There are moments in a basketball game when star players have to be at their best. It’s not always at the end of the game when a shot or play can win it or lose it. Take Sunday night against the Wizards, a relatively straightforward 94-86 win for the Celtics.

They built a 17-point lead at the half on the strength of a balanced effort from their starting five, who scored 38 of their 51 points with each player scoring at least six points. That’s the way the Celtics like to operate and that’s how they did it on Friday in Paul Pierce’s return to the court. When they’re at their best they play with precision and efficiency, but the Celtics are operating on a thin margin these days and that veteran guile quickly turned into old-man basketball in the second half.

Jermaine O’Neal had two shots blocked. Kevin Garnett was wide open under the basket, but Pierce’s alley-oop was a little too high and Garnett couldn’t reach it like he used to do so effortlessly. The Wizards may lack cohesion on the court, but they are far more athletic and they finally began to use to that to their advantage, grabbing loose ball rebounds and attacking the glass.

The Celtics needed something to reverse the momentum. They needed Rajon Rondo, the one player on the roster who can match that youth and athleticism that other teams have in abundance.

Desperately needing a basket, Rondo went into the post and quickly scored on John Wall. He took Andray Blatche off the dribble and neatly threaded home a layup over his 6-foot-10 defender. That restored order, but the Wizards weren’t done and they cut the lead to nine, 58-49. After a timeout, Rondo answered again with a jumper and then found Garnett for a dunk.

The Wizards had one more run left in them in the fourth quarter and took the lead down to seven against the Celtics’ reserves. Rondo came back in and began working a two-man game with Garnett that was unstoppable. He finished with a gaudy triple-double -- 18 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds, but it was the moments that Rondo chose to assert himself that really stood out. On three occasions, the Celtics needed Rondo to carry them and he did it each and every time.

He made a jump shot, which generally sends everyone into hysterics of delight, but Rondo operated mainly in the paint, where he attempted nine of his 10 shots and of his 11 assists, eight led to baskets at the rim. No one benefitted from Rondo’s masterful floor game more than Garnett who scored a season-high 24 points and eight of his nine field goals came on Rondo assists.

Through the first three games the Celtics relied on Rondo and Ray Allen to a fault to generate offense. Through five games Rondo is using more than 25 percent of the team’s possessions (up from his career averages of around 20 percent). He’s once again attacking the basket, getting more than five shots a game at the rim (and shooting over 72 percent) and he’s also getting to the free throw line about seven times each night.

The downside of course is that Rondo won’t last the season if he’s asked to take hit after hit each and every night. He was able to take a step back on Friday when Pierce returned, but on Sunday he was needed once more. 

Even with Pierce back, the Celtics need Rondo to create offense with his dribble penetration because he’s really the only player who can do it on the team. The key is understanding when he’s needed and Rondo answered the call on Sunday.

DON'T WRITE OFF KEVIN GARNETT JUST YET

During training camp, coach Doc Rivers noted that Garnett is a notoriously slow starter because it takes him a while to find his rhythm. “The one you’d like the least [to miss practice] is probably Kevin because he’s a system guy. He needs repetitions,” Rivers said at the time. “He usually has poor practices to begin [camp.] He plays hard, but not well.”

True to form, Garnett played hard in the first three games – he always plays hard – but he rarely played well. He looked old, tired and a step behind the play, especially on defense. It’s human nature to assume that Garnett had lost it because that’s always been the biggest fear ever since his knee surgery.

Those fears were premature. No, he’s not likely to recapture the form he showed in 2007-08 when he was justifiably a top MVP candidate, but Garnett has been doing this for far too long to write him off after a slow start.

He played well on Friday, although it didn’t really show up in the box score. On Sunday, he was a monster. Garnett scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds, both season highs, in only 28 minutes. He did most of his work inside where he was a perfect 5-for-5 and he also got the free throw line six times, his first trip since opening day. Defensively, he held Blatche to 10 nonessential points and just three rebounds.

The question is how often can he do it. The back-to-backs are a major concern, as is the lack of practice time. But the Celtics are about to get an unexpected benefit from the schedule, which has them in Boston for the next two weeks and they have a four-day window after this Friday’s game against Indiana for much-needed practice sessions.

After all he’s been through and all he’s done for the franchise, Garnett deserves the benefit of the doubt and games like Sunday’s are a reminder that Garnett can still be Garnett.

BRANDON BASS DOESN'T PASS (AND THAT'S OK)

It’s become clear in the first five games that Bass is the most important Celtics reserve. He’s fourth on the team in both minutes played and shots and he’s the one bench player who will see time with the other four starters.

He’s also the only reserve who can score. Keyon Dooling will have his moments when his 3-point shot is falling. Marquis Daniels is everything but a scorer. The less said about Avery Bradley and Sasha Pavlovic’s offense the better. Chris Wilcox and to a lesser extent, Greg Stiemsma, will get points off broken plays, transition and the occasional jumper.

Bass is the one constant offensive threat off the bench. To put it another way, the Celtics need him to score.

It has been noted that in 137 minutes this season, Bass has exactly one assist. That’s a fairly noteworthy number, but for his career Bass has averaged barely over one assist per 36 minutes he’s on the court, so it’s not exactly shocking either. One of the reasons Bass can get away with not passing is that he rarely turns the ball over -- he has only three this season – and he makes a high percentage of his shots.

Bass may be something of a black hole offensively but he’s a productive black hole who rarely does anything to hurt the team when he’s looking for his offense. That’s his game and the Celtics need every bit of his scoring off the bench.