Court Awareness: Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, and the Rest of Wednesday

It's easy to tell when a young player has the makings of a future superstar.

Most of the time, it happens in his rookie or sophomore season, and usually it's after another 30-point game or another buzzer-beating three-pointer.

In other words, you can see it coming from a mile away. You can see it in the way the player carries himself. 

You can see it when he decides to shoot that three-pointer with a hand in his face instead of passing to a wide-open veteran teammate and that teammate is happier about it than he is—like a proud parent.

Anybody who watched Game 6 in last season's Finals could tell that Rajon Rondo was a special player. 21 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, six steals, and only one turnover.

But Wednesday night might have been Rondo's coming-out party. He recorded his first career triple-double. He had 16 points, 17 assists, and 13 rebounds in the Celtics 114-96 victory over the Pacers on Wednesday night. 

It was the Celtics league-leading tenth consecutive victory.

The Pacers had handed the Celtics one of their only two losses on the season back on November 1.  The Celtics played that game in Indiana one night after playing the Bulls in Boston.

This time it was the Pacers who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

And it showed.

The Pacers were coming off of an emotional comeback win over the Lakers the night before, and were no match for the world champs.

The 20-10 Machine

Just how valuable is Chris Paul to the Hornets? As valuable to his team as any player in the league. Paul has scored 20 or more points and handed out 10 ore more assists in 26 of his last 39 games, going back to last season.

Paul averages 21 points and 12 assists for a team that averages 97 points per game. That means that if only three of Paul's 12 assists led to three-pointers, then he would have a hand in nearly half of the Hornets points.

Paul led the Hornets again on Wednesday night with 24 points and 15 assists in their 104-91 victory over the Suns.

The Suns were playing without both Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal. Nash was out with flu-like symptoms, while Suns head coach Terry Porter has made it a habit of sitting O'Neal in the first night of back-to-backs. The Suns are now 1-2 without O'Neal playing in the first game.

It was the Hornets' sixth-straight win over the Suns. Amare Stoudemire led the Suns with 26 points.

Road Dogs

Sometimes the best remedy for getting over a horrible loss is to play another game the next night. For starters, it doesn't give the head coach a chance to make you suffer in practice. More importantly, it gives you an outlet to redeem yourself while the fire from the loss is still in your belly.

The Lakers gave away a 15-point fourth quarter lead against the Pacers in Indiana on Tuesday night. So they took their anger out on the Sixers on Wednesday.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 32 points in the 114-102. It was only the third game this season where Bryant scored over 30 points. Pau Gasol added 22 points and 13 boards.

Andre Miller led the Sixers with 26 points. Elton Brand missed the entire fourth quarter with a strained hamstring.

The Lakers are now 4-0 on the second night of back-to-back games, and improved their road record to 6-1. Their 5-0 road record to start the season was impressive—but nowhere near the record for most consecutive road victories to start a season. That record is held by the 1969-70 New York Knicks, who came out of the gate with 12 consecutive wins en route to the championship.

Dwyane's World

Dwyane Wade scored 23 points despite playing with a headache and foul trouble to lead the Heat to a 93-89 victory over the Jazz in Utah.

It was the Heat's fifth road win of the season, just one win shy of their total number of road wins last season.

For the Jazz, it was their third loss of the season in 11 home games, just one loss shy of their total number of home losses last season.

The Jazz were without the injured Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirlienko, and Matt Harpring. Paul Millsap filled in admirably for Boozer with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

The Heat have now won ten games after winning only fifteen last year.

Blazing Trails

One of the biggest criticisms of the Portland Trailblazers last season was their unimpressive 13-28 road record. Not horrible for a team as young as they are—but not good enough for a team trying to make the playoffs in the wild, wild, west.

The schedule-makers didn't do them any favors this year, giving them road games against the Lakers, Suns, Jazz, Magic, Heat, and Hornets to start the season. After winning only two of those first six on the road, the Blazers have won five of their last seven to improve their road record to a very-respectable 7-6.

Brandon Roy scored 12 of his 22 points in the last eight minutes in leading the Blazers to their 98-92 win over the Wizards in Washington.

The Blazers have now won six in a row and eight of their last nine games heading into their match-up with the Celtics in Boston on Friday night.

Big Apple Turnover

One of the main reasons why so many people in New York think LeBron James will leave the Cavaliers in the summer of 2010 is because they don't think he has a supporting cast strong enough to win a championship with in Cleveland.

Well it seems like that supporting cast has taken that criticism personally. Eight Cavaliers scored at least eight points in the Cavs' 118-82 win over the Knicks on Wednesday night.

It was the Cavs sixth win in a row, and their second drubbing of the Knicks in eight days.

James led the Cavs with 21 points, six assists, five rebounds, and five steals—despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter.

The Knicks turned the ball over 26 times. Al Harrington led the Knicks with 20 points. It was the second time he led them in scoring in the five games since coming over in a trade for Jamal Crawford.

Elsewhere

Josh Smith returned to the Hawks after missing the team's last twelve games with an ankle injury. He had 14 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Joe Johnson led the way with 26 points in the Hawks 105-95 win over the Grizzlies, who dropped to 4-14. Hakim Warrick led Memphis with 20 points off the bench.

The Clippers, playing without Chris Kaman, were no match for the Rockets in Houston. Yao Ming feasted on the Clippers with 24 points and ten boards in leading the Tracy McGrady-less Rockets to the 103-96 victory.

Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah combined to score only four points for the Bulls in their 97-90 loss to the Buck in Milwaukee. Charlie Villanueva led the Bucks with 23 points off the bench. Ben Gordon had 22 for the Bulls.

The Orlando Magic improved their record to 14-5 with their 100-89 victory over the Timberwolves. Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis each scored 23 points, and Hedo Turkoglu added 22 of his own. Rookie Kevin Love had 16 points to lead the Wolves, who dropped to 2-7 on the road this year and 4-13 overall.

The Charlotte Bobcats rode Emeka Okafor's 25 points and 13 rebounds in their 103-97 victory over the Thunder, who have lost 14 of their last 15 games. Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 24 points in the loss.

One Last Thing

Just how stable have the Jazz been under Jerry Sloan?

The Toronto Raptors made Jay Triano the seventh head coach in the franchise's history on Wednesday. Sloan was in his eighth year with the Jazz during the Raptors' inaugural season of 1995-96.

This article also appears on FoxSports.com