Celtics-Magic Game Five: The Magic Of Choking

Tonight in Boston, the Celtics had one of those nights where the defense wasn't very good, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo weren't good offensively, and they were giving meaningful minutes to Stephon Marbury because, well, they had to. The gym was dead, the crowd worried in that way that only a crowd watching Stephon Marbury can be.

And then the Magic went cold, with jaw-dropping misses on wide-open threes, the crowd got into it, and yes, you have seen this movie before.

With 2:30 left, Allen found Kendrick Perkins for a layup out of a scramble. The Magic looked utterly helpless on their next possesion, eventually settling for a Turkoglu turnover. Big Baby missed a wide open short one. Rafer Alston lost his mind for another turnover. Allen shook Turkoglu on a back pick for a catch and shoot three, and the 11-0 run gave the home team an 86-85 lead, their first since the first quarter. Good grief, why does anyone even watch the first 40 minutes of a Celtics game?

Out of the timeout, the Magic got a clean three look from Alston out of a scramble; he, of course, missed, and the Celtics got the team rebound. Rondo missed the rim from 30 feet for a shot clock violation, and the refs missed the call and decided to give the home team the ball anyway. Yeesh. TNT ran multiple replays that showed the ball not hitting the rim, but what the hell, it's the Celtics, give them the ball and the full 24 second clock. When do they ever get any other break? Though, to be honest, I'm not sure the Magic will ever score again, so it wasn't exactly a game-changing call.

After a scramble drill bad possession, Allen missed from mid range, but the Celtics got the board again, and the game got closer to over. With 8.5 seconds left, the Magic put Eddie House on the line, and he hit both. Pierce wrapped up Lewis to prevent a trying three, and after the Dallas Game Three Tragedy, it's not like he didn't do it with authority. Lewis hit both, Allen responded with two makes, and there's nothing better than the last 10 seconds of an NBA playoff game, is there?

The Magic then put the final touches on this gift by barely getting the inbounds pass in to Dwight Howard, of all people, with 5.9 left. He hit the first, intentionally missed the second, but Davis controlled the rebound and hit his free throws -- the Celtics went 21 for 21 from the line tonight -- and that was that. Your final was Celtics 92, Magic 88, and the home team takes the 3-2 lead.

Game Six in Orlando? Well, if the past is any precedent, they'll air mail this and go to a Game Seven, which they will, of course, win. But after the exceptional fold that the road team gave tonight, you do have to wonder if they're even going to bother playing Game Six. After all, you're just going to lose Game Seven on the road, so why bother?