I certainly have no idea, and it's going to make for one hell of an interesting series.  In analyzing all the possible outcomes, I can't honestly take anything off the table.   A Lakers sweep?  Behind 21 feet of inside domination and a masterful performance from Kobe Bryant, yeah I could see that.  A Suns sweep?  With a bench playing better than a lot of starting units, an offensive staple (pick and roll) that is right in the Lakers weakness wheelhouse, and the best offense in the NBA, can you really rule it out?  Neither one is likely, but nothing in this series can be ruled out.  That's what happens when two teams who both look unbeatable square off.  It's the old adage about the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.  I'm not sure which one's which, and either way it doesn't matter.  Something's gotta give.

Can you blame Lakers fans for thinking this one's in the bag?  They've emerged from the depths of April to become the juggernaut we always thought them capable of being.  Tested far sooner than in previous years, the Lakers responded to the OKC challenge with resolve.  They've come up huge in two of the most intimidating environments the league has to offer, winning 3 of 5 on the road (and nearly a 4th as well).  They're undefeated at home, and have the home court advantage.  And their stars are playing like ... well, stars.  Pau Gasol's play has scoffed at the concept of "soft".  Kobe Bryant has found a perfect balance between assassin and distributor.  Oh, and he also showed quickness and athleticism in the last round that we weren't sure he still had.

All the question marks that plagued the Lakers season are being aced on the final exam.  Health?   Not perfect, but as long as Kobe can play like he's been playing, we're in fine shape there.  Complacency?  I won't tell you the Lakers go 100% all the time, but sweeps don't happen when you aren't trying.  Ability to shoot from outside?  I wouldn't call them good from distance, but go ahead and give them a free 3 pointer and see how that goes for you.  Offensive execution and ball movement?  Better than its been all season. 

And none of this is even touching on the obvious and substantial matchup advantages the Lakers have against the Phoenix Suns.  The Lakers have size that Phoenix will struggle to deal with, even if Robin Lopez can jump right back into being a serviceable pivot in the middle.  Grant Hill has re-invented himself as a strong perimeter defender, but checking Ginobli when he's struggling from the outside, and checking Kobe Bryant when his entire arsenal is at his disposal are two very different things.  And Phil Jackson has a history of preparing the Lakers for the Phoenix Suns better than any other coach.  That's why Laker teams so far below the Suns in talent were able to give Phoenix a struggle in the playoffs a few years back.  That's why the Lakers have routinely dominated the regular season matchup over the past few seasons, including this year's 3-1 mark.

If the Lakers could almost compete with the Suns while relying on Kwame Brown and Smush Parker, can the Suns keep up now that the Lakers are the ones with the talent advantage?  The Lakers have the players, they have the ability, they have the form, and they have the motivation as well.  Kobe Bryant hasn't forgotten losing to the Suns for two straight years.  He hasn't forgotten the feeling if getting blown out in Game 7 after being up 3-1 in the 2006 playoffs.  He will be looking for blood, and as he goes, so do the Lakers. 

Oh, and they also happen to be the defending champs, playing like they did to win chip numero uno, and with a better knowledge than anyone of what it takes to do the deed.  Good luck with that, Phoenix.

But what of the Suns fans?  Can you say their optimism is misplaced?  The Suns have been the best performing team in the Western Conference since the All-Star break.  This isn't some small 4 game sample size where things started turning around and now they just hope to keep it going.  The Lakers have been playing well for 3 weeks, but the Suns have been doing it for 3 months.  A sweep is a sweep, but the Lakers often toyed with the Jazz, and needed a missed shot and tip in to preserve a game 3 victory.  The Suns, on the other hand, never lost control of any game in the 4th quarter against the Spurs.   Of the two teams involved in this series, it would come as a greater surprise if the Suns crapped the bed than if the Lakers did. 

Phoenix responds to the Lakers matchup advantages with advantages of their own.  Are you looking forward to watching Derek Fisher guard Steve Nash?  Nope, me neither.  If the Lakers respond by putting Kobe on Nash, Fisher could get destroyed on post ups by the bigger and more athletic Jason Richardson or Grant Hill.   There's no place for Fisher to hide on defense in this series, no Thabo Sefalosha that allows him to chill for half the game.  Oh, and any time the Lakers prevent the Suns from scoring in transition, the Suns staple of offensive production is the pick and roll, which has only been a weakness of the Lakers defense since the Iron Age.  Throw a bench on top that is the most productive of these playoffs, as compared to a Lakers bench filled with players who have no concept of consistency.

