Boston crushes Atlanta,99-65,move on to Cavs

With a crucial Game 7 win in hand, the hard foul that Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo endured in the game quickly became a thing of the past Sunday.
Rondo lay stoically on the TD Banknorth Garden floor for a while after being slammed to the ground following a hard foul from Atlanta's Marvin Williams with 9:09 left in the third quarter of Boston's first-round series-ending 99-65 triumph in Game 7 Sunday. Williams was slapped with a Flagrant-2 penalty that started his offseason early as he was immediately ejected from the game. But Rondo, who had 10 points, six assists and three rebounds in 30 minutes, had no ill will toward Williams after the game.
"Hard fouls are part of the game, especially with the amount of intensity in Game 7," Rondo said in a text message. "Marvin and I talked postgame. He's a nice guy and we're cool."
Williams looked at replays of the hard foul while back in the Hawks' locker room, but didn't think it warranted his ejection. Celtics coach Doc Rivers doesn't view Williams as "a dirty player," but said he deserved to be ejected.
"I had no intention of hurting Rondo," Williams said. "When I looked at it on TV when I came here in the back, it definitely didn't look good. I can't argue that. But I would never try to hurt anybody. I think Rondo knows that. I'm a good friend of Rondo and I think he knows I would never try to hurt him.
"I was just trying to take a hard foul and make him earn it at the free-throw line. I personally didn't think it would be a Flagrant-2. It's been a physical series between us and the Celtics all series."
But as hard as that foul on him might have been, Rondo inflicted more pain on the Hawks in the first round. The second-year Celtic averaged 11.6 points, 7.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals in the series. Rondo also outplayed Hawks guard Mike Bibby, who was limited to 10.3 points on 33.8 percent shooting and 3.1 assists.
Such play by Rondo in his first playoff appearance against a guy who mentored him in high school was definitely a confidence booster, one that could carry over to the rest of the postseason.