Prior to the Celtics/Wizards game, I stood on the Celtics side of the bench waiting for center Shelden Williams to stop talking to one of the trainers, so that I could interview him.  What I thought was going to be a two or three minute wait, turned into a ten-minute one, so I began to walk away and head towards the Wizards locker room, when out of the corner of my eye, I caught a one-on-one battle taking place.

On the defensive end of this match was 6′3″ rookie guard Lester Hudson. Hudson had on his Celtics warm-up jacket, his playing shorts, and his left forearm was firmly planted in his opponent’s chest .  His knees were bent, his facial expression was serious, and I could feel the intensity from where I was standing nearly 30 feet away.

The role of offensive player was being played by Celtics starting point guard Rajon Rondo.  As intense and focused as Hudson looked, the 6″1′ (he looks much closer to 5″11′) Rondo looked the complete opposite.  He had on an oversized sweatshirt, that could have easily belonged to his seven foot teammate Kevin Garnett, and sweatpants to match.  His iPod headphones were on his head, a smirk was on his face, and he was yo-yoing the ball back and forth just out of reach of Hudson’s long arms.

And then the show began.

First Rondo started right, then quickly crossed over to his left, causing Hudson to stumble.  Then he accelerated towards the basket, causing Hudson to sprint backwards to catch him, and then Rondo dropped the ball between his legs stepped back  and hit a jumper that swished through the basket so loudly, even he had to hear with his headphones on his ears.  Hudson took the ball out of the basket and simply said, “Run it back, man, run it back.” 

Rondo smiled broadly, ran back to the top of the key, and prepared for round two, never uttering a single word.

During the Celtics’ victory over the Wizards, 104-102, you’d have thought that the entire game was merely an extension of the pre-game show Rondo put on for me (and others, of course).  He had 21 points (on 10-of-20 shooting) and 11 assists, and he routinely controlled the tempo leaving Wizards’ guards Gilbert Arenas, Earl Boykins, and Randy Foye in the dust in the process.  There were no headphones, and the oversized sweats were replaced by a perfectly fitted jersey, but the results were still the same.

Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers praised Rondo’s in-game effort after the game.

“Rondo was great, especially down the stretch.  Clearly their[the Wizards] game plan was that they were not going to guard him,” Doc Rivers observed during his post-game press conference.  “They were going to give him shots and he took them.  That’s what we tell him, once it’s your shot, there’s no more passing or being a point guard.  When it’s time to  shoot, you’re a shooter.”

His teammate Rasheed Wallace seemed to imply that Rondo was simply doing his job .

“Rondo really played great tonight. He stepped in and did what he was supposed to do,” an animated Wallace said in front of his locker after the game.  “They backed off of him, so he said, ‘o.k., I’m going to step in closer, shoot the shot and knock it down.’  It was good for us.”

The definitive moment of the game came with 1:23 left in the fourth quarter.  Wizards guard Antawn Jamison had just hit an impossible shot under the basket, to tie the game at 98.  Rondo came back down the floor and seemingly had flashes of playing Hudson before the game, because he accelerated towards the hoop with reckless abandon, took off from the side of the baseline, and threw down a thunderous dunk.  The Celtics never trailed again.

After Wizards head coach Flip Saunders called timeout, the stoic Rondo kept an intense look on his face, ran towards Kevin Garnett and chest-bumped him and his other teammates on the bench.

After the game, Garnett, considered to be the emotional leader of this Celtics team, had an even simpler explanation for the dunk and overall inspired play of his star point guard on this night: “He’s playing one of the premier point guards in the league in Gilbert[Arenas], so you know he’s going to be geeked and jacked up for that.”

It was easy to get reactions about Rondo’s play from his teammates, but hearing from Rondo himself proved to be quite a task.  First, there was a lengthy stay in the training room after the game, and then Rondo stayed in the showers for what seemed like an eternity.  When he emerged from the shower fully dressed, he was headed out of the door when the Celtics’ PR guy had to remind him that the press had been patiently waiting to hear his thoughts on the yeoman effort he had given earlier that night.

At that point Rondo didn’t even walk back to his locker.  Instead, he chose to hold court in front of Celtics’ center Kendrick Perkins’ (who had long since left) locker. 

Rondo sat down, grabbed a towel to dab his still damp forehead, and began to talk in a tone barely above a whisper about his play.

“Usually I go with the flow, and then attack, you know? But tonight it was me being aggressive. I still wanted to pass first, but tonight I had to take the shot,” Rondo told reporters while looking at the floor.  “I think tonight was the most I shot all season.”

Rondo answered a few more questions for reporters, and then everyone walked away to interview Garnett who had also taken seemingly an eternity to emerge from the shower and the training room. 

I stayed behind to ask Rondo about the pre-game one-on-one battle I saw between him and Hudson.

“Man, Lester is bigger and stronger than me, so playing him forces me to get better, you know, ” Rondo explained to me in a slightly louder voice than he had previously displayed.  “Plus, I play him everyday, so I have to try new moves and do new things, and it pushes me to become more aggressive.”

About 30 minutes prior to me asking Rondo about the match, I was able to talk to Lester Hudson about the significance of his pre-game one-on-one battle.  Hudson doesn’t play much because of Rondo’s brilliance (and because he’s a rookie), so there no reporters talking to him after the game.  But when I approached him asked him about Rondo, his face lit up completely.

“Man, playing him helps my defense, helps my confidence, because you know I don’t play that much, so I get my confidence up and he gets warmed up, ” Hudson explained.  “When we play, I strictly play defense, and he always plays offense. Sometimes I stop him, other times he gets me, but I take my lesson like a man and get better.  But tonight he was killing me, man, I can’t even lie. I knew he was going to have a big game.”

Right before I finished my interview with Rondo, I asked him if tonight’s one-on-one match with Hudson had gotten him pumped and inspired for tonight’s performance.   He had been looking down prior to my question, but for this answer he rubbed his chin a bit, then started smiling, looked at me and said: “Yeah, I was pretty aggressive against Lester, wasn’t I?”

And with that, the little man with the big game left the building.

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