Rajon Rondo and Glen Davis Step It Up for the Boston Celtics

What a difference a year makes for the Boston Celtics' young stars.

After a historic series with Chicago, the Boston Celtics march into the conference semifinals with their heads held high and a very helpful home-court advantage.

A large part of that Big Green success is because of their 23-year-old point guard (21st pick overall in the 2006 draft), Rajon Rondo.

This kid is the real deal.

Compiling yet another triple-double Wednesday night, he has tied the Celtic legend Larry Bird for the most triple-doubles in franchise history (a decorated one at that) with three.

Though he won't lead the team in scoring every night, he has the tools on defense and at the point-guard position to be considered a top ten PG in the NBA.

Lets go back to the '07 offseason. The Celtics made huge noise by acquiring both Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota and Ray Allen from Seattle (we'll miss you, Supersonics).

What isn't talked about is how much of a deal Boston really got in the "Ray Ray" deal. They shipped out Wally Szczerbiak, Jeff Green, and Delonte West for Ray Allen and Glen Davis. There's no other way to say it—that's just a fantastic move.

Glen Davis (now nicknamed Big Baby), has been just phenomenal for the Celtics this postseason. With both Garnett and Powe going down to injury early in the playoffs, Boston found themselves relying on the skills of Davis. And he hasn't disappointed.

Glen Davis had been getting an average of 20 minutes a game this season. In the playoffs, it has doubled. With that increase in minutes, he has doubled in almost all major stat categories, as well as starting in all nine games this postseason for the club.

As the Celtics travel to Orlando for games three and four of the series, it will be interesting to see what kind of surprises and possibly history these two stars have in store.