RAJON RONDO RETURNED TO BOSTON AND IT WAS A FUN SHOW: 
After being traded away from the Boston Celtics in December, Rajon Rondo returned to Boston -- this time as a member of the Dallas Mavericks. He played over 500 games, won a championship, and dished out over 4,000 assists in his time with the Celtics. When he returned to the TD Garden Friday night, he received a pretty big ovation from the Celtics' crowd:
Rondo has always been good about capturing big moments, often with triple-doubles and big assist games on nationally televised contests. He hit his first six shots of the game and scored 15 points in the first quarter as Dallas controlled the start of the game. He started 7-of-7 from the field for 18 points before missing his first shot in the second quarter.
And he was hitting 3-pointers! The career 25.4 percent 3-point shooter was showing out from beyond the arc by hitting five 3-point shots in the game. Here are the first two as he scored the first 10 points for the Mavericks:
During the break between the first and second quarters, the Celtics honored Rondo with a tribute video. The Celtics showed off incredible highlights for Rondo both on and off the court from his time in Boston.
Overall, Rondo's 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting was a bit unexpected. He also dropped in six rebounds and five assists in Dallas' 119-101 win over the Celtics. His 29 points were the most for him since January of 2013 when he scored 30 points in a loss to the Bulls. His five 3-point makes were a career high, with his previous being four makes from downtown (only twice in his career and both in 2014).
CODY ZELLER DUNKS ON PEOPLE. THIS IS WHAT HE DOES: Charlotte Hornets' big man Cody Zeller is starting to get quite the highlight reel of him dunking on people in the NBA. Early in the Hornets' loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Zeller took the pocket pass from Kemba Walker in a side pick-and-roll and found a wide-open basket. This will shock you but the Cavaliers' pick-and-roll defense was a little out of position.
It resulted in Tristan Thompson rotating too late and Zeller throwing it down over him. It wasn't a direct poster, but the intentions were so malicious that it deserves a big rating.
THE BROOKLYN NETS DOMINATED THEIR GAME WITH THE ORLANDO MAGIC: 
The Brooklyn Nets are on a good run lately. Heading into the game against the Orlando Magic, the Nets had won five of their past six games, including wins over Chicago and Denver. Friday night wasn't any different. They jumped all over the Magic in the second and third quarters to build a 25-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
That lead was built by getting defensive stops, pushing the ball, and getting good performances from Mason Plumlee (18 points, nine rebounds), Brook Lopez (16 points, eight rebounds), and Deron Williams (16 points, seven assists). They just played really good basketball to dominate the Magic throughout this game.
The Magic put up a fight early and even got this big chasedown block from Dewayne Dedmon in the first half (and how often do we get a chance to post a Dewayne Dedmon highlight?):
The Nets ended up winning the game by a score of... 100-98? Wait, can that be correct? Let me check the fourth...
WAIT, THE MAGIC DID WHAT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER?!
The Magic put up a 37-14 quarter to nearly pull off the comeback. Ben Gordon had 13 points in the final period. Elfrid Payton had 13 points in the final quarter. A lineup of Payton, Gordon, Roy Devyn Marble, Evan Fournier, and Channing Frye led the comeback, playing all but the final second of the game when there were some quick lineup substitutions to try to get rebounds and foul to extend the game.
The Nets still won the game and earned their sixth win in seven games, but that's a fun/weird comeback by Orlando.
THE NICK COLLISON-STEVEN ADAMS HANDSHAKE IS EVERYTHING: I didn't know about this handshake between Nick Collison and Steven Adams, but apparently this has been a thing for a short time. It's a firm handshake with solid eye contact that could make most people uncomfortable. But not these two. They know exactly what they're doing.
ANDRE MILLER IS RUSSELL WESTBROOK'S KRYPTONITE. SERIOUSLY: When John Wall was in the game for the Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook seemed pretty comfortable on the floor. It wasn't an easy match-up for him by any means, but Westbrook knows how to match speed and power with just about every opponent in the NBA.
However, throw a slow, old player at him and it's like watching the unstoppable force trying to contend with a sedentary object. Andre Miller just baffled Westbrook early in the game, scoring 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the first half, including this meticulous bucket:
LET'S CHECK IN ON THE KNICKS:
KEVIN LOVE HIT A DAGGER AS THE CAVALIERS SHOWED RESOLVE AND RECOVERED FOR THE WIN: OK, it wasn't pretty with the Cleveland Cavaliers playing without LeBron James in Charlotte, but they got the job done. Kyrie Irving had 23 points on 8-of-27 shooting (not ideal) and Dion Waiters had 17 points on 8-of-21 shooting (also not ideal), but Kevin Love hit the dagger turnaround jumper in the final minute to cap off a 27-point night.