What's more, the Suns are filled with a confidence even the Lakers can't match.  They just exorcised an entire era's worth of demons, and did so in commanding fashion.  The Spurs were Phoenix's nemisis, responsible for the failure and downfall of the Seven Second or Less era.  Now, SSOL is reborn and the Spurs have been consumed in the ashes.  You don't finally climb to the top of your own personal Mount Everest without thinking that anything is possible afterwards. 

Oh, and the Suns can play a little defense now too.  Not a lot, not enough that it bears out statistically in a meaningful way, but enough to allow their offensive prowess to overwhelm opponents even more than in the past.  It's spearheaded by tough-nosed bench crew, led by Louis Admundsen and Jared Dudley.  If you want proof, think about this:   Entering the 4th quarter of the last two games vs. the Spurs, the Suns carried only a 1 point lead.  They won those games by 14 and 6 respectively.  So tell me, which team was getting stops down the stretch and which team wasn't.  And, with the impending return of Robin Lopez, that defense will only improve over what the Suns have shown so far in the playoffs.

Clearly, both teams, and both fanbases, have every reason to be confident.  One side will have their confidence validated, and one side will have theirs smashed to pieces, with the first dose of reality set to hit next Monday.  In the meantime, go ahead and believe in your predicition of victory for the team of your choice.  But, while you are at it, do recognize that the other side probably doesn't agree with you, and their list of reasons why is just as long, and as strong, as yours.

Apparently Monday was "Brazen Overtures Towards LeBron James(notes) Day" in New York. That's the only logical explanation for why both the New York Daily News and New York Magazine rolled out their "come to New York, please" packages Monday. I wish someone had told me. I'd have prepared a pot roast.

While the Daily News is offering little more than a Photoshop contest, New York Magazine has a huge feature on why LeBron James should be a New York Knick. Reasons range from LeBron making a billion dollars to the possibility of having a sandwich named after him. It's a fun read, even if some of the basketball talk is a little fishy — for instance, by no measure is Chris Bosh(notes) one of the NBA's top-five rebounders.

But for my money, the best part of the entire package is the revelation that the Knicks hired someone whose entire job is enticing LeBron James to come to New York.

Two summers ago, they hired a guy whose whole job is basically to [get LeBron to New York]. His name is John Gabriel, and he invented the pull-out-all-the-stops, research-intensive approach to free-agent schmoozing when he was general manager in Orlando. Technically, his title is director of pro scouting and free agency, but it really should be "guy in charge of showering love on LeBron James." Gabriel keeps detailed files on your likes, dislikes and habits. He's even been rehearsing for you. Remember last summer, when the Knicks were pursuing free agents Jason Kidd(notes) and Grant Hill(notes)? Those overtures, a Knicks insider told us, were just a recital for the performance you will get. The team never realistically considered signing either of them. When the Knicks dimmed the lights and announced Hill's name on the PA as he came out of the tunnel onto the court during his visit, they were really thinking of you. Gabriel is so good, the plan almost worked too well. Hill's agent told us that Hill gave the offer "very, very serious consideration."

 

Incredible. Gabriel is like a personal LeBron concierge employed by a team he doesn't even play for. I can't imagine job prospects are good if LeBron doesn't sign with the Knicks, but with reports that LeBron could be worth million annually to a franchise, I'm guessing paying Gabriel is a small price to pay for the chance to make that money back a thousand times over. For that kind of dough, I wouldn't be surprised if more teams had a "LeBron guy" and we just don't know about it.

[Photos: View a slideshow of LeBron James in action.]

No matter your feelings on LeBron to New York, you really should check out the whole feature. At the very least, you'll enjoy reading David Thorpe imagining James in a Seven Seconds or Less offense and Kevin Pelton breaking down possible free agency destinations. Not to mention, this will be very funny to read when LeBron re-signs with Cleveland.

