No matter what jersey LeBron is wearing, Rajon Rondo sees only red whenever LBJ is on his court. In his last seven games in Boston against LeBron’s teams, Rondo has averaged 16.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 12.1 assists and 1.8 steals — including that 17-dime Opening Night performance, and that ridiculous 29-point, 18-board, 13-dime triple-dip in last year’s playoffs. Yesterday, Rondo went for 11 points, 10 boards and 10 assists while taking over the third quarter and hounding LeBron defensively during key stretches to keep the Celtics undefeated against this version of the Heat … Boston was down four at halftime while its Big Three struggled, going 6-for-21 from the floor. At the beginning of the third quarter, Rondo and Kendrick Perkins did all the scoring in a 7-0 run to take the lead, then Rondo seemed to have a hand in every big play as Boston built a 13-point lead going into the fourth. One time he stuck his head into a Miami huddle before LeBron pushed him out … One sequence in the third quarter that didn’t involve Rondo almost allowed the Celtics to run away for good. Ray Allen was bringing the ball up against Mike Miller when KG leveled him with a pick. Just as Ray was hitting a jumper, D-Wade retaliated with his own crack-back block on KG that earned him a flagrant foul. So the Ray jumper, plus two KG free throws and possession gave the C’s their first double-digit lead … The Heat didn’t go away, though. LeBron (22 pts, 7 rebs, 7 asts) and Chris Bosh (24 pts, 10 rebs) led the comeback as they cut the lead down to two with one minute remaining. Bosh missed a jumper, then after Miami dared Rondo to shoot and he bricked, they got the ball back with 18 seconds left. LeBron took Paul Pierce (1 pt, 0-10 FG) to the rack and got fouled, only his second trip to the line all day. He missed the first — after which Pierce made a point to stand right in front of LeBron with his arms raised — and made the second, then nearly stole the inbound pass before Miami had to send Big Baby to the line with six seconds left. He made both. Going for the tie, Miami got about as good a shot as they could hope for — Mike Miller wide open at the top of the key — but couldn’t convert … If you’re Zydrunas Ilgauskas and you’re the only guy back on defense and Rondo is sprinting at you full speed with the ball in those Dr. J-sized hands, don’t you feel kinda like Jiff Ramsey in Bowfinger when he had to run across the freeway? … Speaking of being unathletic, Big Baby blowing a breakaway layup made us wish Frank Layden and Marv Albert were still making Dazzling Dunks & Basketball Bloopers VHS tapes …Read More>>
OK, the Lakers wearing gold on the road officially doesn’t work. Just stop it now. Rocking the gold in Orlando yesterday, the Lakers’ uniforms didn’t matter as much as the fact that it looked like a college team was wearing them. The 75-point output was L.A.’s lowest of the season, and defensively they couldn’t do anything with Dwight Howard … At the end of the third-quarter, Gilbert Arenas threw up something that was either a prayer shot or a lazy lob for Dwight (31 pts, 13 rebs, 3 blks), who threw it down just before the buzzer. Arenas actually stepped out of bounds on the play, but the refs couldn’t review it. And it didn’t really matter. Dwight scored two quick buckets to open the fourth that put Orlando up by 11, then delivered the dagger midway through the fourth with a putback and-one where he climbed Pau Gasol‘s back and dunked on his back-neck. A little later, Dwight got eye-level with the rim and swatted a Lamar Odom shot to the beer man … Somebody is sharpening the fingernails and elbows of the L.A.’s bigs. A couple weeks ago you had Gasol creating a gash on KG’s head, then yesterday Odom caught Dwight with an elbow that busted him open like De La Hoya did Julio Cesar Chavez. The camera caught Dwight telling a teammate, “Yo, look at my eye. I got f*cked up by an elbow.” … The Clippers got in the way of what could have been a bad matchup with historically bad streaks on the line. If Blake Griffin and crew had taken care of business and beaten the Cavs on Friday, last night’s Cavs/Wizards game would have given us a team that had lost 27 in a row overall hosting a team that had lost 25 road games in a row. Instead, it was just a game between, well, two bad teams … At least the Wizards have something to look forward to. The explosive young backcourt of John Wall (19 pts, 14 asts) and Nick Young (31 pts) led the way as Washington jumped out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter, which they stretched to as much as 25 in the second half to notch their first road win … Question: If you combined the Cavs and Wizards — so your top nine in the rotation are Wall, Young, Josh Howard, Antawn Jamison, JaVale McGee, J.J. Hickson, Mo Williams, Rashard Lewis and Kirk Hinrich — how good (or bad) is that team? Would Flip Saunders and Byron Scott flip a coin to decide who’s not coaching them? … Other stat lines from Sunday: LaMarcus Aldridge put up 36 points to lead Portland past Detroit; Monta Ellis scored 33 points while David Lee added 23 points and 19 rebounds in Golden State’s win over Oklahoma City; Darrell Arthur scored 24 points off the bench as Memphis beat Denver; Sam Dalembert posted 18 points, 15 boards and 3 blocks while filling in for suspended DeMarcus Cousins and leading Sacramento past Phoenix; and Andrea Bargnani dropped 27 points on the Clippers in a Toronto win … In case you didn’t catch that Raptors/Clips game, the L.A. broadcast displayed our Blake Griffin Dime #62 cover on-air. That was pretty cool … We’re out like the Lakers’ road unis …
