Potential “MVP” Rajon Rondo Returns, Dishes Out 20 Assists in Celtics’ Win over Raptors

By KC Downey in Celtics, Featured ⋅ November 17, 2012 at 6:06pm ⋅ Post a comment

Rajon Rondo (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

Rajon Rondo made his return to the Celtics lineup Saturday after sitting out Thursday’s game against the Nets, and he made sure everyone knew he was back.

The C’s point guard scored just six points but dished out a season-high 20 assists, making it now 33 straight games with at least 10 assists for him. Behind Rondo’s effort, the Celtics got out to 30-17 first-quarter lead and never looked back, beating the Toronto Raptors 107-89.

After the game, Jason Terry, who finished with 20 points on four three-pointers, said Rondo is ”going to get MVP votes” at the end of the season, and he could be right.

Rondo can’t help but agree with him.

“JT’s on my side, so he’s a little biased,” said Rondo. “But MVP is in the picture. I would like to be one day, but we’ve just got to keep winning. Who wouldn’t be? That’s the dream.”

Paul Pierce added 19 points and six rebounds, while Kevin Garnett finished with 15 points in just 17 minutes of court time.

For the Raptors, Andrea Bargnani led the way with 15 points. DeMar Derozan finished with 10 points on 5-10 shooting. As a team, Toronto shot 43% from the field and didn’t score more than 25 points in any quarter.

The Celtics have already played their 10th game of the season (6-4), while New York (6-1) and Brooklyn (5-2) have only played seven games each.

Next up for Boston is a date with the Pistons on Sunday night.