Ailing Rajon Rondo shows 4-titude

Rajon Rondo might be the smallest Celtic on the roster, but no one exhibited more heart last night.

Playing with a dislocated left elbow, Rondo gutted it out for 38 minutes against a rugged Miami Heat defense. He scored 10 points and dished out five assists, but it wasn’t enough as the Heat took a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 98-90 overtime victory at the Garden.

“I thought he was great for the minutes he gave us,” teammate Paul Pierce  said. “I really didn’t know what to expect from (Rondo) with an injury like that — I don’t even know how he’s playing.”

“I wasn’t bothered much (by the injury),” Rondo said. “I had a little trouble going to my left.”

But as the game wore on, the Heat began attacking Rondo so doggedly that Celtics coach Doc Rivers opted to go with Delonte West down the stretch for most of the overtime. With the floor general sitting on the bench, the Celtics offense lacked cohesion, scoring just 13 points in the fourth quarter and a mere four in the extra session.

“I don’t know what the right call was,” Rivers admitted. “They clearly were trapping off of him and trapping him. He struggled getting the ball to the guys in their right spot.”