When I left the Garden back on Feb. 3rd, I was certain that the Celts/Knicks game I had just witnessed was the most entertaining of the year so far (Boston won 91-89). And then Sunday happened. As Paul Pierce pulled up for that off balance three with seven seconds left, I figured it had no chance, and that the game was over. But somehow it rattled in, the building exploded, and the home team went on to pull out a victory in overtime. Boston and New York have now played three times this season, the first two decided by just one basket, and Sunday’s OT thriller by a score of 115-111. The Celtics have never lost to the Knicks in Boston during the “New Big Three” era. They are now 12-0 at home vs New York since 2006.
Rajon Rondo put up the greatest triple double the league has seen in 44 years; and it happened just two games after his previous triple double added his name to a short list of all time Celtics greats. It was Rondo’s 4th of the season in just 26 games played (he missed 10 due to injury). The entire rest of the NBA has 6 triple doubles combined! Maybe I should create a “Rajonmeter” (similar to the Tebometer) that would measure what percentage of the total triple doubles in the league are owned by Rondo. Right now it would stand at 40%.
Lost among the exploits of Pierce and Rondo on Sunday, was Kevin Garnett’s 18 points and 10 rebounds. That’s now 6 straight games that KG has scored 18 or more, something he hadn’t done since March of 2008.
And finally, I can’t leave out my impression of Jeremy Lin. A little over a week ago I predicted that Lin was due to struggle in upcoming games against some of the better point guards in the league. Rondo obviously destroyed him statistically (18 PTS, 17 REB, 20 AST, 4 TO vs 14 PTS, 4 REB, 5 AST, 6 TO), but I also noticed tendencies from Lin which confirm my belief that he doesn’t have the skill set to be a successful NBA point guard. He frequently picks up his dribble and drives into the lane (while covering the ball like an NFL running back), then is forced to make extremely difficult shots or passes because he is trapped with nothing else to do. When they work, it looks spectacular; but on the other hand, you often see something like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1gmGIGNsVQ[/youtube]
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