<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>There's always a first game. Bob Cousy once played his first playoff game. So did Havlicek, Bird, McHale, Pierce, Allen and Garnett. They all had to adjust to something new, something faster, and something much more intense. They all did it, and with his 15 points, nine assists, six rebounds and two steals in 27 minutes last night against the Atlanta Hawks, its fair to consider Rajon Rondo adjusted to NBA Playoff basketball. The Celtics won Game 1 104-81 thanks in part to Rondo directing a second-half surge that put Boston up 1-0 in their first round series with the Hawks. Syncing with the postseason game involves taking the same things you did in the regular season -- and expanding on them -- to an evolving playoff stage that rewards wins with added pressure. No easy task for a second-year player, even with those broad shoulders. But Rondo kept his cool, and thus kept his team in control. "I was pretty comfortable. I didn't really get nervous. I tried to approach it like a regular season [game] but I knew the intensity would be a lot higher," Rondo said. That intensity was there in the first two quarters as the teams traded runs. The Celtics went up by double digits early in the first, and the Hawks chipped their way back with an 11-2 run of their own late in the opening stanza. Yet even after forward Josh Smith sparked Atlanta by blocking James Posey and slashing to the other coast for a layup, Rondo settled the tempo. With the ball on the baseline and the Hawks threatening to go on a run after Smith's layup and a trip to the stripe from Josh Childress, Rondo noticed something was wrong with the out of bounds set. While the referee tossed him the ball, Rondo let the it bounce off his arm as he walked onto the court to direct James Posey. Once satisfied -- and spared of a delay of game warning -- the play resulted in Kevin Garnett hitting an open jumper. "He was very poised. I think [the] second half of the season he has been a lot more accepting of his role, a lot more of a general and in a sense more of a leader, leading by example. I don't know what it is that clicked, but he has been playing tremendous," Garnett said. "We are as good as our point guard and our leader and right now that's the role he has taken." With three prolific scorers around him, sometimes that role has to change from leader and distributor to scorer. It was in Rondo's best and most mature sequence Sunday that he took that spot, a sequence that started when his critics had their 15 seconds to be right about his jumper. When Garnett dished to Rondo in the third quarter, the defense was sagging a four feet off of him. "We dare you," the Hawks seemed to be saying. Rondo took the bait, and his baseline jumper sailed a foot and a half over the rim. "The air ball actually felt good," Rondo said. "I put my hands down like it was good, but it came up an air ball." The next offensive possession began with Rondo streaking down the court, looking for the quick bucket. With nobody but Hawks in front of him, he pulled the ball back to the top of the arc and set up a pick-and-roll with Ray Allen. When both defenders went with Allen, the ball was kicked back out to Rondo, all by his lonesome once again. Butter. That got the Hawks' attention, but not enough of it. On the following possession, Rondo passed up a jumper in the right corner to drive in, but when the defender stuck him he crossed over to the left and pulled up to stroke another. Rondo kept on rolling. Holding the ball for the last shot of the third quarter, he waved off his teammates and crossed the ball back and forth in front of him, planning his attack on Al Horford, the victim of a cruel mismatch. Rondo took Horford to the right across the paint and the forward gave the quicker guard a hip check that sent Rondo backwards, but not before he threw the ball up, and in. "He airballed the first because he wasn't ready to shoot the ball," Sam Cassell said. "He did what we needed him to do. He led us, he scored when he had to score, he passed when he had to pass and he defended when he had to defend." In other words, he did his job, foiling the Hawks' plans for finding a way to stop the Boston offense. "As long as Ray and Paul aren't sticking the dagger in you, you have to deal with Rondo making the shots," said Hawks Coach Mike Woodson. Lately, the only way to cope with Rondo making his shots has been to lose.</div> I love the way Rondo handled himself last night. We may not know how he'd do if we make it deep into the playoffs, but we do know that this is a guy that has never and will never back down from a challenge. I love his poise. Keep it up, Rondo.
