ESPN Hollinger on Magic Game 6 Defense
Orlando's defense in the second half of Game 6 was unbelievable. ... watch the tape from last night and pay attention.We know the Magic are capable of beating Boston. Now they have to go out and do it on Sunday.Boston had 44 possessions in the second half and scored 29 points. I counted four open shots -- four. During a stretch of nearly 18 minutes in the third and fourth quarters, they had one, a layup by Glen Davis. The Celtics were seemingly inbounding the ball on the side after a deflection on every possession. Six times they either took a desperation shot at the end of the clock or had it run out on them.
Even the baskets they made were tough. Rajon Rondo hit two jumpers off the dribble at the shot-clock buzzer and made a difficult runner over Dwight Howard; those are exactly the shots Orlando wants Boston to take. Rondo got another two points at the line after appearing to clear out Mickael Pietrus on a drive to the basket. And Paul Pierce made three straight contested Js to briefly give Boston a lead in the fourth quarter -- again, Orlando can live with that.
That, the layup by Davis, two free throws by Pierce and a somewhat contested jumper by Eddie House off a second shot were the entirety of Boston's scoring in the final 18:56, a span in which they scored a grand total of 20 points in 35 possessions (Offensive Efficiency: 57.1) and took only four shots in the paint that weren't blocked.
posted by WeRDevos @ 6:14 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:51 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Defense will be the key for the Magic in beating Boston in Game 7.
The Magic defense was indeed fantastic, especially in the second half, as Hollinger mentioned.
The Celtics made only 7 of their final 26 shots.
If the Magic can play stifling defense in Game 7 like they did in Game 6, they are more than capable of coming away with the win!
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