BOSTON — Rajon Rondo took what the Knicks defense gave him. And that was a lot.
With Chauncey Billups out with a sprained left knee and Toney Douglas on the floor for the Knicks, Rondo went into hyper-attack mode and finished with a career playoff high 30 points as he consistently scored in transition and on forays to the basket. Douglas too often did not stand his ground.
“I tried to attack Game One, just my layups were getting blocked, and I didn’t make a couple,” Rondo said after the Celtics’ 96-93 victory over the Knicks last night at TD Garden. “But tonight I made them, I stayed aggressive, I tried to expose them because I don’t think they did a great job getting back in transition. But they made an adjustment, in the second half, [and] I tried to go to my guys, Paul [Pierce], Ray [Allen] and Kevin [Garnett].”
But before he went to his guys, Rondo went at Douglas.
“He just kept back-pedaling,” he said. “He never stopped the ball and I attacked the rim.”
The attack started virtually immediately. In the first quarter, Rondo was a constant blur and the phrase “Basket, Rondo” came frequently over the PA system. Not as much as “Basket, Anthony” was eventually heard, but still enough.
Rondo was 6-of-8 from the floor and scored 14 points in the first quarter with all six baskets coming from a combined distance of about 15 inches. Rondo buried an important jumper in the fourth quarter, hitting an 18-footer off an Allen feed to give the Celtics an 88-86 lead over Anthony. And the way Anthony was going for the Knicks, Boston needed every single point.
But Rondo, who bettered his previous playoff high by one, made his living on his attacks to the rim.
“We talked about it,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “He did it. [He] was terrific. We got away from it because they started scoring. . . . but it was good to see he can do that, that he’s going to do that.
“It’s physically hard to do that every night, especially in the regular season. I mean, that’s hard,” Rivers added. “He did it, and then I think with about five minutes left he said, ‘I need a blow.’ He was dying. I mean, that’s a hard job, that point-guard job.”
Spoken like a true former point guard.
Nevertheless, Rondo came out with such high-flying energy — and playing with an achy leg he said was kicked in Game 1 — that he needed to ask for a quick rest in the first quarter.
“It was a different pace [than Game 1],” Rondo said. “Douglas is a much more up-tempo style of player. He’s going to push it on misses and makes.”
Rondo responded in kind.
“I just got tired in the first quarter, because I was trying to push the pace and I got a little winded,” said Rondo who finished shooting 13-of-23 from the floor with seven assists and two steals. “I told Doc to give me a rest. As soon as I was ready I came back in to start the second quarter, but after that my wind was fine. . . . It was just that first session was like a track meet,”
One steal was huge. Just 1:28 remained when he got Douglas from behind with the Knicks up, 91-90. It led to Garnett scoring at 1:14 on a feed from Pierce for a 92-91 lead.