(Sports Network) - The Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers return to Quicken Loans Arena tonight for the pivotal Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinals set.
Celtics-Cavaliers Series Shifts Back To Cleveland For The All-Important Game 5
The Celtics deadlocked the series on Sunday when Rajon Rondo carried Boston with a triple- double, finishing with 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists to lead the Celtics to a 97-87 Game 4 victory.
Rondo joined Oscar Robertson (1963) and Wilt Chamberlain (1967) as just the third player in playoff history to have at least 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists in a game.
"He was absolutely sensational," Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said of Rondo. "It was just an amazing effort. He's a point guard that has complete control of our team. We rely on him to win."
Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen each scored 18 points for the Celtics, who rebounded from the worst home playoff loss in franchise history in Game 3 to send the series back to Cleveland knotted at two games apiece.
Paul Pierce had another subpar game, scoring just nine points, but Tony Allen put in a 15-point effort off the bench to spark the victory.
“I had a mind set to help the bigs on the boards, so I just tried to get as many as possible,” Rondo said. “I was just trying to be aggressive.”
LeBron James logged 22 points, nine rebounds and eight assists but also had seven turnovers for Cleveland, which was held without a field goal for the final 4:34 of the contest. Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison added 17 and 14 points, respectively, for the Cavs, who shot 29.4 percent over the final 12 minutes.
“They went up really fast in that fourth quarter,” James said. “They countered our aggression with speed to turn the game around.”
Many have questioned why Cavs coach Mike Brown hasn't given James a chance to check Rondo, at least for a stretch here and there.
In Boston's two wins in the series, the ultra-quick point guard, who can take Mo Williams and Anthony Parker off the dribble at will, matched the franchise assist record with 19 assists in Game 2, and recorded the triple-double in Game 4.
"(Rondo) is one of the toughest guys in the league to defend," All-Star point guard Chris Paul said on TNT earlier in the series. "Everyone always backs up, daring him to shoot. Then he comes at you full speed with those floaters in the lane."
James certainly has the pure athletic ability and length to move over and torture an offensively limited player like Rondo, and now it looks like a desperate Brown may finally call his number.
“We’re going to give ‘Bron an opportunity,” Brown said on Monday.
Rondo, who is averaging a LeBron-like 21.8 points, 13.0 assists and 8.3 rebounds in the series, took it in stride.
"[James] is a great help defender so he's definitely going to be helping," Rondo said. "He's a good defender. [The Lakers] did that a couple of years ago when Kobe [Bryant] was checking me in the finals. So, I'm used to bigger guys guarding me the shot and challenging me late because of their wingspan. I really don't care. If he checks me, he checks me. It's not going to change the way we run our offense."
The Cavs and Celtics split four games in the regular season while both clubs finished off their opening round opponents this year in just five games, as Cleveland dispensed of Central Division rival Chicago, and the Celtics sent the Miami Heat back to South Beach.
The teams have met four times previously in the postseason dating back to the 1975-76 season when Boston won the Eastern Conference finals over the Cavs in six games. The C’s also won a first round series over Cleveland in 1984-85, and in the East semis in 2007-08. The Cavs only win in the postseason over Boston came in the East semifinals during the 1991-92 season, also a seven- game set.
The best-of-seven series continues in Boston for Game 6 on Thursday. The winner of the set will take on the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals.
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