Excepté Yakhouba Diawara, tous les leaders du basket français figurent dans la liste élargie de trent et un joueurs dévoilée lundi 10 mai par le sélectionneur de l'Équipe de France de basket, Vincent Collet, dans la perspective du Mondial 2010, qui se déroulera du 28 août au 12 septembre en Turquie. Cette liste est une sorte de vivier dans lequel Vincent Collet puisera pour bâtir la sélection des douze joueurs retenus pour le Mondial. Mais comme les franchises NBA demeurent toutes puissantes, il reste difficile de savoir si Tony Parker ou Joakim Noah seront en mesure de disputer la compétition planétaire avec les Bleus.

Pour être sélectionnables, les joueurs doivent souscrire à la charte de l'Équipe de France, instaurée en 2009 dans la perspective des jeux Olympiques de 2012. Cette année, trois nouveaux joueurs figurent dans la liste des signataires – Fabien Causeur, Edwin Jackson et Kévin Séraphin – mais un autre, Yakhouba Diawara, en a été évincé. L'ailier de Miami "a été exclu car il a refusé la sélection l'été dernier alors que rien ne faisait qu'il pouvait la refuser", explique Patrick Beesley, le directeur de l'équipe de France de basket. "Yakhouba avait signée la charte, on ne l'a pas forcé et il est revenu sur sa décision. Cette charte n'est pas faite pour faire des allers-retours en sélection". Pour le moment, le cas Diawara est donc clos.

"LES FRANCHISES RESTENT LES EMPLOYEURS"

Par contre, la charte ne peut rien dans le cas où les franchises NBA "mettent des bâtons dans les roues" aux joueurs pour éviter qu'ils ne rejoignent la sélection. La Fédération française de basket continue donc son "lobbying" et tente "d'avoir un rapport de proximité avec les franchises, de les rencontrer plusieurs fois par an. Mais elles restent les employeurs, donc parfois on ne peut rien faire", admet Patrick Beesley.

Si Boris Diaw et Nicolas Batum devraient bien être libérés par Charlotte et Portland pour jouer avec les Bleus, tous ne peuvent pas en dire autant. Rodrigue Beaubois mais surtout Joakim Noah et Tony Parker figurent au rang des "cas délicats". Pour Rodrigue Beaubois, "les négociations sont en cours avec Dallas donc il faut rester prudent", mais le directeur de l'équipe de France conserve un "bon espoir" de trouver une solution.

Pour Noah et Parker, la tâche semble bien plus complexe. La motivation du meneur de San Antonio pour jouer en équipe nationale n'est aucunement remise en cause puisqu'il "confirme toutes les semaines qu'il sera là mais il y a une renégociation de contrat dans l'air", TP effectuant sa dernière année de contrat avec les Spurs. Les franchises peuvent aussi brandir l'argument des blessures, et les absences répétées de Parker ne jouent pas en sa faveur.

The sky’s the limit for this guy.

 

You hear that said all the time about LeBron James(notes), the Cleveland Cavaliers’ star forward who, in a public celebration Sunday at the University of Akron, was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2009-10 for the second consecutive season. Just the other day, for instance, Cavs coach Mike Brown said: “He can continue to grow by leaps and bounds for as many years as he has left in this league. … The sky’s the limit for him.”

 

Or as James himself said in accepting the award again in his hometown at a party open to all: “The way I approach the game, I know the sky’s the limit with an individual accolade like this.”

 

You hear it so much—the sky’s the limit for this guy—you start to wonder if maybe it’s backwards. What if LBJ is the outlier, the one at the extreme, the force establishing the boundaries for all others and everything else, including the sky? As in:

This guy’s the limit for the sky.

 

Say it fast and it starts to sound right.

 

The folks in the stands at Rhodes Arena Sunday—the “second home court” for James’ high school team at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s, given the overflow crowds drawn to SVSM’s too-small gym to see him then—simply went with the “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chant that, in this case, was as accurate and timely as it was redundant.

 

You hate to surrender to a shoe company’s slogan but we are, in fact, all witnesses. To a multiple MVP winner, something only 11 other men in league annals can claim. To a back-to-back honoree, one of just 10 and the first since Steve Nash(notes) in 2005 and 2006. To a fellow who has a shot now to join Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell as the only players to win three in a row (MV3s, if you will) and who—if Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy is to be believed, rather than filtered as impassioned lobbying on behalf of his guy Dwight Howard(notes)—has a stranglehold on the Maurice Podoloff trophy for the next decade or more.

 

“LeBron will win the MVP every year until he retires,” Van Gundy said this spring. “LeBron has to go into the year and basically lose the MVP. You guys have decided he’s the MVP.”

