Post Up: Pressure Cooker

Celtics 104, Bulls 87 (Chicago leads 2-1)

Whatever Kevin Garnett told the Celtics before the game worked. Boston came out with a 33-point first quarter and never looked back.

Chicago made it close in the second quarter, but Boston ripped it back open with a 32-point third.

The story of the game, of course, was Rajon Rondo, who was out with a fractured thumb. The story wasn’t that the Bulls’ desperately missed their floor general (although that was the case).

The story was that Rondo stuck out his leg seemingly to trip Jae Crowder in the first quarter.

After the game, Rondo said he was just stretching a stiff leg. He’s a legend.

Rockets 113, Thunder 115 (Houston leads 2-1)

Russell Westbrook took (only) 24 shots, his supporting cast showed up and OKC made 55.4 percent of its shots.

They held Houston to just 10 assists and 10-35 shooting from three…yet the Thunder only won by two.

Steven Adams had the clutch play of the game when he tipped-in a Westbrook missed three with 35 seconds left to give OKC a 113-111 lead.

Russell had a triple-double with time to spare in the third quarter, and finished with 32, 13 and 11.

Clippers 111, Jazz 106 (L.A. leads 2-1)

When Blake Griffin went to the locker room during the second quarter with an injured big toe, Chris Paul took his game to another level.

CP3 scored 24 of his 34 points in the second half, including 13 in the last 4 minutes.

He was so on fire that he was making four-point plays like this:

And splitting defenders like this:

Paul finished with 34 points and 10 dimes, while silencing a raucous Utah crowd. Not an easy thing to do.