Derrick Rose had the ball at the top of the key isolated on Rajon Rondo. Tie game, shot clock turned off, the whole game in his hands. Rondo was waiting for the big man to set the screen on the pick and roll but Rose waved him off.
This was it right here: The point guard battle that could define the Eastern Conference for the next decade. “Great players want the ball in those situations,” Rondo said. “He wanted to make the play.”
Great defenders want those challenges too. Rose made his move, Rondo stayed with him. He tried again, but Rondo got his hand on the ball and deflected it. Time ran out and the game went into overtime where the Celtics were able to pull it out, 110-105, Friday night.
“It’s all grit man,” Kevin Garnett said. “You’re up there on the island by yourself. The bigs were trying to talk to him, letting him know. Rose shooed them out and told them he wanted the one-on-one. Shorty’s the one that’s not going to back down from matchup. He pulled up his shorts and got it done. Period. Point blank.”
The amazing thing about Rondo’s play was that he wasn’t even supposed to be in the lineup. Trainer Eddie Lacerte told Doc Rivers earlier in the day that Rondo wasn’t going to go.
He has plantar fasciitis. Maybe. Everyone’s being extremely vague about exactly what’s wrong with Rondo, especially Rondo.
“It’s fine,” he said after emerging from the trainer’s room about an hour after the game had ended. “It’s cool. It’s sore, that’s all.”
One thing was certain, however. Rondo was not missing this game and that’s where we’ll start:
A NEW CHALLENGE EVERY NIGHT
For whatever reason, Rondo has been even more evasive than usual this season. He doesn’t hang around to talk to the press after games and he usually isn’t around after practices either. He’s letting his play do the talking for him and it’s been beyond stellar.
Every night he seems to delight in creating new ways to find his teammates for scoring opportunities. A Celtic other than Rondo has made 202 shots this season and Rondo has assisted on 93 of them. He had “only” 11 assists Friday night, which almost seems like a letdown considering some of the games he’s already turned in. Not so.
“He was phenomenal,” Doc Rivers gushed.
“He was locked in,” Paul Pierce said.
Rondo’s counterpart Rose is a different kind of player. He’s a playmaker, but he’s also a scorer; a rare combination of size and speed who can get anywhere he wants to get on the court and has the ability to finish on anyone in the league.
Whatever is going on with Rondo’s foot, he was not missing this game. Rivers said that 10 minutes after Lacerte informed him of Rondo’s status, his point guard told him that he was playing.
“It’s going to take a lot to keep me out of these type of matchups,” Rondo said. “Having fun out there. I love competing, especially against guys like Derrick.”
It won’t get any easier. He has Russell Westbrook on tap next, yet another point guard who made the trip to Turkey for the World Championships this past summer.
These are the matchups that he relishes. The only thing that seems like it can stop him is a mysterious foot problem that he won’t talk about.
“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I shouldn’t be missing any games. There’s different levels of it. I was able to tolerate it tonight, if it is the case.”
RAY ALLEN CAN STILL DUNK
It was a night of huge individual defensive plays, yet it was also a night of spectacular offense. The Bulls shot 49 percent, while the Celtics made over 51 percent of their shots.
No one had a bigger offensive game than Ray Allen, and no one had a mores impactful offensive play than the monster jam Allen threw down in overtime against an unsuspecting Bulls defense.
“I dunk every 65, 70 games,” Allen joked. “It’s situational. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to be more efficient with my body, getting to the hole when I can. Sometimes when you got to dunk it, you got to dunk it.”
The play was set up because Allen read the defense and rolled to the basket and Paul Pierce made the perfect pass.
“They were switching where the play went and there was nobody backside,” Allen said. “I just knew once I got the ball I had to do something with it and I had to make sure the ball went down because I didn’t want to get it blocked and I didn’t know where [Kyle] Korver was.”
Allen made nine of 12 shots and three of his five 3-pointers, but all anyone wanted to talk about was the dunk.
“I didn’t know he could jump,” Rivers joked. “I mean, I was shocked. My goodness.”
No one should ever be surprised at the ways Allen can score. His legacy will be as one of, if the not the best 3-point shooters the game has ever seen, but he didn’t get all of his 21,093 points from behind the arc.
Allen got off to something of a low start this season, but Rivers is never worried about his scorer and he shouldn’t be. We’ve seen it time and again from Allen in his three-plus years in Boston. Just when you think he might be slowing down, he gets hot again.
Allen doesn’t believe in streaks. He believes in form and there’s a reason he’s the first person in the building every night. His form is everything and it always comes back.
His dunking? He’ll save that for special occasions.
KEVIN GARNETT’S EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
In all the words that have been written about Garnett this past week it should never be forgotten that if everyone in the league played as hard as he did on a nightly basis, the NBA would be a very different league.
Garnett played 39 minutes against the Bulls and, as he always does, he got the most out of all of them. He fed off the energy of the crowd, motioning to them to give him fuel.
“I love these fans here,” Garnett said. “They connect with me. From the minute I’ve been in Boston they’ve been able to feel me. I always try to give it back. I‘ve always told you I take a lot of pride in putting on that jersey every night and I try to give it right back to them. I hope they appreciate it.”
The crowd had his back, and while he wasn’t looking for validation in the wake of this strange week, he certainly appreciated it.
“You know what? It’s just good to see the support,” he said. “I wasn’t looking for that, to be honest. The energy they give off every night. The fact they do support you every night even when you look like trash. I always try to give that supreme effort. Let that be my calling card and lean on that. I’ve always said that I’m not going to be perfect but I can always work hard.”
Charlie Villanueva was brought up once more, but he swatted it away like a shot after the buzzer. 
“That’s a nobody,” he said. “I’m not paying attention to nobodies anymore.”
That’s for the good because Garnett seems to be on the cusp of a special season. Sure it’s only been six games and there’s an awful long way to go between now and this spring, but his play hasn’t just met expectations, it’s surpassed them.
He’s shooting 50 percent and his 80 attempts are only three behind Allen and Pierce for most on the team. He had another double-digit rebounding game, giving him four already.
But as we know, numbers don’t define him. His effort and his energy are what he wants everyone to remember and his performances this season have been memorable to say the least.