Rondo and Allen lead Celtics victory over Lakers
Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen shoots as Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant defends during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA finals Sunday, June 6, 2010, in Los Angeles. Allen made seven in the first half and finished with a Finals-record eight 3-pointers in the Celtics 103-94 victory.
Ray Allen scored 27 of his 32 points in the first half with a record-setting 3-point shooting display, Rajon Rondo completed a triple-double down the stretch and the Boston Celtics evened the NBA finals with a 103-94 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 Sunday night.
Allen hit a finals-record eight 3-pointers in a dazzling effort for the Celtics. Rondo then took charge after Allen cooled down, racking up 19 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in his fifth playoff triple-double to hand Los Angeles its first home loss of the postseason.
Kobe Bryant scored 21 points while battling more foul trouble for the Lakers, who hadn’t lost a home playoff game since last year’s Western Conference finals.
To think they could have both ended up in Detroit.
Before this season started, rumor had it that the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen would both be traded.
A writer at NBA Fanhouse believed that the Pistons would be just the troubling side of lunatic to even consider a trade for “a quasi-washed up shooter and Rondo.”
In order to win the Championship, Celtics’ President Danny Ainge supposedly needed “a sucker to unload on.”
It seems he didn’t find one. So perhaps, in a quiet corner of the Staples Center locker room after Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Rondo and Allen might have been caught whispering “suck on that.”
Allen was muted in Game 1 not by the depth of Derek Fisher’s Barney Rubble defense, but by the shrill whistles of referees desperate to signal a tune to their masters.
In Game 2, ever the aesthete, he announced himself early, took a bow and then painted the Staples Center floor with a pretty parquet pattern.
It isn’t merely that Allen made a record eight three-pointers. It’s that not one appeared to so much as bump a rim.
That Allen glides around the court is well known. But Fisher was but a Keystone Cop banging into large screening Celtics, as Allen found his positions, caught the ball and let it flow into the basket.
Rondo had a triple-double. He outrebounded Lakers who are far bigger than him, but not far greater. As they stood like foremen on a building site, waiting for the ball to be winched down to them, Rondo stole in, stole the ball and made off with the game.
At least he understood just how thrilling his performance was.
“I’m the greatest player in the game right now. And it’s about time the world saw it,” he said.
