Rajon Rondo is the smallest of the Boston Celtics starting lineup, but the guard proved his mettle on Tuesday as Boston inched past the New York Knicks.
The fifth-year pro scored 30 points, a career post-season high, in Boston’s 96-93 win, and backed it up with four rebounds and seven assists against a Knicks team depleted by injuries.
Boston’s win gave them a 2-0 lead in the Eastern conference best-of-seven series. The action switches to New York’s Madison Square Garden tomorrow.
Photo: EPA
Rondo, prince of the assist, rarely stars on the Celtics’ well-rounded roster, where forwards Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett often steal the scoring show and Ray Allen regularly hits laser-like three-pointers.
“That’s a hard job, that point guard job,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of Rondo. “When they’re playing you to drive, they’re trying to force you to shoot and your most effective way is penetration through trees. It’s hard.”
At age 25, versus an average age of 33 for the rest of Boston’s starters on Tuesday, Rondo brings fresh legs to the team. Even so, going up against “trees” takes its toll.
“I got tired in the first quarter,” Rondo said. “I was trying to push the pace and I got a little winded. After that, my wind was fine.”
Fourteen of Rondo’s points came in the first period.
Rivers said the coaches had talked about Rondo attacking the basket for lay-ups. Still, Boston got a break on Tuesday, Rivers said.
“We won the game. That’s all we get out of this ... my guys played hard, but I thought they were lucky to win. [New York] had no Stoudemire, no Billups,” Rivers said.
Knicks starting guard Chauncey Billups was out with a strained left knee, while Amar’e Stoudemire suffered back spasms after a mistimed dunk during warmups. The forward played just 17 minutes for four points.
“I could hardly move,” Stoudemire said, still in too much pain to sit during the post-game press conference.
With his teammates down, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, a four-time NBA All-Star, stepped up to score a season high 42 points and 17 rebounds.
The Celtics briefly held a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but Anthony reeled Boston in time and again in a game featuring 22 lead changes.
MAVS 101, BLAZERS 89
AFP, DALLAS
Dirk Nowitzki scored 33 points to power the Dallas Mavericks to victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2 of their NBA first-round playoff series.
Nowitzki had the last 11 points for the Mavericks, who took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“We know that they [Portland] are a very good home team so we wanted to hold home court here and go up there with a 2-0 lead, but this series is far from over. They play well at home, they make shots, and they play tough D, so we’ve got to be prepared for a tough game on Thursday,” Nowitzki said.
Dallas’ Peja Stojakovic tied his career playoff best with five three-pointers and had 21 points. Jason Kidd continued his scoring spree with 18 points.
Nowitzki scored 14 of his points in the final quarter for Dallas, who hadn’t won the first two games of a playoff series since the 2006 NBA finals.
Portland led most of the first half, but Dallas went ahead on a three-pointer by Kidd seconds into the second half and never lost the lead for the remainder of the game.
“We couldn’t execute down the stretch and we’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Portland forward Gerald Wallace said.
The Mavericks equaled a franchise playoff best with just six turnovers. They also went without a turnover for the final 28 minutes.
The Blazers scored 28 points in the second quarter, but just 37 in the entire second half.
LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Wallace and Andre Miller each scored 18 for Portland.
Game 3 is today in Portland.
MAGIC 88, HAWKS 82
AP, ORLANDO, FLORIDA
Dwight Howard had 33 points and 19 rebounds to help Orlando defeat Atlanta and square their best-of-seven series 1-1.
Jameer Nelson added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Magic, who will travel to Atlanta for Game 3 tomorrow.
Orlando used a 10-1 run to close the third quarter to take an 11-point lead into the fourth and fought off a late Atlanta charge.
After allowing the Hawks to become the first opponent in 16 straight playoff games to score 100 points against them in Game 1, Orlando’s defense tightened around Atlanta’s shooters in Game 2. The Hawks shot 39 percent.
Jamal Crawford led Atlanta with 25 points, while Josh Smith added 17.
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