BOSTON – The point-guard phenomenon of the day was not on the Knicks side.
Boston’s Rajon Rondo outclassed the Knicks’ point-guard duo of Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis and the Celtics survived Carmelo Anthony’s late fourth-quarter assault to eke out a 115-111 overtime victory Sunday at the TD Garden. It was the Knicks’ 11th straight defeat at the arena.
Rondo did everything but get a graduate degree from Harvard this afternoon, with a historic triple-double of 18 points, 20 assists and career-high 17 rebounds. The Knicks blew a 3-point lead in the final 18 seconds of regulation.
“He played well,” Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire said of Rondo, who became the fourth player to post a triple-double of at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists. Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd both did it once.
“I didn’t know he played that well until I saw the box. It was almost a 20, 20, 20. Phenomenal game. When they really play, they’re a hard team to beat but we had a great chance to win. ’’
It was a tough day for Lin, who got booed across the day and played sloppy enough to dig the Knicks a 15-point third-quarter hole before they made a strong comeback to force OT.
Lin, the Harvard grad who had the Crimson’s head coach Tommy Amaker watching from the first row, finished with 14 points, five assists and six turnovers. He was a minus-8 on the day and couldn’t come close to controlling Rondo. Lin shot 6 of 16. It was the second bad outing for Lin in three games
In the final indignity, Rondo hauled down an offensive rebound for an easy layup with Lin nowhere around to give the Celtics a 112-107 lead with 1:30 left.
“Jeremy was OK,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “The thing abouit Jeremy is that he’s going to make some mistakes. He’s got a learning curve.”
Baron Davis also had six turnovers as the two point guards combined for 12 and the team had 22 overall.
Carmelo Anthony, scoreless in the third, had 11 points in the fourth quarter, six in the final two minutes but his last-second jumper over Paul Pierce with the game tied at the end of regulation hit the iron.
“It had a chance to go in. I had a chance to make it. And I missed it. It happens,’’ Anthony said.
In overtime, Anthony missed twice on one possession, then Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer to break the tie and give Boston the lead for good. Anthony was 0 for 4 in overtime and finished with 25 points on 8 of 21 shooting.
“Games like that are fun,’’ Anthony said. “It’s more exciting and more of a thrill if we won the game. But it happens and we move on.’’
Lin came to life late in the fourth, hitting a running lefty hook and drilling a deep left corner trey, bringing the Knicks to 96-95 with 2:07 left. The Celtics called timeout and the Knicks celebrated, with Lin chest-bumping his mates.
Anthony then got hot scored three straight baskets in the final two minutes against Pierce, who finished with 34 points.
He drove on Pierce and scored on a runner to put the Knicks up 99-98 with 1:01 left. Pierce answered with a jumper over Lin but Anthony scored again on a pull-up over Pierce and 101-100 lead with 38 seconds left. That gave him 11 points in the final seven minutes.
But after a pair of Steve Novak free throws pushed the Knicks’ lead to 3, Pierce would tie the game on a 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left to force overtime.