Rondo: 44 points 'irrelevant, we lost'

Rajon Rondo became the first player in the long, illustrious history of the Celtics to score at least 40 points and dish out at least 10 assists in a playoff game, but his mood and the mood of the team was tempered after a 115-111 loss to the Heat Wednesday night that put the Celtics in a 2-0 hole in the Eastern Conference finals. Rondo finished with 44 points, 10 assists and was just two rebounds shy of his fourth triple-double of this playoff season.

"It's kind of irrelevant," Rondo said. "We lost. It's as simple as that."

Rondo had three steals and just three turnovers, remarkable considering the point guard played all 53 minutes of the epic playoff contest. He became just the eighth player in NBA history to play all 53 minutes of a playoff game. But Rondo maintained that he was not tired in the late stages of the game.  

"I felt fine," Rondo said. "It was a mental grind for me, individually, and for us as a team. Kevin played extra minutes, we all did. There's no turning back. It's the conference finals so I wanted to play every minute. I thought I didn't hurt my team by me playing every minute so I wanted to go out there and continue to do the best for my team."

Rondo said the Celtics are confident that the home crowd can help them get back in the series. The Celtics enter Friday's Game 3 with a 6-1 home mark at TD Garden in these playoffs and have lost just twice in their last 21 home games dating back to Feb. 13. 

"We have the next two at home," Rondo said. "We had two tough losses on the road but it's a seven-game series. We're playing very well at home as of late. We're looking forward to it." 

For more, visit the Celtics team page at weei.com/celtics and the Green Street blog.