The Boston Celtics: Is the Magic Gone?

The Celtics came out last night against Orlando looking tired and defeated. I was reminded immediately of how they looked in game 1 and even though I hoped they'd pull magic out of their bag of tricks, the outcome was exactly the same as game 1 -- a blowout.

In the 1st quarter, neither team could hit a jump shot; every point scored by both teams was in the paint. This led to D. Howard having a big game and all the Celtics getting in foul trouble early (which they cannot afford). Next thing you know it's half time, and the Orlando is up by 12 and Ray Ray can't hit a shot. Pierce and Rondo look extremely tired -- not good for the Celtics.

This bad news and bad start would continue as the Magic would have a 20 point lead in the 3rd quarter and this time they keep it, ending up with an ugly final score of 117-96!  As the Professor always says, if Rondo is on, we win; if not we lose!!! And last night the Professor said, "I believe Rondo is off tonight [which he was] and it looks like Pierce is hurt."  So once again, the Professor is right. By the 4th quarter, Pierce was limping. I don't believe he is hurt, but he does look beyond-tired. All the starters looked so tired and Ray, with only 8 points (2-12), and Rondo, who's off his game, it's almost always going to be impossible to get the win. Even though Eddie House was on once again (the only one who was), without our starters, count us out.  

So I think with all of the sitting at the end of this game, all the starters will have their legs back under them for an important game 4. C-Nation knows we can beat Orlando and we proved that in game 2 and that's what we need to see in game 4 -- that same fire and determination we all know that's there. It just needs to come out again, and I believe it will. MIT said, "I think the Cs have the next game for sure and they will win by 8-10 points on Sunday!!"  I personally think it will be another blow-out, but by who, we will have to wait to see what Celtic team shows up for this one!! I hope MIT is right, but I think as does Dato, G, KC, Jon, Rach, Ro, Bedlam(Showoff Marketing), and even Murray, this is going to 7, so stay tuned. I believe in the magic for Boston.