 2 steals. His +18 was the team’s best.
Rajon is averaging 16.6 points over the last 5 games, tripling his scoring production. If he continues at this pace, he will soon be considered one of the Big Four and as Paul Pierce says, “We will be unbeatable.”
One thing to keep in mind is that much of this aggressiveness has come at the hands of a series of weak defending adversarial point guards. That does not diminish the strides Rondo is making. Merely noting the level of competition. There are few point guards in the league with his speed, and none with a game quite like his.
Ray Allen continues his torrid three point barrage with a second straight game hitting 5 of 7
shots from the arc, and his second straight 20 plus game with a team high 25 points. He is 18 of 29 (62%) from the field as well.
No doubt Rondo’s drives make the other team guard him, keeping the other team honest and opening up room for Ray, Paul, and Kevin.
That is evidenced by Kevin Garnett’s 21 points on 9 of 23 shooting, and 13 rebounds. KG added 4 blocks on the night.
Paul Pierce chipped in with 21 of his own on 6 of 14 shooting, while going 9-9 from the line. Paul rounded out his night with 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 turnovers.
Kendrick Perkins added 9 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. it was “technical foul free’ night for KP and the Celtics, who both lead the league in technical fouls.
Though the Celtic bench was generally outplayed, Tony Allen and Glen Davis contirbuted 9 points each.
The Celtics started strong, jumping out to a 35-28 first quarter lead on the strength of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. The Warriors over took the Celtics with a 25 point swing to lead at the half by
67-54.
Boston finally clamped down in the second, allowing Golden State just 44 more points to regain the lead and pull away.
Boston is now pretty much on pace with last season’s incredible run at 14-2 and are starting to play like they really can. Rondo’s emergence will only exascerbate opponents’ headaches trying to defend this team.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Next up: The Sixers in Philly on Friday.