 

Uh, no. The “you guys” in Van Gundy’s comment is a morphing, unpredictable, headstrong and frequently wrong body of voters who couldn’t even decide whether to tote an umbrella on a cloudy day. At some point, as transcendent as James might get, many of the writers and broadcasters would cast votes for someone else just out of boredom.

 

They certainly couldn’t agree unanimously that James was the best player in the NBA this season—and by a wide margin. Back in 2000, former CNN and ESPN sportscaster Fred Hickman took heat for giving his vote to Allen Iverson(notes) rather than Shaquille O’Neal(notes), spoiling what would have been O’Neal’s sweep. A year ago, 12 of the 121 voters didn’t see James as MVP, despite his ascendancy individually and as a team leader. This year, 116 of the 123 available first-place votes went James’ way, with Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant(notes) receiving four and Howard getting three. No voter ranked James lower than third on the five-slot ballot.

 

“Every night I step on the court, I try to be the best player on the floor,” James told the hometown throng. “And every night fans or media, you guys, leave a game, I want you to say ‘LeBron James was the best player on the court.’ Every single night.”

 

OK, here’s another reason why James might not be hoarding the next 10 MVP trophies. Given his level of performances and, more than that, his maturity, his poise, in handling the spotlight and success thrust upon him, the guy has to be 32 years old. No? Then maybe Stan Van’s right.

 

“I’m always humbled by anything I can do individually,” James said Sunday, “because I understand this is a team game and any time you’re singled out, that means you’ve done something special. It’s definitely humbling. … It’s great.”

 

The 6-foot-8, 270-pound forward threw himself into developing on both the individual and team fronts this season. He ranked second in the league in scoring (29.7) and averaged 7.3 rebounds, 8.6 assists (most ever by a forward, sixth-best in the NBA), 1.0 blocked shots and 1.6 steals (ninth). Fifteen times James led the Cavs across the board in points, rebounds and assists, and he was a league-high plus-650 in plus/minus rankings. Defensively, he became the bogeyman lurking over every opponent’s shoulder with a transition layup in mind. Offensively, James honed his shooting range and was accurate a career-best 50.3 percent of the time.

 

Collectively, the Cavaliers snagged the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season, topping 60 victories both times. Cleveland has had the league’s best home record for two years, too, going 74-8 at Quicken Loans Arena. Confronted by—after largely lobbying for—a revamped roster from the squad that exited last spring’s postseason, James blended new faces and talents such as Shaquille O’Neal, Antawn Jamison(notes), Anthony Parker(notes) and Jamario Moon(notes) into a group that wasn’t exactly broken to begin with.

 

He then vowed to take all of the above to another level in this postseason, which doesn’t figure into MVP voting but speaks volumes about the guy who won. “When I said that it wasn’t about on the court,” James explained during the Chicago series, “it was more about preparation and mentally what was going on with the game. Every second, every minute. Stepping up my game on the court, I’ve done that a little bit.”

 

What’s left? Why of course, the hardware no player can possibly win by himself, yet the stuff that gets used constantly to define the game’s greatest stars, qualifying or eliminating them as the case may be. None of the other major sports holds its superstars as accountable for winning championships as the NBA. And none holds it against those who come up short quite as severely.

 

Russell, Jordan, Bird, Johnson, even Chamberlain, Erving, Robertson and West? They’re in. Barkley, Ewing, Malone, Stockton, Miller? Nope, they’re out. No NBA title, no chunky championship ring, so no rights or privileges in the lodge of the league’s very best, at least the way some people see it.

 

James included.

 

“The only reason I do what I do on the court is to compete for an NBA championship,” he told the Akron crowd. “I understand that, until I win that, I won’t go down as one of the greatest players to play this game. Individual accolades definitely come into account, but team is what it’s all about. That’s my only goal right now. I can’t name something that I haven’t done individually in my short career that’s bigger than an NBA championship. … This is the closest I’ve been to it right now with the team that we have, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

 

So O’Neal is in (four rings), Bryant is in (four as well) and even Dwyane Wade(notes) qualifies, if his stats and victory totals stay impressive over time. But James is out? Until he wins at least one title with the Cavs or someone else?

 

Doesn’t seem right, but there it is. And opinion from within ranges all over the map.

