The Bucks got a nice road victory over the Celtics on Friday, one that required overtime in Boston to achieve that desired result.
Monta Ellis and Paul Pierce did the heavy lifting for their respective teams in the scoring department, but there was a battle going on at the point guard spot that might have been the most entertaining of the evening, had we been privy to what was actually being said.
Brandon Jennings and Rajon Rondo went at each other from the moment the ball was tipped, and the two engaged in some heavy trash talk early in the first quarter.
With neither player backing down, things escalated quickly, to the point where Jennings wondered if something physical erupting between the two was a distinct possibility.
From Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Brandon Jennings and Rajon Rondo were exchanging not-so-pleasantries in the first quarter Friday night in Boston.
Jennings responded to a not-so-gentle nudge from Rondo and the trash talking commenced.
“It was the first quarter,” Jennings said. “I thought at one point we were going to start fighting, but nobody wants to give up that money.”
“I just tried not to get caught up in it,” Jennings said. “He’s going to talk mess. That’s who Rondo is as a point guard.”
It’s interesting that Rondo has adopted the trash-talking persona of Kevin Garnett as a means to an end in trying to get inside his opponent’s head. In this case, however, the two players simply just canceled each other out.
Rondo played 45 minutes and finished with 6 points on 3-of-8 shooting, to go along with 11 assists and four steals.
Jennings played 48 minutes, and scored 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting, while grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out eight assists, though he did turn the ball over seven times in the process.
No one’s going to fight in an NBA game; the closest you’ll get to that before things are broken up by teammates and officials is something to the effect of the altercation we saw between Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah.
But it’s good to know that when the mics are off and the ball goes up, things get heated enough during the competition to make players consider it.
[via HoopsHype]
