Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics come to town

I link this video basically every time the Boston Celtics come to Toyota Center because…well, it’s one of my favorite memories from modern Rockets history.  When people think about The Streak, some think about Steve Novak’s game winner, some think about the unlikely contributions by a host of characters, and others remember that we both lost Yao for the season and also got back Tracy McGrady in the midst of the whole thing.  But I think about this skirmish.  It represents, simultaneously, the emotional high and sensitivity the team was enduring through the entire ordeal.  They were playing at such a level, in winning that bulk of games consecutively, that any minor frustration could cause a boiling point.

Rondo comes back tonight, much older, hobbled, and without his mates, to take on a vastly superior Houston Rockets team.  With Ricky Rubio and Eric Bledsoe now both baving been inked to extensions by their teams, Rondo remains the sole trade target on the point guard market.  The feisty point guard showed on opening night that he still has it, and I’ve become convinced that a James Harden – Rondo pairing, coupled with the contributions of Dwight Howard and Trevor Ariza, would vault the Rockets to the top of the West standings.  But how much is too much to give up in a trade?  It’s a delicate balance.  I would have hated to have seen the team give up all three of Terrence Jones, the Pelicans pick, and Big Papa, only to see the latter explode onto the trajectory track upon which he seems to have placed himself.