 

Were the Boston Celtics’ primary stars—Kevin Garnett(notes), Paul Pierce(notes), Ray Allen(notes)—any greater in July 2008 than they were in April 2008, before and after they broke through together for their first taste of real triumph? Would James rank any higher today in the pantheon of players—the MVMVPs, if you will—had Cleveland beaten San Antonio in the 2007 Finals? Will he be transformed somehow if the Cavs get there again this spring and win four games rather than three against some West opponent?

 

No, said Boston’s Allen. Yes, said Celtics coach Glenn (Doc) Rivers.

 

“That’s just a category they put you in,” Allen said earlier Sunday. “But nothing changes. It’s a prestige that you can carry for yourself. But as a matter of fact, a lot of people will forget as you move around the world and you go on in life. The enthusiasts might remember that you won a championship and every now and then you’ll bring your ring out and say, ‘I won it this year.’ And people will say, ‘Oh yeah, you did win it. Who was on your team?’ People forget and rightfully so.

 

“Sports can be fickle. If you polled this [Celtics] team and the Cleveland team or whoever else is playing in the postseason, and asked them, ‘Who won the championship in 1989?’ I’d know it was the Pistons but most of these guys are so much younger they wouldn’t know. It’s just something people use to make it easier to say who was great and who wasn’t.”

 

Said Rivers: “Once LeBron wins, yeah, he’ll be a greater player. Because he’ll understand the value of the little things. When you go back on our year that we won, you can go to five or six possessions in all those different series. The jump ball play with LeBron and Paul, where LeBron should have boxed him out, Paul dove on the floor, we got the ball. That may have been the single biggest play of the series, a loose ball we got.

 

“There was that one play where Eddie House(notes) got the ball where he always shoots it, but we talk about making ‘the next pass,’ and he did the right thing, throwing it to P.J. Brown(notes) wide open, and P.J. makes it. That’s that trust. When you win, you learn all those little things are important.”

 

It sounded like, as much as stamping a great player with validation as a winner, capturing a championship puts a superstar through a process that makes him, early or late, that much better. That much more savvy and aware.

 

“After the stamp, maybe you realize the value of the little things more,” Rivers said. “Or you appreciate them. Then you do them for the rest of your life.”

 

It’s a nuance thing, a six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other consideration. But then, the way he’s going, James wants all 12 anyway.

 

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him and follow him on twitter . The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.

BOSTON – Doc Rivers had watched his players march angrily off that charter flight a year ago, the coach’s warnings unheeded of a team meeting gone terribly. The Celtics were leaving a humiliating loss in Cleveland, and Rajon Rondo(notes) had this big idea to commander a conversation in the back of the plane. Bad bleeping idea, Rivers predicted. Bad bleeping idea.
Between liftoff and touch down in Philadelphia, Rondo had managed somehow to broaden the gulf between the Big Three and himself. This turned into young vs. old on the Celtics, and too many of his veteran teammates believed that he had used his peers as pawns to air his own grievances. He lost standing in the locker room, lost credibility with Kevin Garnett(notes), Paul Pierce(notes) and Ray Allen(notes).
“He had to understand that leadership was a full-time job, especially when you have to lead three Hall of Famers,” Rivers told Yahoo! Sports in a private moment Sunday evening.

Rivers was standing in the hallway, tie askew, shirt soaked and season saved. This had been an epic performance out of Rondo in a stunning 97-87 Game 5 victory over the Cavaliers. At 6-foot nothing, Rondo had delivered a surreal performance: 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists. He never stopped pressuring the ball, never stopped disrupting the Cavaliers’ offense.

The Celtics were close to the end. Rivers could decide to walk away and return to his family home in Florida. Allen is a free agent. Garnett and Pierce are on the decline. Last call for the core of a champion, last stand. This didn’t just go down with the best all-around Celtics performances in history, but the best ever. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson ever had such an outlandish scoring, rebounding and passing performance in the playoffs.

The Celtics needed a little Wilt, a little Big O to survive LeBron James(notes) and the Cavs. Rondo is a fascinating and unique talent, a brassy point guard with style and flair and the ego to never, ever back down.

There’s no transition from the Big Three to Rondo. It’s happening. Truth be told, it’s happened. Kendrick Perkins(notes) doesn’t hide it anymore. He calls Rondo “our best player,” and no argues with him. Rivers had resisted for a long time, but no more. He’s ridden Rondo as hard as any player he’s ever coached, largely because Rivers had poured himself into Rondo, a smart, stubborn and willful player who had had gone about a partnership with the Big Three too wrong, for too long.

