On a night when the GPA boys weren’t their usual selves second year point guard Rajon Rondo stood up, took over and led the Green to yet another win, this one on the road, on the back end of a back-to-back. Rondo put up a career high 18 points as the Celtics survived a late charge by the Bulls and won 92-81 Saturday night at the United Center in Chicago.
With an 86-70 lead with just over 5 minutes left the Bulls came out charging and cut the lead to 86-81 with a minute left before a Kevin Garnett fade away sealed the deal and Boston improved to a NBA best 17-2 with their sixth consecutive win, while Chicago fell to 6-12.
Boston was led in the scorebook by Ray Allen who, despite a shaky shooting night, had 21 points, Rondo had 7 boards and 5 assists in addition to his 18 points and Garnett had 16 points and 9 rebounds.
Andres Nocioni led the Bulls with 18 points in just 24 minutes, Kurt Hinrich had 16 points and UConn product Ben Gordon was held to 13 points as he was 5 for 20 from the field and 0 for 4 from 3 pt land and missed all 10 of his second half shots. Chicago’s Ben Wallace led all players with 14 rebounds, Glenn Davis had 12 boards for the Green.
The Celtics are off until Wednesday when they host the Sacramento Kings at the TD BankNorth Garden.
