PHILADELPHIA - Rajon Rondo is not sure what the 76ers are going to throw at him in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Friday night. But he is prepared for the unexpected.
“I’m sure they’ll make their adjustments,’’ Rondo said. “Evan Turner’s been checking me - that’s not a normal matchup. So I’m sure they’ll make a change - maybe, maybe not. Not necessarily the matchup between Evan Turner and I. But maybe the defense will shrink a lot more.
“Who knows? But we’ll be ready. I’ll be ready.’’
Stopping Rondo, or at least slowing him down, is becoming a major obstacle for the Sixers. In the last two games, Rondo has produced 27 assists with two turnovers, a ratio that indicates he is approaching these games with greater focus. Before Game 2 of this series, Rondo had 76 assists and 25 turnovers in the playoffs.
Sixers coach Doug Collins noted that Rondo seems able to take the ball wherever he wants on the court and that “he controlled the game’’ as the Celtics took a 107-91 victory in Game 3 Wednesday.
Rondo had 23 points and 14 assists in what was as close to a mistake-free floor game as possible. Rondo committed his lone turnover in the opening minute, leading to an Andre Iguodala dunk for the first points of the game.
After that, Rondo went 39 minutes without a turnover, choreographing the offense from the point to the paint and rewarding teammates for running with transition dishes.
“I want us to understand,’’ said Celtics coach Doc Rivers said, “if we’re running three and four times and we haven’t run a set, we haven’t scored or we’re out of rhythm, then we have to get into a set.
“And I thought Rondo walked that line perfectly. We had a lot of transition buckets, we scored a lot of points out of random, and we also scored a lot of points out of execution. You have to do both.