Post Game Thread - Magic slip past Celtics in OT 96-62 5/24/2010

[dboss]

I guess all the brooms can be stored back in the closet.

In a game that went right down to the wire, Boston could not find a way to pull this one out.

Comments please.

dboss

[beat]

dboss

Not much to say. We played hard and fought. Never fell behind by too much as I think the worst deficit was 10 points which was cut down to 3 rather quickly. Just seemed like we could never sustain a run of more then 2 hoops in a row. We had plenty of stops but could not convert. Many shots just fell off the rim and for the most part we had good looks when we shot. A few to many turnovers at critical times.............a few to many missed foul shots. We allowed a couple to many put backs by the Magic.

Perhaps down the stretch we gave the ball to PP a bit too much and although he had a big game he was front rimming a lot down to the end and especially in OT. Would have been nice to at least get a shot up at the end of regulation too.

Nelson got a lucky trey with the bank shot but then followed with a flush both in the OT.

Orlando played some D for the first time this series and certainly did contain Rondo who had a subpar game. Really none of the C's had an outstanding complete game yet we lose in OT. Howard got loose a few to many times also.

Doc went with a few players he had not used much off at all Robinson and Finley out of need.

No point in looking back too much. We have been a pretty good road team so going to Orlando should not overwhelm us.

beat

[pete]

dboss,

A few things that I think were factors in the loss:

• Pierce should have been rested at some point, I'm not sure how many minutes he played, but his legs were gone the last few minutes, other than that dunk. Doc did not use the bench enough. I think Ray Allen played a ton of minutes as well, but he was incredible down the stretch, how he is able to do that, is quite remarkable.

• Our offense was stagnant, and for a long time it was going to Pierce. That is not how we have been playing, the ball was not being shared, it was so obvious I have no idea why it was not addressed.

• KG played a lousy 4th & OT

• Rondo was quiet, and seem tentative and unsure of himself. The decisions did not flow as usual, and therefore nor did the team.

• There should have been a time out called before on the last play in regulation. This would have given the tired players a quick breather and allowed us to set something up.

• Here is a real concern, the Magic have been completely embarrassed and shredded by their fans and the media, and now they have their confidence back, I think this puts us in a dangerous position to end up in a longer, grueling series. Its the old strike while the irons hot saying, and we may have cost ourselves something last night.

I am so disappointed that we lost, it was a golden opportunity to make team history, and rest for the finals

Pete

[beat]

Pete

They only point I will disagree with (a little) is the no time out at the end of regulation.

A time out "may" have helped Orlando as much as us. The other concern is being able to inbound the ball. Of course when we gained possession ther were about 16 seconds left so there would have been no need to advance the ball to the frontcourt thus making the inbounds pass a bit easier with the entire court to work with.

Doc has been good about setting up last second plays also but perhaps he felt the team was better off going on w/o one. Obviously we can all second guess on the no time out debate but our play the first 47:45 was the bigger issue.

So the C's are up 3-1. Lets go back a month..............how many of us would have taken a 3-1 advantage in the east finals at that time?

beat

[pete]

beat,

I see where you are coming from, but they did not look like they were in sync at that point, so I think the time out may have pulled them together a bit. Certainly 3-1 is great, but these guys are dangerous & what ever the stats are from coming back from 0-3, why give them life.

Now, you all know at this point that I tend to be positive, but this has me concerned, and hopefully I'm just paranoid and reading into it more than I should.

Pete

[cowens/oldschool]

I'm really concerned about Rondo,he didn't play with his usual tenacity,hes only human and I'm sure has a few ailments,he plays so hard,wish we had two more days off as were old and can always use it.I thought Doc failing to call time out in regulation was big mistake.Two crucial calls against us,the clean Baby block on Nelson that gave them 2 FTs,then Pierce got hit in the back then lost ball on that last play,why no call?That was a blatant foul,last 10 sec your allowed to cross body block now?

