The Boston Celtics put themselves in a hole again by losing the first game in their Eastern Conference semifinal to the Orlando Magic at home 95-90. However, Celtics fans have seen this before and although coach Doc Rivers, said it was the worst game the Celtics had played in the playoffs thus far he was optimistic of his teams chances to win the series. The Celtics are going down a familiar road as they lost homecourt in the matchup against Chicago in the first round and eventually wrestled it back to win the series with Game Seven at home.
However this is different, with no KG in this round, the tall front line of the Magic ( 7'0" Dwight Howard, 6'10" Rashard Lewis, and 6'10" Hedo Turkoglu) can have their way with the Celtics small front line. What makes the Magic's front line even scarier is that they all have freakish athleticism and Lewis and Hedo can stretch out the defence, and the Celtics' bigs out of the paint, and hit the 3 pointer or pass it to the guards who will have much more room to operate. The Celtics will have to play small and try to run against the Magic and let the guards take over the game and be physical. That's exactly what they did in game 2.
In a crucial game for the Boston Celtics, the little guys came up big. Rajon Rondo (6'0") had 15 points, 18 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the playoffs, and Eddie House (6'1") scored a career playoff high 31 points on Wednesday night to lead Boston to a 112-94 victory over the Orlando Magic in Game 2 that evened the Eastern Conference semifinals to 1-1.
Howard had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Lewis had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Magic, but the Magic trailed all night and never had a lead.
Ray Allen added 22 points for the Celtics after having a bad game 1, while Paul Pierce has yet to show up these playoffs and only scored 3 points in 16 minutes. However, Eddie House more than picked up the slack with a career high 31 points. House even goaded Magic guard Rafer Alston into a head slap that led to a double-technical. "All I did was hit a shot, turn the other way and I got hit upside the head," House said. "I guess he was tired of getting hit upside the head."
House went 11 for 14 from the field, making all four of his three-point attempts and adding four two-pointers from at least 20 feet in 27 minutes -- the most he's played in a playoff game since he was a rookie with Miami in 2001. In the last three games, House is 18 for 24 from the field and 10 for 12 from 3-point range. If the Celtics want to keep winning they need production like that off their bench every night.
Peace and Much Love To Ya :)
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