The play of Rajon Rondo in the last three games has been the catalyst behind Boston’s revival (Image | SI.com)
Eight days into the NBA Conference Finals, every team left standing has two wins to their name. No-one saw that coming.
Full credit to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics for achieving what most had assumed was beyond them in making their respective series competitive. The Celtics, in particular, shouldn’t be 2-2 with the Miami Heat after four games if you’d listened to the rumblings during the regular season about how the Big Three were fading lights, and seen their bench crumbling one game at a time as Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox, Jermaine O’Neal and then Avery Bradley were lost for the season.
The Thunder, too, are over-achieving to be level after four. Sure, OKC are full of talent, but the Spurs were on a record-breaking 20-game winning streak spanning the end of the regular season and the playoffs, and boast one of the deepest rosters in recent NBA history.
