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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 2, 2010

Rajon Rondo

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. Can you talk a bit about this overlaying history with the Lakers and Celtics? I know on the court you just are playing, you don't think about what happens two years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Coming into this series does it make it more special you're playing the Lakers? Is this a special rivalry in your mind?
RAJON RONDO: Honestly, to me, no. I'm just happy to be here. When the rivalry begun I wasn't even born. So I'm still trying to catch up with it. But other than that, this is my second Finals and this is the Lakers again, so I'm excited to be here playing the Lakers. I'm excited to be here playing anybody. I'm ready to go.

Q. One thing Doc said that's different for you now from two years ago is that if people challenge you to shoot, you don't take it personally, you don't try to force the issue, you just focus on running the team. Can you talk about that process and how much it affected you coming into now.
RAJON RONDO: Versus two years ago?

Q. Yeah.
RAJON RONDO: Well, I think I'm just finding other ways to dissect the team, the defense. It's not necessarily when teams give me a shot I always have to take it. I can pick and choose when I want to shoot the ball. Knowing that, we still have to run our sets and get those guys the ball, Kevin and Paul and Ray, get us in our sets and get us easy looks. But if my shot is open and it's the best shot within the shot clock, I'm going to take it.

Q. Do you remember taking it a little personal?
RAJON RONDO: No, I don't remember. Doc has a better memory than I do.

Q. Kendrick was talking about being careful not to get any more technicals. How valuable is he to you on the floor?
RAJON RONDO: We definitely need him. You take and pick Kevin or him as our best post defender. Perk is more the guy that's going to take on the bulkier guys on the court. So going against Bynum and Gasol, you definitely want someone who's able to bang the entire game. Rasheed, we don't know if he's limited or not but Perk he's young and healthy. So if it's managed right, we can definitely get this series and we'll definitely going to need him.

Q. I asked you before about the number of minutes, but look at the workload, the body of work you had over the season and now the postseason. What kind of effect has it had on you, the number of minutes you've played?
RAJON RONDO: I think my production. The more minutes I play the better I play.

Q. How's your body?
RAJON RONDO: My body is fine. These five days I definitely -- have been great for me personally. I know it's great for the team, but for me I've been getting a lot of massage, a lot of treatment. I'm feeling better and better each day. The more time I get, the better I am. Tomorrow I'm sure I'll be back almost at 100 percent.

Q. What did you take from going to see Mark Price last summer?
RAJON RONDO: Actually I never seen Mark play or anything. Didn't even know anything about Mark Price besides he was a great three-point shooter. But he's a great person, a great teacher, a great mentor. Pretty much just try to stick with my mechanics, always believe in yourself and at the free-throw line just take one shot at a time.

Q. Knowing that that part of your game is improving, has it helped your confidence in other aspects?
RAJON RONDO: Yeah, I mean, I'm a pretty confident player. I think with success comes confidence, so right now I'm doing pretty good on the court. I'm pretty successful being such a young point guard. Luckily it's my second Finals already, so I'm pretty confident in my game, and my coaching staff has given me confidence and my team gets around me, so I'm trying to become a better player each year, each game.

Q. A couple years ago the Lakers basically sort of did a grab bag on Paul at the three. This year, though, with Artest there and on him, what have been the differences in the regular season games in terms of how they defended you as a team?
RAJON RONDO: We know with Artest and Paul that's a physical match-up. They're both going to use their strength. They're both good guards. Two years ago I think it was Trevor Ariza, used Kobe, used Odom sometimes. I think the primary guys going to be sticking to Paul is Artest, but he's up for the challenge. It doesn't change our offense. It doesn't change how he plays I'm sure, and doesn't change how we play.

Q. Does it change the looks at all that you guys see in the backcourt, more of Kobe, more of Fish, more consistently?
RAJON RONDO: Um, I don't know. I'm not for sure.

Q. Just talk about how you dealt with all the attention in the magazines, and you saw you were hanging out with Common in the movie, and all this attention how you're dealing with all this stuff and trying to stay the way you are.
RAJON RONDO: At any moment it can be taken from me. You may be on top of the world today but tomorrow you may be off or nobody is going to talk to you.
The thing with Common, I've been hanging with Common for two years now. The movie just so happened to come out around this time. I don't really try to read into the magazines until the season is over with or watch TV or watch SportsCenter. I try to stay focused and stay humble. I haven't done anything in this league compared to my teammates, so that's a grateful situation to be in, to have three future Hall-of-Famers that you're playing with and try to strive to be one of those guys that's going to be next to follow.

Q. You've always been able to use the underdog thing as a motivation. Now that you've gotten to where you've gotten, is that gone as a motivating factor now?
RAJON RONDO: People still don't consider me the best point guard, so I'm still going to keep trying to continue to be the best player I can be and go out there and show it every night.

End of FastScripts

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