Rajon Rondo Was Major X-Factor For Lakers In Game 2 Vs. Rockets

He drew a charge against Russell Westbrook late in the third quarter, saddling Westbrook with his fifth foul. When left wide open and dared to shoot from mid-range, he drilled the shots he needed to make — the next-to-last of which gave the Lakers the lead for good.

He had six assists, three steals a rebound and a 3-pointer in the first quarter alone, and when the Lakers needed some separation midway through the fourth quarter, Rondo fed Danny Green for a 3-pointer that made it 107-101.

Rajon Rondo finished with 10 points, nine assists and five steals to lead a 41-point effort from the Lakers’ bench in their 117-109 Game 2 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night that evened the series at one game apiece.

Moving forward, the 15-year veteran may be the key x-factor in whether the Lakers win or lose the series. The Lakers outscored Houston by 28 points when he was on the floor.

“He’s a leader,” LeBron James said. “And for us to have him back in the postseason, it’s a key for our team.”

James and Anthony Davis got most of the credit for this season-evening victory, and with good reason. Davis, when not defending James Harden, had 34 points and 10 rebounds. James finished with 28 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and four steals.

The Lakers pushed the tempo every bit as much as the Rockets had done in Game 1, scoring 20 fast-break points to the Lakers’ six, helping them to a 54-26 advantage in points in the paint.

They looked like a different team in Game 2, and Rondo was the primary reason (although we would be remiss to neglect to mention Markieff Morris’ 16 points and four 3-pointers off the bench.)

Rondo’s only 3-pointer (in five attempts) came with 0.9 seconds remaining in the first quarter, which ended with Los Angeles ahead 36-20.

Lakers coach Frank Vogel had planned to limit Rondo’s minutes to 24, according to the ESPN broadcast crew, put the 15-year veteran ended up logging nearly 29.

“He comes in, he pushes the tempo, he gets guys involved and that doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet,” James said. “With ‘Do — the intangibles that he does both offensively and defensively — his nose is always around the ball and he just makes plays for us, and tonight was another example of that.”

Rondo has played in 107 career playoff games, but he had not seen any action inside the bubble after breaking his thump in one of the team’s first practices and then coming up with back spasms that kept him out of the first-round series against Portland.

Rondo has a history of coming up big in the playoffs, mostly during the early part of his career when he spent his first nine seasons with the Boston Celtics. He became a journeyman after that, playing for Dallas, then Sacramento, then Chicago then New Orleans, where he averaged 12.2 assists for a Pelicans team that made it to the second round.

It is one of the reasons why performances like the one we saw Sunday night have earned him the moniker “Playoff Rondo.”

“His impact on our team is measured in swag and just the confidence that he brings to our group,” Vogel told reporters in the Orlando bubble.

So now it is coach Mike D’Antoni’s turn to come up with the necessary adjustments to win Game 3. He has yet to see an all-around steady performance from Westbrook, who missed six of his seven 3-point attempts as the Rockets attempted another 53 of them, making 22.

James Harden, Robert Covington and P.J. Tucker have been potent offensive weapons for Houston.

Westbrook had more turnovers (12) than assists (10), and he has attempted only nine free throws, making four.

“They just came out and played harder than us, I feel like,” Harden said. “In the second half, we woke up and took the lead. We’ve just got to have that intensity at the beginning of the game and we’ll be all right.”