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, May 23, 2010

ECF Game 3: Celtics 94, Magic 71... Boston leads series 3-0


Boston dominated every facet of the game from start to finish as the Orlando Magic turned in an inexplicably abysmal performance in a game they had to win if they had any hopes of advancing to the NBA Finals; instead, the game was over after the third quarter as the Celtics had a staggering 28 point lead heading into the fourth. Six Celtics players scored between 10 and 17 points.

Boston jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, as the Magic did not score their first points until they were 3:43 into the game. The Magic then scored the next six points to make it 7-6, as it appeared they weathered the early Boston storm. The Celtics then surged ahead with a 14-0 run to go ahead 21-6, and had a solid 27-12 lead going into the second quarter, as the Magic shot a pitiful 4 of 17 in the first. The Celtics kept adding onto their lead in the second, with their largest lead of the half coming at 43-19 with 6:39 remaining. The Magic went on a brief 8-0 run to cut their deficit to 16 points and give their fans hope they had a big comeback left in them, but the Celtics quickly built their lead back up to 50-29. The Magic scored the last 5 points of the half, but still trailed big 51-34.

The closest the Magic came in the second half was when Rashard Lewis scored the first basket of the third quarter to make it 51-36. The Celtics then scored 5 points in a row to move their lead back up to 20 points, and led 62-43 halfway through the third. That was the last time the Magic were within 20 points as the Celtics outscored the Magic 13-4 the final six minutes of the third quarter and led by a stunning 75-47 going into the fourth. The Celtic's largest lead of the game was 85-53 with 8:13 remaining. Needless to say, the rest of the fourth quarter was garbage time for both teams, as the Magic wrapped up their worst offensive performance of the season on J.J. Redick's three pointer on their final possession.

Magic leading scorers

Jameer Nelson: 15 points (5 of 14 FGs, 3 of 9 3 PT FGs), 4 rebounds, 4 turnovers
Vince Carter: 15 points (5 of 12 FGs, 1 of 5 3 PT FGs), 5 rebounds, 2 steals
Mickael Pietrus (bench): 12 points (3 of 6 FGs, 2 of 5 3 PT FGs)

Overall Game Statistics

FG%: BOS 46.6% (34 of 73) ORL 36.9% (24 of 65)
3 PT FG%: BOS 54.5% (6 of 11) ORL 26.7% (8 of 30)
FT%: ORL 83.3% (15 of 18) BOS 71.4% (20 of 28)
REB: BOS 43 (7 offensive) ORL 36 (3 offensive)
AST/TO: BOS 23/9 ORL 10/17
BENCH: BOS 38 ORL 28

Other game notes and stats:

-Reserve Glen Davis led Boston with 17 points and 6 rebounds; Paul Pierce added 15 points; 9 rebounds, Ray Allen 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists; Rajon Rondo 11 points, 12 assists, 4 steals; Kevin Garnett 10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals; and reserve Rasheed Wallace 10 points, 4 rebounds
-The Magic starting frontline of Dwight Howard (7 points on 3 of 10 FGs), Rashard Lewis (4 points on 2 of 8 FGs), and Matt Barnes (2 points on 1 of 2 shooting) combined to score 13 points on 6 of 20 FGs with 13 rebounds
-The Celtics' starting frontline combined to score 31 points on 13 of 25 FGs with 21 rebounds and 5 steals
-Nelson and Carter combined to shoot 10 of 26 FGs
-Carter and Lewis combined to shoot 1 of 9 on three pointers
-Howard went to the free throw line just four times, making one
-Howard led the Magic with 7 rebounds and 3 blocks; reserve Marcin Gortat grabbed 6 boards
-Three different Magic players (Barnes, Carter, Redick) had 2 assists to lead the team

Game 4 will be Monday night in Boston, as the Magic try and avoid the sweep and will attempt to become the first NBA team to overcome a three games to none deficit in games in the playoffs.

Here is the complete recap and box score from nba.com.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 1:47 AM  

8 Comments:

  • At 4:24 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Here are some postgame quotes from the cbssports.com recap:

    "The most disappointing to me was that I didn't have our team better ready to play," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who was himself knocked over late in the game when Kevin Garnett was pushed into the Orlando bench going after a loose ball. "It starts with me. It's my job. I'm the coach of this team. It starts with me and I'm not happy with where we had our team tonight or anything I did."

