Celtics-Magic Game Seven: End Of A Non-Era

Tonight in Boston, the Celtics played their thirty-fifth Game Seven in the past 13 months. And this time, for the first time in their recent history, they weren't up to it. The Magic won, 101 to 82, to end the defending champions' run in the second round.

(By the way, be sure to check the Lemur to see if it's still open, seeing how the Bruins and Celtics were both eliminated in Game Sevens at home in the same week. Oh, and the Red Sox lost to the Mariner juggernaut today, too. Someone put some Prozac in the water, or the nation might lose some very, very special sports fans to highly dramatic suicides tonight.)

The end of the Celtics tonight was due to one player more than any other: Hedo Turkoglu, the much-maligned ex-Sacramento King and Euro player who has been the main reason why the Magic hasn't been as good in the playoffs as they were in the regular season. Tonight, he unleashed a monstrous 25-5-12 night, carrying the passing mail (the Turk had nearly half of the Magic's assists). He was, clearly, the best player on the floor tonight, and if he wants to play at this level in the Cleveland series, the Magic will put a real scare into the Cavs. (Especially if they want to shoot 65% from the arc.)

He was aided by the sizzling Mikael Pietrus, who hit six shots in a row to help the Magic start the fourth with a 19-5 run to build the lead to 19 halfway through the fourth. And every time the Celtics made a shot -- Paul Pierce with a three to cut it to 14 being emblematic -- the Magic answered, once with an improbable old-school three from Marcin Gortat. The fact that the Magic were able to do this despite foul trouble on Dwight Howard (12 and 16 in 36 minutes) makes it even that more impressive.

As for the Celtics, in retrospect, it's clear that they were highly fortunate to get past the Bulls. When your Game 7 bench consists of 34 non-garbage time minutes from Brian Scalabrine, Stephon Marbury and Eddie House, you no longer represent a basketball team, at least not a professional one. Without a heroic effort from Rajon Rondo (10-6-10 with 4-of-10 shooting), Kendrick Perkins (8-15-1, with 2 blocks, but also 3 of 11 from the floor), or, well, anyone with the possible exception of Paul Pierce, it's hard to see how they were supposed to be a Final Four team, home court and 3-2 series lead after Game Five be damned.

The Garden crowd was good and dead in the fourth, even after a Ray Allen three to cut the lead to 12 with 4:12 left, which lead to a timeout... and an utter dagger of a three from the Turk, and after a turnover, another make to push it right back to 17. By the last three minutes, the place was as quiet as a morgue, Doc Rivers was sending in his NBDL bench, and for all of the hue and cry that you hear from Boston Fan about how wonderful the tradition is and all that, I didn't hear much in the way of Thanks For The Memories late in this game. I'm sure you'll read plenty about that from the media, which is always highly critical of Boston Fan. (I keed, I keed.)

Next year, maybe, Kevin Garnett might return after some high risk surgery... but Big Baby Davis is an unrestricted free agent, and so is useful part Leon Powe, and with Garnett's extension just kicking in, he could completely crush this franchise under the weight of a huge and non-productive contract. It also stands to reason that Ray Allen might finally get old, and it's not as if Pierce has no miles on the tires, either. It's very hard to imagine how, even if Rajon Rondo were to gain a jump shot in the off-season (don't you love how people just assume he's going to get one, like he's never wanted one before?), that the Celtics will be better next year, and they weren't good enough this year.

For the Magic, they get to try to steal a win in Cleveland on Tuesday against the best team in the Association this year, who will have had a full eight days of rest. I suspect they'll be highly competitive in the first half of Game 1, until the rust comes off the LeBrons, and if they hit their threes, some actual worry might hit the home team. But not for very long, because I don't see how anyone on the Orlando roster will be able to do anything with LeBron, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the perfect type of center (i.e., one who plays away from the basket) to neutralize Howard on defense. But the Magic did win two out of three games with the Cavs this year, and eight out of their last 11, so it could be competitive. (A lot more than Celtics-Cavs would have been.)

But before we really go to full-blown Magic-Cavs analysis, let's take a minute to acknowledge what poor luck the Celtics had in not continuing to get eternal health for a high-energy defensive big man with well over 1,000 NBA games on his knees. Truly, they were cursed by nothing more than Ill Luck. But don't fret, Celtics Fan -- I'm sure your old pal Kevin McHale will trade Al Jefferson back for Garnett now, since the Association knows that the league just isn't watchable unless your team is good...