“I think the player has to earn it,” Rivers said in the hallway. “You could see how good he was. You could see how talented he was. But every time he had a bad moment – a bad game, a flare-up where he lost his temper with another player – he would have to win that credibility full-time.

“To me, what Rondo has done is this: He’s done it with his play, and he’s done it with his actions. That allows people to buy in, because they have to buy in. You have to sell that to three guys like that. They have to believe in you all the time. That took a lot of work by Rondo. Last year was up and down – even in the playoffs it was up and down.

“This year it’s been constant, and I think that’s been the biggest swing. If you can convince Kevin Garnett to follow you, then you’ve done a hell of a job.”

“And Kevin believes in him.”

Everyone believes now. The sheer brilliance of his performance mesmerized the Garden. Beneath those 17 champion banners, people aren’t easily impressed. Larry Bird never had a playoff game like this. Nor Bill Russell. Kevin McHale. Bob Cousy. John Havlicek. No one. Not ever.

Rondo fired 50- and 60-foot passes through the air, catching teammates in strides for dunks. He fired bullets through the maze of passes and Cavalier arms and legs for back-door slams. He tossed lobs for jams. When LeBron James was chasing him down, trying to catch him on the break and pin the ball against the backboard, he deftly flipped the ball behind his back to Tony Allen(notes) for a dunk.

“His performance was unbelievable,” James said.

He made twisting, driving shots. He made jumpers. He chased rebounds to the edge of the floor, fought his way through traffic to pluck them out the air. Smallest player on the floor and 18 rebounds. Smallest player on the floor, yet those three Hall of Famers understand that wherever they go now, Rondo takes them.

“We try to tell him to get his little ass out of there,” Garnett said, “but when he’s getting 18 [rebounds], what can you say?”

Most of all, Rivers marveled over the way Rondo did everything else and still picked up those Cavalier guards full-court with relentless ball pressure, refusing to let them get into an offense. Rivers had wanted to get him out of the game, rest him for a few minutes, because no one can keep going like that. No one. “You tired?” Rivers kept asking Rondo. “You tired?”

He would give him a breather, just for a moment, and hustle back into the game. Only Rondo kept nodding, “No,” and he dug down deeper, and kept coming and coming for these Cavs. Twenty-four hours earlier, Rivers gathered the Celtics for a 10-minute film session on the Cavs’ 124-95 Game 3 thrashing. This was no time to beat down the Celtics.

 

“This [film session] is about tomorrow, not yesterday,” Rivers told his players. Before him, the coach’s eyes caught those of Garnett’s and Rondo’s. “You could see them saying, ‘Yes,’ ” Rivers said, and he knew that’s where his leadership would be for Game 4 – those were the two who would lift these Celtics out of a state of temporary disrepair.

 

“Let’s call this what it was: for Cleveland, a close-out game,” Rivers told Yahoo! Sports. “If they win this game, it’s a close-out game. They didn’t just beat us, they rocked us. … In that 48-minute period, all I could think about was getting them back.”

They would come back with a relentlessness that left James with three points in the fourth quarter, including nothing over the final five and a half minutes. The Cavs have an angry Shaquille O’Neal(notes), who was privately seething over never getting off the bench in the fourth. Shaq wouldn’t talk, but James essentially second-guessed his coach, Mike Brown, in the interview room.

The Cavaliers have things to iron out before Tuesday night’s Game 5. James raised the idea of covering Rondo himself.

Nevertheless, the pressure’s on them. They should’ve put away the Celtics, and they haven’t done it. Everything is on the line for that franchise, and Boston has deep belief in its ability to win again in Cleveland. Brown’s job, James’ free agency, the franchise’s future – Rajon Rondo threw all of it into doubt on Sunday.

On his way to the interview room Sunday evening, Rondo turned a corner and bumped into his coach. Rivers teased his point guard that he was tired of gushing about him, rubbed his head and even the stone-sober Rondo had to smile. This had been a performance for the ages. Anyway, Rondo kept walking, kept moving toward the podium, toward Game 5 in Cleveland, and they all knew now. No more meeting gone awry, no more egos hurt with that touch of Rondo arrogance. Wherever these Celtics go now, Rajon Rondo takes them.