Rondo’s steal, sprint lift Celtics
BOSTON — Rajon Rondo has made dozens of last-second dashes to the basket.
This time, he went in the opposite direction.
The Boston Celtics point guard ran into the backcourt, grabbing the inbound pass in stride, avoiding a foul and dribbling out the final 3.4 seconds to clinch Boston’s 92-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night in the opener of their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“I feel like I could outquick him. That’s what I did,” Rondo said. “We knew they had a foul to give. I told Doc [Rivers] to get me the ball and I could use my speed.”
Rondo had 17 assists, 13 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth career playoff tripledouble. He had 6 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics went on a 23-7 run to turn a double-digit deficit into a six-point lead with 78 seconds to play.
“He’s an amazing player. He really is,” Sixers Coach Doug Collins said. “He takes that ball wherever he wants to take it on the floor.”
Kevin Garnett scored 29 points — his most in the regularor postseason this year — and added 11 rebounds to help Boston maintain homecourt advantage in the bestof-7, second-round series. Game 2 is Monday night in Boston before the series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4.
“If you’ve watched us all season, we’re not going to drop our heads,” Collins said. “We live to come back and fight just as hard in Game 2, at least as long as I’m the coach.”
Andre Iguodala scored 19 points and Evan Turner had 16 with 10 rebounds for Philadelphia.
The Sixers led 77-67 with 11 minutes to play before Boston scored 23 of the next 30 points, with Rondo making a jumper to cut it to 80-79, then another two minutes later to give Boston an 83-82 lead with 3:47 to play.
After Spencer Hawes’ basket from the right baseline put the Sixers up 84-83, Rondo drove to the basket and, with his path blocked, turned and handed the ball to Garnett. He banked in a shot and drew the foul to give Boston a two-point lead, then added another jumper.
After misses by Turner and Lou Williams, Paul Pierce hit a fall-away jumper with 78 seconds left to make it a six-point lead — the Celtics’ biggest.
Boston still led by five points when Jrue Holiday made a jumper. Then Rondo fouled him with 3.4 seconds left and he made both free throws. Boston inbounded the ball from between the benches, and Rondo sprinted back into the backcourt and outran Turner to the wrong basket as the time expired.
Pierce, who had a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, scored 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting. Rondo was only 6 for 15 from the floor, but he was 3 for 6 in the fourth quarter.
Hawes scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.