[MDCelticsFan]

If Rondo's leg and back spasms are going to be a continuing cause of treatment and diminished minutes and performance for him, that will almost negate the 3-1 series advantage the C's have now. Running Nelson and thereby Rondo through staggered screens helped Jameer increase his effectiveness both scoring wise, ability to get into the paint, and increased his ability to distribute also. C's allowed their 3 point marksman too many open looks attributed to late rotations. I got a sickening feeling the C's will be looking at a game 6 Friday night in Beantown. The Amway Center will be bonkers for the Magic Wed. Eve. and they should be geeked to the MAX.-The Magic now have been given reason to hope and that is dangerous!-MD

[beat]

I'm sensing a little too much gloom and doom here.

Geesh Orlando gave us there BEST SHOT and we lost in OT.

We had no runs period. I'd be surprised to look at the running score and see anytime we strung together 3 hoops in a row. Nobody had anything close to a stellar game. Yet we lost in OT.

I's sure the C's could care less if the Amway arena is filled with salesmen or whatever. We sort of laid a bit of a stinker last night, not terrible but certainly not great.

So it goes to game 5. Big deal.

I do have a bit of concern about Rondo for we go as he goes and if he is somewhat less than 100% that is an issue. Perhaps he needs a little more rest during the game too. 40+ minutes might be a bit too much.

beat

[sinus007]

Hi,
IMHO, Celtics lost this game starting with the 1st quarter. Sporadic defense and no intensity similar to games 1-3.
The surge 2 min before the end of regulation got the score even but it drained the Celtics' tank and the fumes were not enough to finish the game nor OT.
Something's wrong with RR: he was quiet plus had to leave for locker room almost 2 min before half.
I'm not making it an excuse but D12 is getting super-star status from the refs. I don't understand what's the difference between him smacking KG twice (face and neck) and the time when KG smacked QR and got suspended?
I hope Celtics will turn their D back on and RR will be back come Wed.

AK

P.S. Dboss, it's 96-92. I don't know, though, which is better.

[jeb]

those double picks on rondo worked. Nelson was able to get inside and somebody had to pick him up. Then whoever was open got the ball and made a three. They were also daring rondo to shoot. I saw him pass up open 13 footers. That will not play out. He has to shoot the ball. And we need to formulate an answer to those double picks. We faded in ot and i think that bank shot essentially did us in.

[tjmakz]

Boston will be fine.
Their worst game in many weeks and they still only lost in OT.
If Carter gets going it could get interesting but I don't see Howard dominating 3 more games like he did.

sinus, I only saw one of Howard's elbows as I missed part of the first half, but in play contact is viewed very differently that what KG did to Q. The one elbow that I saw just grazed KG.

[bobheckler]

Wow. Welcome to EC smashmouth basketball.

Well, we've been brought back down to earth a bit, but that's ok since here on earth we're still up 3-1.

The Magic played about as good and as hard they could and they needed OT despite being up by healthy margins for most of the game. Sure, Vince and Lewis had lousy and mediocre games respectively, but Barnes and Redick stepped up bigtime so it's a wash. On the other hand, Rondo had his worst game of the playoffs.

1. Orlando's spacing on the double high screens for Nelson were MUCH better this time. Far enough apart for Nelson to squirt between them but not too far apart as to be ineffective.

2. Nelson hits a lucky "I meant to call backboard. No, really, I did!" 3 and that was a big one.

3. I don't have a problem with the refs swallowing their whistles, welcome to the playoffs, but then they called some really questionable mickey-mouse calls. Inconsistent. I can't remember the last time JVG and Jackson called the refs on calling bogus calls. Oh well. It happens. If you want to sweep a team in the Conference Finals, you have to earn it.

4. Pierce played 47 minutes. That's too many. In fact, all our starters except Perk played too many. C'mon Doc, there's a reason why we bought you that bench.

