It was a playoff atmosphere in the Amway Arena as this game was hugely needed by the Orlando Magic.
The winner would get a leg up in the race for the second seed in the east for the playoffs. Boston would have liked to put pressure on Orlando as well with a win. The Magic took a 16 point lead, then held on for a narrow win.
Boston is now 54-19. Orlando is 53-18 and percentage points up on the Celtics.
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 26 points, on 10 of 23 shooting, supported by Ray Allen with 16 points, but it was one three point basket short of being enough.
Dwight Howard had a monster 24 point, 21 rebound game and was supported by Rashard Lewis with 21 points. Orlando invested a huge amount of money in signing free agent Lewis last season to do just what he is doing – making life a bit easier for Dwight Howard and making the Magic a contender.
But it was Hedo Turkoglu, who was having a terrible shooting night (3-18), who made what turned out to be the winning foul shots.
There are two ways to look at this loss.
The Celtics almost came back to beat the Magic on their own court with Kevin Garnett playing just 16 minutes, or……with ample opportunities, the Celtics were not able to pull out a winnable game.
Orlando Almost Coughs up the Game
Boston held Orlando to just 14 fourth quarter points. With 6:06 left in the game, a Rashard Lewis three pointer gave his team a 78-71 lead. The Magic did not score from the field again in the game.
They missed seven shots in a row, but went to the line three different times, and made 6 free throws to hold off the closing Celtics. Orlando made just three shots all quarter, going 3 for 18 from the floor, while turning the ball over 4 times.
Celtics Return the Favor
Boston went into ‘Paul Pierce mode’ (making 4 of 9) in the 4th quarter and for a short period it looked like it might work. After having just 7 points at half time, Paul was far more aggressive in the second half and scored 19 points. The Celtics turned the ball over 5 times in the quarter and 18 times for the game. Pierce, Perkins and Rondo each had 4 turnovers on the evening.
After Rashard’s three pointer, Eddie House hit a big running bank shot to make it 78-73. Then Mikki Moore fouled Lewis while shooting a three, and Rashard made all three foul shots. Pierce hits a jumper to draw within 81-75.
But while Rafer Alston is missing consecutive three point attempts, Pierce (his 4th turnover) and Davis turn the ball over on consecutive possessions. Pierce then draws an offensive foul on a driving Alston.
Ray Allen hits a three pointer near the top of the key with 3:30 left on a pass from Rondo, drawing to within 78-81. After Turkoglu makes two fouls shots, Rajon Rondo hits a big floater over the outstretched arms of Dwight Howard along the left baseline to keep it within a three point deficit with 2:46 left.
Howard then misses two hook shots on consecutive possessions around a Pierce miss. Paul makes a jumper to draw within one at 83-82 with 1:27 left in the game.
From there, Pierce would miss three straight shots, getting blocked by Howard with 4 seconds left, and throwing up a three point prayer with 1.8 seconds left.
I went on record recently saying that Pierce should be looking for his shot more in the past few weeks. Well, if he makes just one of those shots, it wins the game with the way Orlando was shooting. But I have to say that the decision making and play making for the end of the game could have been better.
Unusual Notes
The Celtics actually played better, or should I say more successfully, without Garnett tonight, as strange as that may seem. They were minus ten in his sixteen minutes. Unusual, I know. Of course they are not a better team without him.
But they actually out scored, out defended, and out rebounded Orlando in the 4th quarter without him. Who would have thought? After being down by as many as 16 points, the Celtics got within a single point of the lead with 1:27 left to play.
Doc opted to use Eddie House, and not Marbury for the second half. That most likely signals how much Doc wanted this game. Eddie was more familar with the team’s sets. If it means something else, we will soon know.
Summary
Niether team shot well, and neither team really executed well down the stretch, though the Celtics did better than Orlando. If I was Orlando, I wouldn’t be counting this as a confident win. You could say that it was Orlando’s defense helped caused the Celtics’ problems. They seem to never get much credit for being good defenders, but have decent defensive stats and do seem to be effective when they need to be.
Yet, we all know that getting Kevin back full time changes everything. Still, Boston has found it diffucult to win in Orlando for a while, having lost 5 of 6 there.
