A mere three days after the Orlando Magic were outright humiliated by the Boston Celtics, being held to a franchise low in points (56) and field goals (16), the same men in green got the best of Dwight Howard and the Magic again Thursday night.
The Magic blew a 21-point halftime lead, the largest blown halftime lead in franchise history, and the shorthanded Celtics overcame the absences of Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen to shock Orlando, 91-83, at the Amway Center Thursday night.
“I think some things were deflating and we didn’t handle those well. We had a loss of composure, and it’s a very difficult loss to take,” Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We’ve got 48 games left to go and we need to get a lot better. We’re embarrassed as much tonight as we were the other night, but that’s not productive…We’ve got to get to where we can just play the game.”
Orlando appeared to be cruising to victory after a dominating first half, in which the Magic held a large advantage in points in the paint (26-6), second- chance points (13-4) and free throw attempts (17-7), as well as leading the turnover battle (10-3) and outrebounding (28-15) the Celtics in the opening half.
“It almost defies logic that we would score 58 points in the first half with Dwight playing six minutes, and then with Dwight playing the whole second half we can’t score,” Van Gundy said.
Then, the second half happened.
Boston, who won its third straight game and four of the last five, came alive in the second half, outscoring the Magic 54-25 and limiting them to eight-of-25 (23 percent) shooting from the floor. With the Celtics defense clamping down, Orlando’s offense absolutely sputtered, even going a period of 18 minutes and 10 seconds without making a jump shot.
It got even worse for the Magic in the fourth quarter, when they were limited to eight points on a woeful two-of-17 shooting from the floor, which allowed Boston to go on a 15-1 run and take a 79-76 lead- their first lead since the first quarter of the game.
The Magic looked like a completely different team in the final half, where a lack of ball movement, poor shot selections and shut down Celtics defense translated into frustration.
With less than four minutes left in regulation and the game already spiraling out of control for the Magic, both Ryan Anderson and Dwight Howard were hit with technical fouls within 21 seconds of each other. From there, it was clear the Celtics had smelled blood.
“We lost composure. We didn’t do what we needed to do when it was time to get down and play,” former Celtics and current Magic forward Glen Davis said. “You could see things unravel. And Boston smelled blood, they smelled pressure, and we didn’t do a good job of countering.”
Dwight Howard, who became the Magic’s all-time leading scorer last Tuesday at Indiana, posted a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds, but was limited to just six shots in the second half.
“We thought it was going to be easy after the first two quarters. We can’t allow that. We have to change,” Howard said.
Jason Richardson contributed 13 points, while Ryan Anderson added 12 points- all in the first half, and Jameer Nelson chipped in 11 points, five assists and five rebounds for the Magic. Hedo Turkoglu had a solid game with 10 points, seven assists and five boards.
It was a puzzling game for the Magic, who took control on both sides of the ball in the first half and seemed poised to win against a shorthanded Celtics team. Orlando shut down Paul Pierce in the first half, limiting the All-Star to five points and no field goals. Pierce didn’t have his first field goal until 20 seconds into the third quarter.
However, Pierce was able to take control in the second half, scoring 19 points, as well as dishing out seven assists and grabbing five rebounds. He finished with 24 points, 10 assists and six rebounds on the night.
“We picked up our defense. We picked up our ball pressure. We played a little bit more physical,” Pierce said. “In the first half, you saw us get out-hustled, they were getting the offensive rebounds…We said we were going to stick with it.”
Rookie E’Twuan Moore came up big for Boston, going a perfect four-of-four from the three-point line to finish with 16 points. Kevin Garnett and Mickael Pietrus added 12 points a piece, and former Magic forward Brandon Bass chipped in 10 points and five boards.
The Celtics looked like the championship contender they have been over the past four years with the fight and poise they showed in overcoming a 27-point deficit on the road.
Just a week ago, there were murmurs of Boston potentially breaking up the core of Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen after five straight losses earlier this month. Since the Celtics loss to Oklahoma City on the Jan. 16, Boston has won four of five games and moved into the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference.
Now, the Magic find themselves searching for answers after two devastating defeats at the hands of the Celtics. Orlando has the benefit of having a relatively easy schedule upcoming, with contests against Indiana, Washington and Cleveland to regain their confidence.
The Magic will look to rebound Friday against the New Orleans Hornets on the road. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