Tristan Thompson recovered from getting dunked on by Zeller to put in 14 points and 14 rebounds. The Cavs couldn't score for the first 18 minutes or so in the game, but finished with the 91-87 victory.
RASUAL BUTLER DUNKED ON SERGE IBAKA. THIS IS A THING THAT HAPPENED: Rasual Butler dunking on Serge Ibaka is a thing that happened. Considering Butler got dunked on in the first game of the season by James Ennis, this is a nice recovery during a really great reclamation season.
KEVIN DURANT STILL DOES THAT CLUTCH SCORING THING: Kevin Durant's injuries have kept him from building on that MVP season he had in 2013-14. That doesn't mean he won't be back, isn't back, and isn't doing that clutch scoring thing that has made him so ridiculous to watch. On his way to 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting, he had this alley-oop finish plus the foul to give the Thunder an eight-point lead:
The Wizards did what they could to erase this deficit and put pressure on the Thunder at home, but OKC just made too many plays down the stretch pull out the 109-102 victory.
The battle for Kevin Durant in 2016 continues!
GORDON HAYWARD ALSO DUNKS ON PEOPLE: The Utah Jazz tried to stage a comeback at home against the Atlanta Hawks and even forced a #LeaguePassAlert from the NBA app. But they couldn't pull out the victory and ended up losing 98-92. Jazz forward Gordon Hayward didn't have a great game with 18 points, three assists, and three rebounds (not a bad game either), but he did have this baseline dunk over Thabo Sefolosha.
BRANDON JENNINGS AND ANDRE DRUMMOND DOMINATED THE KNICKS:The New York Knicks never had a shot in this game because they're just an unfixable mess right now, but the Detroit Pistons have been really good since getting rid of Josh Smith. In their win over the Knicks Friday night, Brandon Jennings destroyed the Knicks in the third quarter and Andre Drummond dominated them on the boards all night.
In the third quarter, Jennings scored 16 points, which is a great quarter to have. Factor in that the Knicks only scored 14 points total in the third quarter and that's about as dominating as you can get for a single player. For Drummond, he continued his stellar play since the month of December started with 20 rebounds on the night.
THE PELICANS COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN THE ROCKETS:Speaking of Josh Smith, the Houston Rockets should be a pretty incredible offense. They're very 3-point oriented and have two big stars in Dwight Howard and James Harden. Harden has even been an MVP candidate this season. But against the New Orleans Pelicans Friday, the offense was nowhere to be found. The Pelicans held them to under 40.0 percent from the field and just 6-of-29 (20.7 percent) from 3-point range. This one was over early and the Rockets just didn't matter tonight.
JEFF TEAGUE IS BACK: Hawks' point guard Jeff Teague missed three games the week before Christmas. He's played five games since and the last three games have gone extremely well. He had 25 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists three games ago. Two games ago, he had 23 points and 11 assists. Friday against the Jazz, Teague had 26 points, eight assists, and zero turnovers. I'm not sure he'll end up getting an All-Star nod, but he should be in the conversation for one of the last spots, even if he doesn't make it.
TREY BURKE IS NOT:Trey Burke had the opposite of what Teague did. Burke shot just 2-of-19 from the field and 0-of-11 from 3-point range. That night drops him under 30.0 percent on the season from downtown with just 29.3 percent.
IT'S D-LEAGUE BUT ERIC GRIFFIN DESTROYED SOMEBODY:It's just the D-League but in gearing up for the D-League Showcase, Eric Griffin threw down something fierce. Let's all celebrate this dunk:
STEPHEN CURRY JUST DUNKED WITH KYLE LOWRY CHASING HIM:Chase-down blocks are awesome but if you end up missing the block from behind, you can look pretty foolish. Stephen Curry proved that to Kyle Lowry in this ridiculous Raptors-Warriors game.
GIF: Air Curry pic.twitter.com/JodDbit1J1
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) January 3, 2015
TONY ALLEN DIDN'T HAVE A GREAT POSSESSION: This is one possession in which Tony Allen missed four shot attempts. Via Ball Don't Lie:
KOBE BRYANT WANTS JEREMY LIN TO FOUL: The game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies was close and it came down to a missed 3-pointer by Kobe Bryant with 0.6 seconds left, which would've sent it to overtime. But the best highlight in this game came with less than 24 seconds left. There was about a 1.5-second difference between game clock and shot clock with the Lakers down. Kobe was screaming for Jeremy Lin to foul because they didn't have the luxury of playing for a stop and getting enough time to get a shot off.
Eventually, he had to take fouls into his own hands.
