Rondo scored 10 points over a 2:48 span, all resulting from moves in the lane, tying the score at 68 with 2:34 remaining in the third quarter. "The way they were trapping," Rivers said, "we just lifted Ray way up and kept telling them, either they are going to leave Ray, or Rondo is going to get layups. That's why we left Rasheed [Wallace] in, because usually it's the big that drops, but he can't drop because he's got Rasheed and we've got Ray. We threw it to Kevin, and so we had four shooters and Rajon. We tried to force them to trap and if they did trap, we get a layup."

This was indeed an important juncture of the game. Doc had made a decision to substitute Perk for Sheed. Perk took the floor, Sheed went to the bench. Then a time-out was called. Doc reversed his decision during the time-out, putting Sheed back out on the floor. And then the above happened. Doc is a damn good coach, and it's nice to see him coaching well when our boys play less than stellar ball. Rondo saved the game last night.

I say as the season unfolds, we're gonna see Rondo asserting himself more when the other starters are hibernating, which, from the looks of it, might be quite often in the first quarter.