Rondo for 40 minutes, he was the most skilled on the floor, helped by Derrick Rose who was back in bad form. Rondo finished with a season-high 32 points and 15 assists along with 10 rebounds, leading the Celtics to a 95-91 victory. We know Rondo responds. Maybe this was his game to make a statement, one big you know what, to all those Eastern Conference All-Star selections who chose someone from the New Jersey Nets - the Nets' coach!! - over him. We will have to wait to learn about Rondo's motives as he chose not to speak after the game. This was Rondo's 15th career "triple-double", the ninth in regular-season games. In terms of overall impact, it may not match his gem of 29 points, 18 rebounds, and 13 assists against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals. It still remains his personal gold standard. But the missed free throws, the diving for loose balls, the multi-headed rebounds, picking them off the TD Garden floor before anyone could get to them meant everything. Here it is: Rondo's second triple-double of the season capping off a monstrous afternoon for the Celtics' point guard. You might say Rondo was due. You could even say his coach told him he was due. He also didn't play last Friday night in Toronto (he had plenty of company there), and he was coming off just the previous night against the Los Angeles Lakers, which coincided with news that he wouldn't be an All-Star for the first time in three seasons. If that's what got into Rondo, who knows? Rivers doesn't. "I wish I could get inside his head deeper," Rivers said. Rondo made sure from the start that Sunday's game would be different. He did so the best way he knows how - running the show, feeding his teammates, getting everyone involved. But here are the stats to prove it: The Celtics outscored Chicago 33-7 in fast-break points. They turned Chicago's 13 turnovers into 18 points. This is where Rondo can run wild, and that's exactly what he did to the Bulls. Let Chris pose the question and leave others to speak for him. Rivers: "I just think he wants to win. I think we played better at pace." Rondo's ninth career regular-season triple-double led the Celtics to a 95-91 win over the Bulls. The Bulls fell to the Celtics without Rose. Boston - CJ Watson missed free throws with 1.9 seconds left that decided Sunday's game between the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls. The Celtics had already sealed it, ending a two-game losing streak and arguably their best game of the season. Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls' coach: "Rondo is a great player, even when you defend him well, he still has the ability to make great plays." This effort mirrored closely, except for the final outcome, the Celtics' game against the New York Knicks where they lost by a basket submitted by Rondo on Christmas (31 points, 13 assists, 5 steals). This time, against the No.1 team in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics never trailed, building a 14-point lead midway through the fourth quarter before sweating out the rest of the way. There were big moments, but one stood out in the fourth quarter. The Celtics led 82-72 with 5:33 left when a play by Rondo picked up a pass intended for Carlos Boozer, resulting in a perfect alley-oop feed to rookie JaJuan Johnson for the highlight of the game. Johnson stepped up in the absence of Brandon Bass and Jermaine O'Neal, finishing with 12 points in 33 minutes. When things went wrong offensively - the Celtics scored only 74 points against a bad Toronto team - point guards often hear it from their coaches. He really does, as his coach was once a point guard too. This is what Rivers means when he talks about the pace of the game. When the Celtics can get out in transition like this, Rondo becomes a certified threat. He isn't just slicing and dicing and throwing passes. He is also constantly driving to the basket. He took 22 shots, making 11, and went 10-for-13 from the line. Only one Celtic player has scored as many as 11 field goals in a game this season: Rondo. He did it on Christmas. He didn't on Sunday. "You can see it," Rivers said, "we tried to run. That's how we want to play. If we don't turn the ball over" - the Celtics had 19 turnovers - "we'll have more points. I just like our pace, something we talked about after the Toronto game." Nowhere was Rondo's presence more evident than in the Celtics' running game. Boston scored 95 points against a team that allows 87 per game and had allowed 67 and 64 in their previous two games (although against Charlotte and New Orleans, but both on the road). The Celtics shot over 50 percent for most of the game, finishing at 49.3 percent. [+] Enlarge AP Photo/Michael Dwyer Rondo (32 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds) opened his career with a triple-double (including playoffs) and this was his 15th of the season and second this year. Yeah, Toronto. Good, bad games can be "teachable moments," they say. And Toronto was bad, because of it. But for a team that had lost two straight and needed a win for its own morale, this was exactly what the doctor ordered. And against top-tier opposition, in front of a national TV audience, Rondo delivered. Paul Pierce: "When he's confident, aggressive, playing the way he is, we're a tough team to stop when he's going in transition, pushing the ball, taking shots, grabbing rebounds, he's just all the energy, he just does it all, he's fun to watch." More about the Celtics Green stays whole with Chris Forsberg on ESPNBoston.com throughout the year. Blog In the next possession for Chicago, Johnson picked a pass intended for Luol Deng, Rondo grabbed the ball. The final play saw Rondo feeding Chris Wilcox for another alley-oop dunk, pushing the lead above 14 points and prompting a Thibodeau timeout. Yes, you read that right; the Celtics backed up another alley-oop. Related thematic articles: How Apple cuts costs while building gadgets Samsung slashes wireless chip costs by half Search engine marketing and online marketing services Those million-dollar Facebook ads? Some may not actually be viewed Windows on ARM will include Office 15 pre-installed