5. Once again, the last-play-hero-shot Pierce iso doesn't work. I realize he was the hot hand last night, so it's not a crazy thing, but his isos rarely work with 6 seconds left. He doesn't have the elevation that Kobe and LeBron have, so he can't just shoot over people, he has to work them, and that takes more than 6 seconds ESPECIALLY once they figure out he's the one who's going to take the shot and they're all running at him.

6. Davis worked hard. Falling down, getting up and blocking a Howard shot from 3 feet out. Excellent effort by the young man. Too bad he had no help.

7. Which brings me to my next point. What the hell happened to Hack-a-Howard? The guy was shooting less than 50% from the line for the game and we're not wrapping him up and not letting him get stuffs with a few minutes left in regulation and OT? Bad coaching and bad execution by the Celtics. On that block by Davis there should have been someone else (hello, KG?) to wrap him up. Davis did his job, now how about a little help for him?

8. The Incredible Shrinking Man, Vince Carter.

Ok, so we lost a game. Big Deal. We got blown out by Cleveland at home too, remember, and how'd that series end up? We were in a much weaker position, win-wise, in that series too.

bob

.

[tjmakz]

bobh,

I agree with all of your points. Very good analysis.
The foul on BBD against Nelson should have been an out of bounds for Orlando and not a foul.
It was a good no call with Pierce at the end of regulation.
Paul lost the ball, but even if there was contact, when he is 24 feet away with his back to the hoop, the referee is not blowing his whistle.

TA needs to get more minutes to save Pierce for the 2nd half of the 4th quarter.

[bobheckler]

bobh,

I agree with all of your points. Very good analysis.
The foul on BBD against Nelson should have been an out of bounds for Orlando and not a foul.
It was a good no call with Pierce at the end of regulation.
Paul lost the ball, but even if there was contact, when he is 24 feet away with his back to the hoop, the referee is not blowing his whistle.

TA needs to get more minutes to save Pierce for the 2nd half of the 4th quarter.

TJ,

Yep. That was not a foul on BBD, should have been an out-of-bounds for Orlando. What surprised me is that they'd call that but not some of the out-and-out muggings that went on for most of the game by both sides. How can you let players pound each other like they're mixed-martial artists, but say "no" to touch fouls? Strange. Timing-wise, with 1 1/2 left in regulation and the Magic up by two and Nelson going to the line, it hurt.

I agree and the good non-call on Pierce too. He lost the ball due to contact that was consistent with the foul-calling for most of the game. If you're not calling those fouls with 6 minutes left, don't call them with 6 seconds left.

TA was not having one of his better games. Part of that was because he was covering Jameer, who is too quick for him. Doc should have played Nate more. Nate has become more tentative with his offense because he's not sure what Doc is looking for from him. Doc didn't play his bench, as a whole, nearly enough last night.

bob

.

[Hoopdeedoo]

IMO sub par games by RR, TA and KG. Give Orlando some credit for attacking and doing what they do best. I am also tired of the ISO thing with Pierce and tired legs at the end of games. Hero ball (Doc's words) makes the ball stagnant and RA isn't effective when there's no ball movement. I see corrections made and a good effort from KG and KP on Howard on Wednesday.
Go C's

Hoop

[Sam]

I'm glad they didn't call a time out at the end of regulation. For two reasons.

1. Pushing the ball up gave the Magic less time to get their defense set. Yes, I realize they wound up playing good D, but the odds on catching them out of position were greater without the time out.

2. Not calling the timeout prevented the Magic from inserting better defensive players because they had their offensive team (including Carter) on the floor.

We had the ball with six seconds left and a tie score. Hard to ask for more than that after the game the Celtics played.

Sam

[dbrown4]

(Many pardons. I did start this yesterday morning but was called away for the day on family matters.)

