But last night was really shitty. Playing in Boston with the series tied 2-2, the Magic surprised everyone — including, I suspect, themselves — by controlling the Celtics and holding a 10-point lead with 5:39 to play. Then they got outscored 11-0 and eventually lost 92-88.
Let the therapy begin: The Magic could not have played worse basketball down the stretch last night unless they all decided to lay down and nap on the floor!
They tried to milk the clock. Doesn’t work in the NBA. They took lousy shots. Which was worse: Rashard Lewis’ rimless, backboard-chipping 3-pointer or Rafer Alston’s left-handed flip from the baseline that may have been an alley-oop pass to Dwight Howard, who was surrounded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?
Down the stretch, the Magic not only failed to stop Boston, they seemed intent on allowing a Celtics player to stand alone under the basket for layups and dunks.
The refs helped. All Celtics star Paul Pierce had to do was flail his arms and grimace and he went to the foul line. Then, with 36 seconds left and the Magic glumly down 86-85, the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo flung up a 3 to beat the shot clock. It fell into Boston center Kendrick Perkins’ hands as the buzzer went off.
Perkins stomped and whined, complaining that the ball had hit the rim; the refs huddled and apparently decided that they didn’t want to upset Kendrick any further, so they gave the ball back to the Celtics with a fresh 24-second shot clock. Replays from a baseline point of view clearly showed the ball graze the net and not the rim. (I defy any Celtic fan to disagree.)
But, as the cliché goes, this game was not decided by the officials.
I’ve liked Magic coach Stan Van Gundy’s fiery emotionalism for the most part. But I’m starting to think he loses his composure in tight situations, and it infects his players. That’s a disease you can't afford in close playoff games.
During the Magic’s last possession, with no timeouts left and needing a 3-pointer to tie, the team looked confused about what their coach had drawn up. After a Keystone Cops routine, Howard, who has exactly zero 3-pointers in his NBA career, had to come to the ball to avoid an inbounds violation. He was fouled, made the first, missed the second on purpose, Boston rebounded, game over.
There's trouble in O-town. In the wake of last night's meltdown, Howard questioned Van Gundy's performance.
Phew. I’ll get to the Rays later. I need to head back to the sack and pull the covers over my head.
