| 17 May 2009
Sometimes three-point shots fall despite really good defense. And sometimes three-point shots fall because the defense is slow and/or lazy in challenging the perimeter attack.
And in Game Seven of this Orlando-Boston series, the Magic attacked early, attacked often, and took advantage of the sometimes lazy but often slow perimeter defense of the Celtics. Orlando made 13 of their 21 three-point shots including eight of their first 12 and after they took a 3-2 lead after a Rafer Alston three-pointer, the guys from Disney World never turned back. A sloppy Orlando attack allowed the Celtics to keep the game close for a while but once the turnovers were put in check by the Magic, they were able to build the lead and capture the fourth Game Seven victory by a road team in Boston in 21 tries.
The Celtics scraped and clawed to keep the game close and after a deep two-pointer at the end of the third quarter, they were only done five after playing really bad basketball for three quarters. But the Magic stepped on the throats of the Celtics to start out the fourth quarter and took away every ounce of energy in the Boston crowd. An 11-0 run in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter turned the crowd from hopeful to desperate and a Hedo Turkoglu three-pointer with 3:55 remaining in the game that pushed the lead back to 15 turned the energy in the crowd from energetic to thankful for a valiant title defense. The Magic went up by 21 towards the end of the game and Doc Rivers waved the white flag by replacing Paul Pierce and Ray Allen with Gabe Pruitt and Tony Allen.
The Magic did a remarkable job all game with deflecting passes, stripping players inside and forcing improbable shots by the Celtics players. They held Boston to 39% shooting from the field and 4-16 from the three-point line. They made the Celtics miss a lot of point blank shots with 8-21 shooting on lay-ups. They simply smothered the Celtics like they did the majority of their regular season opponents.
Why the Magic Won This Series
It didn't come down to the Magic winning this series for any specific reason. As simplistic as this sounds, the Magic won this series because they won Game Seven. And they won Game Seven because Hedo Turkoglu finally joined the playoffs. People assume he's been okay during the playoffs because he made that terrible game-winner against Philadelphia (just because he made it doesn't mean it was a good shot). But in the rest of the playoff games, he's been atrocious. He averaged 13.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists on 39% shooting before Game Seven. And that's when he decided to explode for 25 points on 9-12 shooting and 12 assists to help this Magic offense surge to the Eastern Conference Finals. Hedo ripped the Celtics defense apart and provided Orlando with the impossible match-up that they had been waiting to exploit.
Why the Celtics Lost This Series
With Kevin Garnett out for the playoffs, the Celtics three best players are obviously Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo. And in this series, they completely let down the Celtics because they couldn't get their offense going. Paul Pierce saw a significant drop in his scoring from 23.1 to 19.3 points per game. He rarely drove the lane and settled for far too many jumpers. Ray Allen's scoring dropped from 23.4 points on 45% from the field and 46.6% from three against the Bulls to 11.5 points on 30.7% from the field and 13.9% from three against Orlando. And Rajon Rondo went from 19.4 points, 11.6 assists, 2.1 turnovers and 45.4% from the field against Chicago to 15 points, 7.7 assists, 3.7 turnovers and 37.2% from the field. When your four best players don't show up (due to injury or poor performance) you're not going to get to continue your title defense.
Heading into the Conference Finals
The Orlando Magic now get a shot at the perfect Cavaliers, a team they've played extremely well against this season and for the past couple of seasons. There's a perceived notion that LeBron James is afraid to try to dunk on Dwight Howard and that the Magic have better players. But the Cavs have a version of LeBron James that we've never seen before and a well-oiled machine with one of the best young coaches in basketball. The Magic are at a HUGE disadvantage going into this series but that can be turned around with a big rebounding effort and Hedo Turkoglu showing up in this series like he did against the Celtics in Game Seven.
Prediction: The Magic get big efforts from Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis in this series but Hedo once again fails to play well.
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