Watch it again. Keep your eyes only on Rondo this time. I’m almost positive he doesn’t look at Ray Allen once until he’s in midair, and even then it was just a quick glance. Unless Rondo has eyes in the back of his head, which is entirely possible. Hell, at this point it even seems probable.

While I’m discussing Rondo, was anyone else not very concerned with his injuries last night? He couldn’t stop Ty Lawson in the second quarter, but I didn’t feel like it had anything to do with Rondo’s hammies or feet. He just got caught doing what Rondo sometimes has a tendency to do — gamble. In the second half, when Rondo stopped reaching after Lawson, he began to stay in front of him. It wasn’t rocket science, and I don’t think it was Rondo being injured. It was just the simple matter of practicing the defensive principles Doc Rivers loves to preach.

Rondo’s offense, despite five turnovers, was great (read this), and his defense — despite that second-quarter nonsense — was actually pretty good. He harassed Chauncey Billups into 2-10 shooting, and only 5 points, and — as I already mentioned — did a nice job on Lawson in the second half.

The only truly troublesome incident happened in the third quarter. Rondo exited out of the game with 4:38 seconds left in the quarter, well before Rivers normally subs him out. Clearly feeling some discomfort, Rondo could be seen stretching on the sideline. He returned only a minute later, but the fear of God was instilled in me. No Celtics fan wants to see Rajon Rondo quite visibly in pain, even if he can still thoroughly control games while less than 100%.

The Morning Walkthrough is a set of links to Boston Celtics articles throughout the internet, designed to get your day started the right way.

Paul Flannery, WEEI – “In a brief conversation as he headed out of the locker room for the team flight to Philadelphia, Rajon Rondo said that he was fine. It’s admirable that Rondo won’t discuss his various injuries and even more admirable that he’s playing through them, and still doing it a high level. He played 30 minutes, took just three shots, rarely attacked the basket and still dished out 13 assists. ‘He was great,’ Rivers said. ‘I thought Rondo was good. Really good. He looked fine. I thought he had it in cruise a little bit, but he was just trying to run the team.’ That’s the difference between the 2010 Rondo and the one from years past. His speed is his greatest weapon and even without it he’s still able to be effective. But Rondo is hurting. Ty Lawson, who in fairness makes everyone look slow, repeatedly got past him. He also came out of the game in the third quarter and stretched out his leg. After a few minutes he walked back to the scorer’s table and checked himself back into the game rather than let his leg get stiff. ‘Him and Nate [Robinson] are actually grinding it out,’ Paul Pierce said. ‘Those two are both having feet problems. We’re just thankful that we get them through right now. We’re trying to get through this tough stretch where one day we get healthy. I don’t know when that day is going to be.’ It may never happen, actually. The healthy part, that is, because it appears that Rondo is going to be bothered by his leg and foot ailments for the foreseeable future. Credit him with playing through it and playing as well as he can, but understand that it’s not easy for him right now.” Read more »