Celtics-Magic will come down to battle of point guards
BOSTON -- Rajon Rondo let the ball roll like a tumbleweed across the famous parquet floor at the Whatchamacallit Garden, and Rafer Alston was having none of it. He charged Rondo, and the two wrestled for the ball. It looked more like a lacrosse faceoff than a basketball play.
Alston stole it. Rondo stole it back, and from one knee fired a half-court dart to Brian Scalabrine in the corner for the 3-pointer. Bang. Orlando's 28-point third-quarter lead was down to single digits, 89-80 with 3:17 left.
The Magic did what the Magic do. They let a big lead slip away and didn't get the ball to Dwight Howard enough when everything was crumbling around them. The Celtics did what was to be expected -- came out flat after a draining seven-game series in the first round against Chicago. Despite trailing by 28 early in the third quarter, the Celtics were two plays away from taking the lead in the final minute.
With the Magic clinging to a 91-87 lead and playing the part of panic masters that Shaquille O'Neal famously labeled them with, Rondo sped across half court and threw a pass off Ray Allen's foot for a turnover. On the next possession, Allen's 3-pointer from his favorite spot on the floor rattled around every inch of the rim, off the backboard, and out. Game, set, and match Orlando in Game 1 on Monday night, a 95-90 victory that both teams walked away from saying they needed to learn some very serious lessons.
"We can't wait until we're down 25 or 26 before we wake up," Paul Pierce said. "It's like if you're in a boxing match and you get hit with a hook and an uppercut before you decide to fight."
Strangely, loser's remorse permeated the winning locker room, too.
"We've just got to find a way to deal with the pressure when we have a lead," Alston said.
• Magic 95, Celtics 90 | Series: Orlando 1, Boston 0
This was a mere prelude of what's to come in this series, the beggar's purse before the wedding feast. If the Magic get past the Celtics -- and despite their panicky play with a huge lead, they've taken a big step by erasing Boston's home-court advantage -- they will do so by understanding what it takes to put a team away in the playoffs. And it will all begin and end with the two guys who were wrestling for that loose ball.
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| Rafer Alston knows what Stan Van Gundy is saying: Get the ball to Dwight Howard. (Getty Images) |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all of those things are the job of the point guard. In the first round series against Philadelphia, and when the Celtics were coming back Monday night, Alston was shaky at best in all the areas that a point guard has to command for his team to win and go deep into the playoffs.
"Everything was rolling in their favor, and we did not handle any of that very well," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Statistically, both Alston and Rondo were brutal in Game 1. Rondo was 2-for-12 with seven turnovers; Alston 3-for-11 with four turnovers. Neither will play that poorly in Game 2, and their constant collisions -- both literally and figuratively -- could be the tipping point in this series.
The video Orlando watched of Boston's first-round series showed Rondo establishing himself as an even bigger part of what the Celtics do when Kevin Garnett is on the bench in a suit. Despite their statements to the contrary, don't think the Magic didn't notice the indelible mark Rondo made on that series with his aggressive, tough, and fearless -- some would say dirty -- play. Methinks they protest too much.
"They just saw those two," Alston said of Rondo's face-rake of Brad Miller and his wrestling match with Kirk Hinrich in the Bulls series. "He's been doing it a long time. The series started to get a little physical, and he was in the midst of it all. I don't think he's a dirty player at all by any standard. But definitely, in the latter part of that series, he started getting some fouls, getting into some physical confrontations."
Rondo was in the midst of it all again Monday night, giving the mighty Howard a shove in the back after the two tussled for a rebound under the basket.
"I don't think Dwight wants to get into a shoving match with Rajon Rondo," Alston said with a smile. "I don't think that would be very smart."
So once the Celtics catch their breath from their exhausting first-round series, how do the Magic counter his recklessness without crossing the line?
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| Rajon Rondo is not shy about contact. (Getty Images) |
No, he can't. That's the job of his point guard, Alston, who said, "I don't normally get into the back and forth, shouting match, hit-for-hit and shove-for-shove. I try to let the refs handle that. But if it's going on long, I may either say something to the refs or give a shove or something like that."
The Celtics got hit on the chin Monday night, and they got back up. That means nothing, except that the rest of this series is going to look a lot more like the last 21 minutes of Game 1 than the first 27.
"No excuses," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
As long as Garnett is doing his best work on the exercise bike, Rivers has made it no secret whom he turns to when things get rough. Not Pierce, not Allen, but Rondo. He told him before the Chicago series that he needed to stop asking so many questions and just play, that he had the keys to the team. He still does, and Alston has the keys to his. What they do with them -- put them in the ignition and get the engine purring like a fine sports car, or accidentally hit the panic button -- will tell you everything you need to know about who will win this series.
Three-and-a-half minutes into the third quarter, just before the Celtics started coming back, Rivers called a 20-second timeout to talk with his point guard.
"'You're not playing with enough speed,'" Rivers said he told Rondo. "He was trying to read defenses instead of playing with his instincts. And I thought once he played with his instincts and played with his speed ... that allowed him to be a better player. And I thought that changed the game for us."
Will it change the series? That's up to Rondo, and the guy he's playing against. Buckle up. May the team with the best point guard win.