I have this tendency whenever the Celtics have the ball at the end of any quarter to reach for the remote since I'm always on recording delay and can fast forward through the upcoming commercials since the Celtics never seem to have a plan that works for this last shot. It always seems to wind up in Rondo's hands too far from the basket, or PP gets double teamed, throwing it out of bounds, etc. The result just seems to be the same since I don't have hard evidence that nothing comes of these specific plays for the Celtics. It's always a flailing attempt or a brick or airball or pass it out of bounds. In other words, I'm not expecting anything. Maybe the negatives have far outweighed the positives.

Give ORL credit. They came out and did what they needed to do. It took OT to get it and blowing a 7 pont lead with 2 minutes left, but they won, fair and square. It was a tight game throughout. ORL couldn't keep a lead either. We didn't play our best. Doc made that clear, but we still had our chances to win and that's all you can ask for as far as being there at the end to potentially win it against a team whose back is against the wall.

Now here's where we get into the psychology of all this. The Celtics need to dump this game from their memory very quickly. Yes, watch the film, get the game plan together, make the adjustments and do everything else you do after a loss, but erase this game from memory immediately thereafter.

Keep it simple. Win Game 5. And let's be honest. It's Game 7. There is no alternative. Already the vultures are looming and SVG, much to his credit, has thrown the media a dead, rotten carcus. 0-93. Someone is going to do it. You must win Game 4 to do it. Boston...Up 3-0. Game 4...Boston loses in overtime...So far, this is the same script as another professional team from Boston in the last few weeks. There will come over the next 48 hours from the media all the comparisons and humiliation it will bring to Boston if the Celtics pull the same number. They have already started circling.

Win Game 5 and here's how we're going to do it. Insert Doc for game plan.

This is very interesting after LAL lost again last night. Both LAL and BOS are back in the first round. LAL and OKC both won home court actually up through Game 5. BOS also failed to close out MIA in Game 4 being up 3-0. The question is have we (and LAL) progressed or regressed. We'll find out tonight. Only difference for us is we're on ORL court for Game 5, not Boston. Looks pretty good for our away from home record to be put the the test tonight.

Soon the press will be full court pressing the idea of the City of Boston meltdown if the Celtics can't win out. This is there new side bar. Dubbing 2010 the year of the Boston Massacre.

Celtics need to treat this as Game 7. And that's the hard thing. I personally still see it as Game 5 and we're up 3-1. I don't think the mind buys this "trickery" of thinking of it as Game 7, but they are going to have to play like it. Get their bearings tonight and blow them out in ORL. Can't have a close game. ORL will smell blood. Give SVG credit. He's bought into this somebody's going to win a series being down 3-0. This is OK, but there is to much margin for error. In baseball and hockey this can work because one goal, one play or one run makes a huge difference. In NBA playoff basketball, too much margin for error. That's why the best team normally wins a best of 7. The Celtics are the best team v. ORL. That's why it never has or probably never will happen in basketball. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it probable? No.

We will win, win or lose tonight. Evan has spoken. "It's OK, dad. Don't worry. Boston's gonna win tonight." "Evan, I believe you."

[sinus007]

Dbrown,
Here's one more opinion on the outcome of the series.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aqw_NGjlxohetHSlnv0nVsA5nYcB?slug=aw-magicceltics052510

The only thing I can say on the topic: as long as Celtics come out and play with the attitude the had in games 1-3, we'll see Magic's white towel on the floor after 1st quarter.

AK

[dbrown4]

Wow. That said it 10X better. He's right. Great article. We're gonna see that attitude and Celtic pride tonight.

[bobheckler]

Dbrown,
Here's one more opinion on the outcome of the series.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aqw_NGjlxohetHSlnv0nVsA5nYcB?slug=aw-magicceltics052510

The only thing I can say on the topic: as long as Celtics come out and play with the attitude the had in games 1-3, we'll see Magic's white towel on the floor after 1st quarter.

AK

sinus,

Wow. Adrian Wojnarowski really sticks it to someone again. First it was LeBron, now it's VC. Man oh man, is he brutal.

bob

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