Rajon Rondo became the 1st player In NBA history with 44pts, 10 assists, 8 rbs in a playoff game.   Rajon Rondo did not look like a guy who’d just made history. He sounded more like a guy who saw the end of an era.
Never mind the 44 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Or the fact not Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or even Wilt Chamberlain ever managed that kind of playoff performance.
“It’s kind of irrelevant,†Rondo said. “We lost.â€
What a magnificent loss it was. Miami’s 115-111 overtime win Wednesday night was an instant classic. But when they finally got Rondo off the court after 53 nonstop minutes, where were the Celtics?
Down 0-2 and having to win four out of five games to advance. No wonder Game 2 felt like Game 7.
“We put our heart and soul into the game,†Keyon Dooling said.
You knew they’d play better than they did on Monday, when their old legs were still weary from a seven-game series against Philadelphia. You knew they knew the odds, and how teams that take 2-0 leads win the series 94 percent of the time.
So the Celtics delivered everything. And all they have to show for it is our admiration. They’d have gladly traded that for a foul call late in the game.
Not that the officials missing Dwyane Wade’s hacking of Rondo cost Boston the game. There still was 1:35 left in overtime, and the score was 105-105.
But the Heat went on a 7-0 run, which was too much even for Rondo. He did make two more 3-pointers on the way to scoring all 12 of Boston’s overtime points.
Rondo also became the first player to have a 44-10-8 stat line in the playoffs. Throw in the fact he never went to the bench and you had a performance for the ages and the aged.
That would be Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. We figured they were in the final-roundup stage the past couple of years, only to be fooled. But surely this is it for the Big Three.
The chances of them winning it all still would have been laughable. But if it was going to happen, they had to win Wednesday night.
They gave us some vintage moments. Pierce and Garnett combined for 39 points. Boston’s defense held Dwyane Wade to two first-half points as the Celtics took a 15-point lead.
Miami rallied and led by six going into the fourth quarter. There was no reason to think the Celtics would recover, not with here 19,973 fans screaming in their ears.
It reminded me of the movie “300,†where that many Spartan warriors battled a Persian army one million strong in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Persians advanced to face the Spurs, but moviegoers worldwide were more impressed by how the losers went down.
Legend also has it that none of the Spartans were suffering from bone spurs in their ankle. Ray Allen has been, and it’s made him look like a 2,000-year-old man.
The Celtics debated all day Tuesday whether to hold him out of Game 2. Allen finally got the go-ahead and showed up at the morning shoot-around an hour before everybody else.
“Ray is Ray,†Doc Rivers said.
Ray actually hasn’t been Ray in a while. He was 1-for-7 in Game 1, but he scraped together 13 points Wednesday. He even hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with 34 seconds left in overtime.
“At that point,†Allen said, “it was winning time.â€
They’d done it plenty of times before. But not even Rondo the Magnificent could save them Wednesday. Of course, it would have helped if the refs had called a foul when Rondo drove the basket with 1:35 left. Replays showed Wade got a lot more than ball as Rondo flashed past.
“Umm, you know,†Rondo said. “It was obvious.â€
Then he paused, remembering how the NBA is quick to fine players $25,000 for criticizing the officials. Allen was sitting next to Rondo, and apparently figured it would be money well spent.
“We all thought he got hit,†Allen said. “But what can you do?â€
Good question.
If Wednesday night wasn’t good enough, what can Boston do now?
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