Rondo Mr. Fantastic As He Wrecks Pacers

A career high 17 assists, 16 points, and 13 rebounds for Rajon Rondo befuddled the Indiana Pacers and bedazzled everyone else. It was a magnificent show. He reached the triple double with 10:31 left in the 3rd quarter

Statement game against a sub .500 team? You better believe it. One of only two blemishes (losses) on the Cs record came courtesy of the Pacers. The statement? We owe you.

O'Brien vs. Ainge ...er... Rivers. Rondo vs. Ford. (It's a car thing.) Rebuilding vs. repeating.

Super Heros
Rajon Rondo against T.J. Ford is like Kid Flash against the Flash. It looked like a road race all night. The Pacers got up 91 shots and the Celtics might have as well (80 attempts) if they didn't get fouled so much (32 foul shots).

I said it might not be too long before they become the Fantastic Four. How about the Fantastic Five?

Last night Rondo was everywhere, making him Mr. Fantastic, while Ray Allen flamed on to become the Human Torch. Kendrick Perkins was as powerful and rock solid as the Thing, while Kevin Garnett was a little of all of three or maybe he was Iron Man (okay so he's not part of the FF). Paul Pierce came the closest to be the Invisible Guy, but he really wasn't needed for most of the night.

Rondo - the one man wrecking crew.

Actually, to have that many assists you need team mates making shots.
Leading all scorers with 31 points in just 27 minutes, Ray Allen continues his explosive barrage from the three point line, making 6 of 9 from the downtown and 11 of 18 over all.

Ray is now 23 of 39 for a scalding 59% from the arc in his last 6 games.

Kevin Garnett had his best offensive game of the year with 26 points and 14 rebounds, both season highs, while looking like Bill Russell with 4 timely blocks.

Paul Pierce added 16 points on an off shooting night (5-17), but was the only starter who struggled shooting. Marquise Daniels played Paul physical all night and Pierce was just off to begin with. Never did they need him on this evening.

Even Kendrick Perkins is upping his offense, adding 16 points on 5 of 6 shooting while hitting 6 of 8 foul shots. He even led one break for a Rondo assisted dunk, a rarity for him.

Phoenix Celtics?

It wasn't that long ago that I had a conversation with Rondo where I asked him about playing mostly half court ball since college. He said he didn't mind. I think he was being diplomatic.

Shortly after, he began this aggressive assault on the rim. Last night the Celtics pushed the ball as often as I've ever seen since the Trade. the Celtics had 16 fast break points and numerous early shot clock attacks before the Pacers could set their defense.

Rondo's favorite target all night was Ray Allen who rotated over to the arc on the weakside for every Rondo led fast break and early offensive set-ups, nailing 6 of those demoralizers.

Orchestra Leader
Rondo was all of that. He was not only in sympatico with Ray Allen all night, he also ran a straight ahead moving alley oop with Garnett two times within minutes, once against Troy Murphy and once against Roy Hibbert.

He had three alley oops with Garnett on the night and the entire team looks like it is getting comfortable with each other's tendencies, and receiving the ball where they like it.

Rondo drove and scored a lay up, or kicked it back out to an open shooter all night, often finding Kevin Garnett for open jumpers and Paul Pierce hit a three off a Rondo drive and kick out as well.

The Pacers led for most of the first half, before the Celtics managed to grab a 57-51 half time lead.

Indiana was up 27-21 before Boston made 7 point run to close the first quarter up 28-27, on a Rondo driving lay-up, a Perkins reverse lay-up and a Ray Allen three pointer.

Boston extended the run to 31-15, resulting in a ten point lead at 52-42, before the Pacers closed to within 6 at the half.

Ray Allen had 19 points in the first half.

Rondo is now hitting his foul shots (6 for 7 last night and over 75% of late). If Perkins can start to improve that aspect of his game, he will become all that much more dangerous offensively.

Pesky Pacers
This game was hard fought and the Celtics wanted it badly as evidenced by the amount of time Doc played the starters in the 4th quarter.

A 23 point lead in the second half shrank to just eight at 90-82 before Kevin Garnett hit a huge turnaround bank shot, Ray Allen made a three pointer as did Paul Pierce - all assisted by Rondo to open things back up to 98-82 and the Cs weren't challenged again.

The Celtics out rebounded the Paces by 54-31, a huge gap. But the Pacers constantly got loose in the paint, scoring 50 points, which I think, is a season high for the Cs defense. Boston returned the favor with 52 points in the paint themselves.

The Pacers actually played an energetic defense at times, in spite of the score. Boston's bench was rather ineffective offensively in this game, scoring only 9 points total.

Rondo was Mister Fantastic in this game and been pretty fantastic in this recent stetch of games as he takes the ball to the hoop with authority and takes his career to the next level with his rising performances. Only Larry Bird, Antoine Walker have had 'triples' like that this.

Danny Granger led Indiana with 20 points, while Ford added 15 and 8 assists.

Next up: Portland in Boston on Friday