"They come with Rondo now"

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ask6ocfCYzf9CkLp8r1XeNi8vLYF?slug=aw-rondoceltics052210

Rondo driving Celtics toward title

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 1 hour, 6 minutes ago


BOSTON – The most unforgettable play of these playoffs had come like these Boston Celtics: out of nowhere, out of Rajon Rondo’s wildest imagination.

Rajon Rondo's diving steal from Jason Williams in Game 3 was described as the "play of the playoffs" by Kevin Garnett.

The ball poked into the backcourt, and the Orlando Magic’s Jason Williams chased it past midcourt and all the way to the 3-point line. He had a good step, maybe two, on Rondo, and just when Williams reached down to pick up the ball, Rondo did something you’ve never seen on the basketball court – one more thing that makes you wonder what in the world can the Los Angeles Lakers do with him.

Rondo dove flat-out, thrust his arm between Williams’ legs, used his right hand to stop the ball and scooped it into his control. When he transferred the ball from his right to left hand, Rondo was still laying on the floor. Williams had watched all of this happen in a blur, and just stood there, blankly, wondering what the hell was happening around him. Rondo bounced to his feet, dribbled hard twice, crossed over the Magic guard and hit a twisting, spinning layup.

When you watch the play again and again in slow motion, take a long look at the fans on the baseline. Eyes wide, jaws dropped, those were the precise expressions. These are the playoffs of Rajon Rondo leaving everyone with a “What the %$&! did he just do?” moment.

“One of the toughest defensive plays I’ve seen in my career,” Ray Allen said. “It’s one thing to have the ball and make something miraculous happen, but not having the ball and making something miraculous happen?”

“The play of the playoffs,” Kevin Garnett said. “Pure hustle … pure I want-it-more-than-you. Shorty, he’s in a zone. He’s showing the world what he’s made of. The future is scary.”

“Maybe the most incredible play, beginning to end, that I’ve ever seen in the NBA,” Brian Scalabrine(notes) said.

“He’s from Mars,” “Big Baby” Glen Davis said.

Rondo’s the dimension that changes everything about these NBA Finals, about the Celtics’ chances of raising an 18th banner. After the Celtics were supposed to be too old and broken down, too thin on the bench, they’ve reached the cusp of the Finals making the case that they’re tougher than they were in 2008.

“This team is playing better in the playoffs than we played when we won the championship,” Paul Pierce said.

Garnett isn’t the best defensive player in the NBA now, and Pierce and Allen are less explosive on offense, but Rondo changes everything for Boston. The Celtics haven’t just beaten the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic, they’ve pounded them into submission. LeBron James stopped playing in his series, and the Magic had so little belief they could get back into the East finals down 2-0 that they were willing to deliver one of the most unprofessional and pathetic playoff performances in a decade.

These Magic have an enormous payroll, tremendous veteran talent and they had won 14 straight games when the Celtics walked into their lives a week ago. Within two nights of basketball in Orlando, the Celtics had reduced the Magic from championship favorites to a lost, broken team too fractured, too scared to even compete.

“Our bodies were here, but our minds weren’t. Our hearts weren’t,” Dwight Howard said.

The Celtics were beating the Magic so unmercifully early in the third quarter that the Garden sell-out started chanting, “Beat L.A … Beat L.A.” It’s the sweetest springtime song in New England, and it’s resonating now, coming closer.

So, what would the Lakers do with Rondo? That has to be on everyone’s mind. Yes, Boston will find that defending Lamar Odom is a little more difficult than the one-dimensional Rashard Lewis. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are better two years later, and, yes, Kobe Bryant is still Kobe Bryant. Yet, what will the Lakers do with Rondo? He’s always been fearless, but he has such a mental toughness to him now. He has these Celtics believing so fervently in him that Garnett sat with him in the postgame news conference and Rondo’s once harshest critic gushed in pure testimonial form for him. These are the playoffs that have exposed so many unworthy and overhyped stars. LeBron and Howard have been the worst possible leaders in these playoffs, and Amar’e Stoudemire and Rashard Lewis have shown themselves to be unworthy of max contracts.

All these generational heirs to title aspirations, and Rondo is the rapidly rising star who has restored the Boston Celtics’ championship dreams. Two years ago, the Celtics had to go seven games to beat the Atlanta Hawks and Cavaliers, and now they’ve beaten the Miami Heat, Cleveland and Orlando in the most damning and decisive ways. Two years ago, Rondo was just a young point guard trapped between his abilities and ambitions, and now he’s become a force of nature for the Celtics.

That ball went bouncing down the floor, and Rondo chased it like a father would a child who had wobbled into the street. “I just wanted it,” Rondo said. The most unforgettable player of these playoffs had come on sheer will, and these Celtics have come so hard and fast out of nowhere, out of the wildest imagination of Rajon Rondo.

Beat L.A., they cried in the Boston Garden, and they all knew well the reason they can do it. They come with Rondo now. The Celtics come heavy.

That play was incredible. It seemed like Rondo had suction cups on the end of his fingers, the way he stopped the rolling ball and then came up with it with one hand fully extended.

"The Celtics come heavy" I like that. Obviously to get this far in the playoffs teams need talent, but we have talent and toughness. I sometimes forget how tough we are until I watch other teams.

We are so commited and together,essence of teamwork,Big 3 doesn't carry us anymore,anyone of bench players or starters can step up lead team,we play like such a team and whos the guy orchestrating everything?hes HoF material now.

That play perfectly exemplified my own motto for this team:

"Whatever It Takes."

Sam

what an unbelievable play - super-hustle and Rondo clearly just wanting it more, diving to the floor to get the ball and grabbing it just as Williams began to lean over toward it without ever thinking he'd need to get his shirt dirty.

then bouncing up dribbling and making the play ...

a real dagger, and Kobe's antics notwithstanding the most outstanding play of the post-season by anyone !

Michael

it was the kind of steal your heart and stomp on it play with the same kind of what the hell did I just see style that Larry Bird used to make.

“He’s from Mars,” “Big Baby” Glen Davis said.

Apparently, Glen Davis agrees with Dboss too.

The author talks about the looks on the fans when Rondo stole the ball and got up. What I noticed, on the slo-mo replay, was that when Rondo got up his first instinct was to glance over his right shoulder to see who was there. Incredible court presence and awareness in an extremely high-adrenaline moment.

bob

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