BOSTON — Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo created a bit of a stir a couple of weeks ago when he opted to stay in Los Angeles for a birthday party, instead of going with the team to Sacramento for a game in which he wasn’t going to play.
But when his former longtime teammate, Paul Pierce, was asked about Rondo’s decision before the Nets’s 91-84 loss to the Celtics on Friday, Pierce didn’t see why there was an issue with it.
“I thought it was great he enjoyed his birthday,” Pierce said with a smile. “He said he wasn’t playing anyway. I enjoy my birthday every year. But mine is in the preseason.
“I don’t see what the big deal is. Everybody is making a big issue of it, but happy birthday, Rondo.”
After the game, Pierce said he knew all about Rondo’s party, because his kids — who he said still play with Rondo’s children — were in attendance. That revelation drew laughs from the large hometown media contingent.
During their last several years in Boston under former coach Doc Rivers, Pierce and Kevin Garnett didn’t make trips to games with the team when they weren’t playing, something that has continued this season with the Nets under Jason Kidd. Garnett hasn’t sat on the bench for any of the 11 games he has missed this season. He sat out Friday for the fourth game in a row with back spasms.
“Everybody has their own rules,” Kidd said. “I don’t know what Boston’s rules are.”
So what are Kidd’s?
“[For guys to] get their treatment,” he said,” and have a speedy recovery.”
After he missed the Nets’ morning shootaround with an undisclosed illness, Joe Johnson was in the starting lineup Friday night.
Johnson didn’t show any signs of being sick, leading the Nets with both 21 points and seven rebounds in almost 38 minutes. Despite helping contribute to the team-wide problems behind the 3-point arc by going 1-for-7 from deep, he was the only consistent scoring option for the Nets throughout the game.
Johnson has scored a combined 61 points in his last three games, his best run since his mid-January burst of at least 20 points in five of six games that helped propel him to an All-Star berth.
The Nets tried — and failed — to make history Friday night.
They entered the game riding a three-game winning streak in Boston, and were trying to make it four straight wins on the road against the Celtics, something they never had done before. The loss to the Celtics snapped a run of wins in five of six games against Boston going back to the beginning of last season, with the only loss coming on Christmas Day in 2012.