Rajon Rondo must love playing on national television. I’m sure you’ve already heard but Rondo had his 18^th triple double last night. Of those 18, 14 of them have come on national television. Rondo used and abused his way around the court against Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole for 16 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds.  Pierce scored 23 for the Celtics, as all the starters had double figure points for the night. The Celtics won 91-72 to move to 30-22 overall and are in 4^th place now with a full game lead over the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Heat fall to 37-14 on the season,  LeBron James led the way with 23 points and Wade was 2^nd with 15. Chris Bosh had only 4 points on 2-11 shooting. The Heat were -30 while LeBron James was on the floor.

The Celtics are quickly looked upon as title contenders. After weeks of talk of throwing this season away, they are now in danger of becoming overrated by the fans and ESPN. Since the injury to Ray Allen’s ankle, they have been on a 5 game winning streak. The combination of Rondo-Bradley backcourt has been phenomenal so far, and I wouldn’t be mad at Doc if he stayed with the lineup when Ray comes back. Doc has to get a lot of credit for the team this year, rolling with the punches and just continuing on.

Extra Notes:

The Heat shot 7-17 from the line; compared to 20-22 for the Celtics. Rondo has 13 consecutive games with at least 10 assists. LeBron had 0 assists for the 2^nd time in his career.

Avery Bradley Alert:

Celtics are now 5-0 since Avery came into the starting lineup after Ray’s troubling ankle issues. He played Wade even last night scoring 13 points when Wade only scored 15. But Wade took seven more shots. Avery’s cutting has been big in the past few games, keeping defenders honest by back cutting and then surprising them with his ever improving jumper. His confidence just keeps growing and growing. He went 5-10 from the floor last night and 1-3 from 3.