Orlando Magic Blog

Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Magic hang on to beat Celtics

The Orlando Magic started out fast in this game, taking advantage of a Boston team without Kevin Garnett or Rajon Rondo, leading 22-15 after one and had their largest lead of the first half at 49-27 before settling for a 51-33 halftime lead. The Magic had their largest second half lead of 65-43 in the third before Boston cut the lead to 69-56 entering the fourth. The Magic still had a 82-70 lead with 4:30 remaining before Ray Allen of the Celtics went off and pulled Boston to within 82-79 with under a minute left. Allen missed a potential game-tying three with 40 seconds remaining, and the Magic iced the game with free throws to win 86-79.

Magic leading scorers

Dwight Howard: 18 points (6 of 13 field goals), 15 rebounds, 5 blocks
Hedo Turkoglu: 16 points (6 of 14 field goals)
Rashard Lewis: 15 points (5 of 12 field goals)
Rafer Alston: 10 points (4 of 11 field goals), 8 assists

Boston leading scorers

Ray Allen: 32 points (12 of 25 field goals), 9 rebounds
Paul Pierce: 16 points, 8 rebounds

Overall Game Statistics

FG%: ORL 44% (33 of 75) BOS 39.5% (30 of 76)
3 PT FG%: ORL 36.4% (8 of 22) BOS 20% (2 of 10)
FT%: ORL 75% (12 of 16) BOS 70.8% (17 of 24)
REB: BOS 44 (8 offensive) ORL 36 (4 offensive)
AST/TO: ORL 17/14 BOS 10/17
BENCH: ORL 25 BOS 17

Other game notes and stats:

-Magic made only 2 of their final 15 shots in the last 8:30 of the game, none in the last 4:30
-Stephon Marbury, making his first start at point guard for the Celtics in place of Rondo, scored just 4 points with 0 assists and 3 turnovers
-The Magic starting frontline outscored the Celtics' starting frontline 49-26
-Glen Davis, starting for Garnett, had 0 points and 0 rebounds
-The two Magic point guards, Alston and Anthony Johnson, combined for 16 points and 10 assists
-Courtney Lee scored just 2 points in 36 minutes, but had 3 steals on defense
-Mickael Pietrus led the Magic bench with 8 points and 4 rebounds; Johnson and Marcin Gortat each had 6 points
-The Celtics' bench shot a combined 6 of 19

The Magic travel to Detroit for a Monday night game.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:47 PM  

5 Comments:

  • At 11:54 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    At least the Magic were able to withstand the big Boston run and hold on for the win; it would have been beyond inexcusable if the Magic lost a 22 point lead to a Boston team playing without Garnett and Rondo.

    Paul Pierce usually goes off on the Magic, but had only 16 points today on 5 of 15 shooting.

    It's kinda strange, the Magic had been playing so well the last three games in the fourth quarter; against Boston, they stunk it up in the fourth quarter.

    The important thing is, when the clock reads 00:00, that the Magic have more points than the opponent, and they have for the last four games.

     

  • At 11:09 AM, Blogger Ken said…

    The first 3 quarters were great to watch. At the 3 minute mark of the 4th quarter I didn't have any finger nails left.. I actually started flip the channel alway for a second or two then go back to the game. Your right Mike, to blow a 22 point lead would have been inexcusable...

    When D12 got called for his 5th foul on the BS call I almost kicked my television. I could feel my triple bypass start to unravel LOL.. Anyway....

    The Magic held on for the win. Sure they blew the big lead, but they were playing the defending champions and nobody expected them to go down without a fight. Our defense came through when we needed it most. Great game by AJ and Gortat and the rest of the Magic reserves to pick up the slack when Dwight was out with foul trouble. Would sure be nice to keep him next season, but i don't know. Others are starting to notice him.

    Lets hope they can continue it tonight against the Pistons

     

  • At 2:53 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Not executing down the stretch made it seem like the magic were only winning the game because the celts were down two key starters. Glad we got the win because thats all that matters at the end of the day,but boy the celts have to feel pretty good about almost winning that game(being down two starters).

     

  • At 2:55 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    The magic had to win that game and they did so i'll give them credit for that.

     

  • At 6:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yes we won the game but it was not pretty, we let an undermanned boston team set the pace the fourth quarter after pretty much being manhandled by our magic the firs three. Yes there were some horrible calls but they were called both ways because that call late on powe off the ball was ridicolous.

    It is good to add another win to the column but lets see tonight if they burned us out, the game against the nets the same thing happened and i can honestly blame it on our players because we all know that SVG is going nuts when we let the foot of the gas at the end.

    Lets not forget that for the first three quarters we made the boston celtics look like the OKC thunder largely in part of the fact that they are missing KG and Rajon Rondo which is a bigger part of that team than people expect he is. Like I said a win is a win but that one just leaves a bad taste in my mouth!!!

     

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