Denton: Magic Ready For Game 6
By John Denton
May 28, 2010
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Magic and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
BOSTON – As it turns out, staving off elimination and winning an overtime nail-biter in Boston in Game 4 was the easy part. And then coming back to gash one of the NBA’s best defensive teams in Game 5 for 13 3-pointers and 113 points, well, that was child’s play by comparison.
But now, with the Orlando Magic having the full attention of the Boston Celtics, things expect to get infinitely more difficult in a Game 6 in Boston.
And that’s just fine with a Magic team that is oozing confidence out its every pore following two landscape-altering victories that have swung momentum back to their side. Though they know they a face an all-out basketball battle Friday in Boston’s TD Garden and are still staring at a 3-2 deficit, it is the Magic who possess the swagger of the favorites now.
``We’ve got our foot on their neck right now,’’ Magic starting small forward Matt Barnes said. ``Now, we have to keep it there.’’
Momentum is certainly a funny thing in basketball, and it’s changed ownership throughout this series. The second-seeded Magic were the favorites coming in after sweeping their first two playoff foes, but it was Boston that rolled to wins in Games 1 and 2. Then, the Celtics embarrassed the Magic in Game 3 in a 94-71 debacle, giving every indication that Orlando was dead men walking.
But the Magic incredibly got off the mat in the past two games, coming through in overtime in Game 4 and crushing the Celtics in Game 5 in a noisy Amway Arena. The wildly erratic ebbs and flows of the series have Orlando both wondering what went wrong in the first three games and trying to refine the, um, magic from the past two wins.
``We can’t go back and get those first three games, but I have a lot of questions about us after watching these last two games,’’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said incredulously. ``When you win a couple of games your confidence goes up. I don’t know about momentum carrying over when we’re playing with a day off between games. But there’s a confidence factor that comes with winning and we feel good about what we’re doing now.’’
Good feelings aide, the Magic are still up against some tall odds. No team in NBA history has ever dug out of a 0-3 hole, a sample of 93 teams. Only three of those teams ever even forced a Game 7, and that will be the mission Friday night in Boston if the Magic can get a third consecutive victory to even up the series.
Boston’s sporting fanbase is certainly well aware of teams never being out of series – both in a good way and a bad way. The Boston Red Sox became the first Major League Baseball team to rally back from 0-3 in 2004, winning four straight to beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
And the flip side happened to Boston just two weeks ago as the NHL’s Boston Bruins blew a 3-0 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Bruins were even up 3-0 in a Game 7, but collapsed completely.
Magic point guard Jameer Nelson, a native of suburban Philadelphia, joked late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning that he was looking forward to dressing in the Flyers’ locker room at TD Garden and drawing strength from his favorite hockey team.
``At this point we believe we can win the series,’’ said Nelson, who had 23 and 24-point performances in the past two victories. ``But we have to stay humble and keep our focus and realize why we won these last two games. I believe (the Celtics) have pressure on them right now. But they have veteran Hall of Famers with a great coach and they’re going to be prepared. But we’ll be prepared, too.’’
Boston coach Doc Rivers, who was once a part of a 3-1 collapse in 2003 when he was the Magic’s coach, admitted following Wednesday’s 113-92 beatdown that his team’s confidence was somewhat rattled. He also stressed that the Celtics will treat Friday’s Game as a Game 7 because they have no desires to face the Magic in Amway Arena in a deciding game.
``We need to win one game, and let’s hope that it’s the next one,’’ Rivers said. ``If it takes coming back (to Orlando), we’ll be ready for that, too. But we’d like to do it in the next one.’’
The Celtics caught a huge break on Thursday when the NBA rescinded a technical foul given to center Kendrick Perkins in Wednesday’s Game 5. Perkins was called for two technical fouls in the game, earning him an ejection. They were the sixth and seventh for Perkins in the playoffs, which according to the rules would have earned him a one-game suspension for Game 6.
But the NBA league office ruled on Thursday that Perkins’ second technical foul with 3:36 left in the first half was incorrectly given by veteran referee Eddie F. Rush even though the center mouthed something to the officials, danced away and wildly waved his arms.
Magic guard Vince Carter was hit with a similar technical foul in Game 2 when he swiped his arm through the air in protest of a call. The Magic attempted to have the league rescind that technical foul to no avail.
Van Gundy spent the past three days lauding the leadership Nelson and Howard, the Magic’s co-captains and the longest-tenured Orlando players. Most impressive to Van Gundy is that Howard and Nelson displayed unbreakable, unflappable will on the court with their effort and production. That, Van Gundy stressed, is far more important than any sort of rah-rah locker room speech.
``Me and Jameer talked and we just told each other that we had been here the longest and we’ve seen the ups and down and seen everything,’’ Howard remembered. ``We sat there and watched the Lakers celebrate (last spring in the NBA Finals), and we know how hard it was to watch that. And we know how hard we’ve worked to build this team, and we just want it to continue.’’
Howard was at his superstar best the past two games, dominating the game on both ends of the floor. He had 32 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks in Game 4 and followed that up with another 21 points, 10 rebounds five blocks in Game 5. One block in particular, one in which Howard sprinted the length of the court to swat a Rajon Rondo layup, showed the center’s determination to keep the Magic alive in this series.
Gushed Van Gundy, who marveled at the play several times on video after the game: ``Oh my gosh, what a great, great play. Just an incredible effort on Dwight’s past. He worked so hard on that play and the entire game really. His effort was very, very good.’’
Howard knows that effort will have to be equally high to beat the Celtics in Boston and stave off elimination again. Howard knows the Magic are likely headed for the most difficult game of the series, but he stressed that he likes the Magic’s chances if they continue to play with maximum effort.
``I just feel like if we keep believing in each other and trusting one another and play as hard as we can that anything is possible,’’ Howard said confidently. ``We’re just trying to win. It’s all mental. Right now, we just have to will ourselves to try and get the job done.’’