PORTLAND – Nikola Mirotic shook his head late Saturday evening, then smiled, while sitting in front of his stall in the Moda Center visiting locker room. He’d seen this exact scenario before, roughly 365 days earlier, while playing for Chicago in Boston’s TD Garden: Rajon Rondo controlling a road playoff game, in the point guard’s unique and incomparable way.
“This was the playoff-mentality Rondo,” said Mirotic, a Bulls teammate last spring when Rondo staked Chicago to consecutive road wins in Beantown to open Round 1. “You see what he’s capable of doing. He’s on a completely different level than the regular season.