It’s impossible to read Game 4 of the Celtics’ series with the Hawks as anything other than an offensive aberration. The C’s took 53 of their 80 shots from outside the paint and made 26 of them – 15 long 2’s and 11 3-pointers. They took only 17 shots at the rim, making barely more than half, and were outscored in the paint, 36-26.

That’s usually a recipe for disaster in the NBA – Kevin Garnett baking analogies aside – but instead the Celtics led essentially wire-to-wire and by as many as 37 points before cruising to a comfortable 101-79 victory.

Paul Pierce was unconscious. Even when he was barely able to move in the second half, he still knocked down a pair of 3-pointers en route to 10-for-13 shooting and 24 points in just 16 minutes. Rajon Rondo was 4-for-5 on long jumpers and 2-for-3 from behind the arc. Garnett made 6-of-8, Ray Allen shot over 50 percent and Keyon Dooling got into the act as well, scoring 10 points on just six shots.

That’s not to say that the Celtics were lucky. They once again held their own on the boards, limited their turnovers and forced the Hawks to shoot barely over 40 percent. That’s been their real formula for success in this series and if they’re going to close it out in Atlanta, all of that has to continue.

During the regular season, the two biggest areas of concern for the Celtics were defensive rebounding and turnovers. They ranked 25th in turnover percentage – the rate of possessions ending in a turnover -- and 20th in defensive rebounding percentage.

This series has been completely different. The Celtics have committed 50 turnovers, a reasonable number, and they’ve been cleaning up on the glass, grabbing almost 80 percent of the available defensive rebounds.

“It starts with me,” Rondo said. “I have the ball in my hands a lot and Paul and I communicate a lot throughout the game saying that we need to take care of the ball. So, that’s what we’ve been focused on in this playoff series: taking care of the ball and five guys crashing the glass.”

The number reflect that. Rondo had committed just eight turnovers in three games, while recording 21 rebounds. He’s the second-leading rebounder in the series for the Celtics behind Garnett, who has been a double-double machine. Additionally, Pierce is grabbing almost seven boards a game and Ray Allen has 11 in his two outings. Without a dominating sidekick for Garnett on the glass, the team approach is what’s required.

The Celtics scratched out their first two wins behind a dominating defensive effort and some timely brilliance by Pierce in Game 2 and Rondo and Garnett in Game 3. That remains their focus for Game 5 because those jump shots don’t always look so great when you’re on the road in a tight game.

Rondo doing Rondo

This is how it’s gone for Rajon Rondo. In Game 3, he posted a stat line that had never before been done by anyone in a playoff game: 17 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals. In Game 4 he was even better with 20 points, 16 assists and just one turnover. Rondo is averaging 19-7-13 in the series and his 28.4 Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is second behind LeBron James.

Because everyone wants to know what makes him tick, he was asked if he came into Sunday’s game with a special mindset. Because Rondo has a hard time playing along with these kind of questions, he answered, “Honestly, no.”

Now that his one-game suspension is behind him, Rondo is emerging as one of the signature players in the postseason. He put together a strong regular season – remember the doubts about how he would play following the annual Chris Paul trade rumors? – but there was a question as to whether he could turn it on again in the postseason and be more than just a great passer and facilitator.

He’s answered that so far against Atlanta. In Game 1, the Hawks crowded him and tried to cut down his passing angles. In response he attempted 18 shots and was more or less the only good thing the Celtics had going offensively in the opener. In Game 4, the Hawks switched it up and gave him plenty of room. He responded by burying four long jumpers, a pair of 3’s and picking them apart with his passing.

“I’m always impressed by Rondo,” said Keyon Dooling who has become something of a veteran confidant for the point guard. “Every day he does something to impress me on the basketball court. If he’s hitting that jump shot, there’s no way the can guard him.” 

Truly. But Rondo will always be known for his slick passing first and foremost. He racks up absurd assist totals primarily because his teammates make jump shots. Ten of his 16 assists in Game 4 came on long 2’s and 3-pointers. Still, it’s Rondo’s responsibility to read the defenses and make the right passes in the right spot for a variety of players.

With Allen, he hits him with crisp passes on his off hand when Allen curls around screens. With Garnett, Rondo will flip an over the shoulder pass once he penetrates and draws the defense. With Brandon Bass, Rondo favors a one-handed behind-the-back flip on the pick and pop.

“The way he sees the game is totally different,” Dooling said. “He’s really a detailed oriented person. Guys just love to play with him. When he’s out guys don’t get their normal shots. He can make every pass from every angle.”

Beyond the perimeter wizardry, Rondo is also the Celtic most responsible for helping the Celtics have any kind of an inside presence. Over the last two games, they have scored 23 baskets at the rim. He’s scored eight of them and assisted on 11 more, giving him a hand in 19 of their 23 made baskets.

Ray Allen’s surprisingly unsurprising success

Before Game 4, someone asked Allen if he was surprised that he made his first shot since missing over three weeks with bone spurs in his ankle.
“Not at all,” Allen said. “I would have been surprised if I missed it.”

It’s not supposed to happen like this. Players in the prime of their career – let alone 36-year-olds with a bad ankle – are not supposed to be in the kind of rhythm that Allen’s been in since his return. In 56 minutes, he’s made 11-of-21 shots and barely resembled an aging player with a major foot injury.

Allen estimates that he’s done maybe 40 percent of his normal shooting work over the last few weeks and most of that has been recently. He shut it down completely in an effort to get his ankle to calm down, but he made a vow in Atlanta to put as much pressure on his foot as possible, and in his words, “not baby it.” He’s also supplemented the physical work with a re-focused mental approach.

“I’m trying to move and mirror what I’m going to do in the game so there’s no surprises,” he said. “I’m able to think about it so when the game’s starts and I’m out there playing, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s done well for me.”