Pierce Alleys Rondo Oops...Celts Win

So that happened. Ray slipped after recieving an inbound pass with 5 seconds to go in a tie game, thereby allowing Wade to repeat his game winning dunk routine. With the game seemingly over, Doc pulls the old lob to Rondo from the playbook....and it worked. Great screens, great pass from Paul and fantastic finish by Rondo to tie it as the buzzer sounded.

Bringing it to overtime, which was thankfully way less exciting as Rajon Rondo'd the Heat in the extra five minutes.

• The box score doesn't tell the whole story, but Paul Pierce was very, very rusty. The most obvious play was the good old PP-iso with 20 seconds to go in the fourth. Paul couldn't get off a quality shot against the oft-traded Q-Rich and effectively turned it over. Really it was a poor decision on Paul's part. He was clearly off tonight, he should not have called his own number, but he's the captain so he gets the benefit of the doubt there.
• Rasheed Wallace had a killer stretch late in the third quarter where he was the best player on the Heat and single handedly demolished his teammates. The stretch included tipping in a Wade jumper, a bad inbounds pass to Rajon, an ill advised pull-up brick three, an offensive foul, and a poor rotation leading to an open jumper for Haslem. Coincidentally, the Celtics lost their lead during this stretch, which was the turning point of the game, for quite awhile.
• Ray Allen picked up his third and fourth fouls in the third quarter. I've never seen Ray react as negatively to a foul call as he did on the third foul. And rightly so. For stretches there, I thought I was watching the 2006 NBA finals with the Celtcs playing the role of the Mavericks and Joey Crawford being the bright shining star that we all want to grow up to be.....Would any NBA fan be sad if Joey just went away?
• ....And then amazingly, Rasheed atoned for his prior hoops sins. He rained in threes. Some still ill-advised, but whatever they went in this time. He grabbed a key loose ball setting up Rondo for a drive which gave the Celts a two point lead with two minutes to go
• Ray Allen had a weird line. 9 early points, and then due to his foul troubles, he didn't score again until the 4th when he started throwing daggers. That late turnover though was quite unlucky for Ray and nearly doomed the night.
• If Rajon Rondo isn't an All-Star this year, then I don't know what one looks like. 25 points on 12 shots, with a frothy 7 for 8 from the line. Rajon's eight assists were largely offset by a very uncharacteristic six turnovers, but Rajon hit so many key buckets in this game, including 4 huge points in OT. That floater is AUTOMATIC. Vote Rondo!
• The Celtics were killed tonight by offensive rebounds (17) and turnovers (24, but it seemed like 400).
• The Heat also did things. Wade had 41 points, Haslem is killer from the baseline. These guys will tell you more I'm sure if you're really interested. Peninsula is Mightier

Box after the jump