    "This is a tough one to swallow," (Vince) Carter said. "To come out with a sense of urgency -- I don't feel like we really did that. They did a great job of really playing like they were down and they needed to win more than we did. And after about midway in that first, they started pulling away from us and we never recovered."

    We can't hold our heads," (Dwight) Howard said. "This is a very tough situation, but if we already think about being defeated then we shouldn't even come for Game 4. We've got to just keep fighting and stay together."

     

  • At 5:37 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Honestly, I did not see this coming. The Magic had three days to prepare for this game, and they said all the right things and on how they need to focus on playing well in Game 3. The last thing I would have expected was a 28 point Magic deficit after three quarters.

    The starting Magic frontline... 13 combined points... are you kidding me!? Celtics' reserve Glen "Big Baby" Davis had more points by himself!

    The Magic were badly outplayed and outcoached; you can't point the finger at a single player, as all the players deserve the blame for what happened.

    It was very disturbing to see the Magic being consistently outhustled the entire game by the Celtics.

    The Magic need a huge turnaround to win Game 4 and bring the series back to Orlando. It would be a bitter pill and a long off-season for the Magic if they were to get swept.

     

  • At 11:08 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I hate to sound like the series is over with one game to go,but it is. This is now three different ways the celtics have beaten us. Three strikes and your out!!! I told everyone here that we wont win any games with jameer averaging less than 5 assists per game. Another poor performance from jameer who is supposed to lead the team,to me the dwight howard jameer nelson era has come to a close. Time to split them up and dwight aint going anywhere!!!

     

  • At 5:11 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    It is so disheartening to see the team come in with no direction, focus, or the desire to hustle and compete. Obviously BOS is a better team, but are they that much better? Magic had already lost it in their heads, and as soon as they were pushed the fear factor showed up, and they laid down for dead.

    This is not the time to talk about the way forward since Magic has at least one more game to play, and although the series may be over, we need to play for pride, and find out a bit more about ourselves in the process. Are we that bad? Or that soft mentally?

     

  • At 9:00 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    There will be time after the series is over to discuss the direction the Magic are headed, but hopefully the Magic can make the Celtics work as hard as possible to close the series out. Right now, the Magic should be focused on winning Game 4, period.

    I wish the Magic would play with the determination and hustle of the Chicago Blackhawks, who are playing great on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals!

     

  • At 1:02 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Mike & matt,with all due respect this is a blog designed for discussion. I,may be ready to talk the direction of the team and i should be allowed to due so. If anyone/someone doesnt want to engage in that conversation at the precise moment then they can chose to leave the forum or just read and not comment. But willing participants should be allowed to intelligently talk anything magic as they see fit. Thanks guys!

     

  • At 4:36 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    No problem, Big Figure. Feel free to express your thoughts.

     

  • At 11:49 AM, Blogger Pete3665 said…

    First as a fan I would like to thanks the entire Magic Organization for a successful 2009-2010 regular season and for a great playoff run. I look forward to the openning of the new arena and a more determined Magics next year.

    I would like to also express some concerns as a fan. I was really happy to see the additions to our team, however, I was very disappointed with how we used the new additions, primarily Brandon Bass.

    We added all this muscle and defense but we pretty much did not use them consistently. We settled for a rotation made up of expensive players that regardless if they played well or not we stuck with them.

    I dont know the politics of the NBA but I believe a coach should be able to bench any player regardless of status and put in who he wants if they are not playing well. I don't know if Stan was afraid to do that because he might be afraid that the players may revolt and get him fired, but there were times when Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis were just there getting big minutes and at times puting up little.

    Then you have a guy like Brandon Bass who with just a few minutes of playing time can put up some points and grab a few rebounds.
    In my opinion Brandon Bass is our version of Boston's big baby and
    he could have mad a difference if we had learned to use him like Doc Rivers does Glen Davis.

    We had the capability to play 3 point shooting crazy and burden Howard with having to be the lone ranger grabbing rebounds or adding another bruiser next to Howard to help him take the punishment of grabing rebounds and banging body's with great rebounding teams. In my opinion we did not did not utlize that option much.
    It is obvious that we will have to be able to do both if we are going to win against teams like Boston who have the ability to do both shoot 3's and bang in the low post.

    Please do not bring in players that are supposed to help us but then we do not use them, trade some of this dead weight and bringing a Dwayne Wade or Lebron James to got with Howard.

    Also we need to get a point guard that can see over the taller guards, is a pass and shoot second point guard or if he is short will push the ball consistenlty and allow himself to see the open court.

    Concerned Fan

     

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