Magic v. Celtics Game Four - Because The World Demanded More Of This

In the first quarter, Rashard Lewis actually commits acts of basketball, and the Magic shoot 63% from the floor to go out to a 31-26 lead. The body language still wasn't that great, and Paul Pierce was carrying the Celtics, but a couple of quick fouls on Rajon Rondo got the best Celtic in the series off the floor, and that matters a lot, actually. Three more quarters of this, and the Magic can cut down on the amount of time the Celtics have to prepare for the Finals. Lofty goals!

In the second quarter, Rasheed Wallace misses a tying three, and Lewis connects from the arc to push it to six. Doc Rivers goes to Nate Robinson, of all people, which tells you all that you need to know about how well the Celtics would do without Rondo. Dueling travels from Glen Davis and JJ Redick lead to a Robinson miss -- he doesn't exactly take a long time to hoist them up -- and three straight whistles on Ray Allen, Sheed and Davis has Celtics Fan convinced that David Stern has dictated a non-sweep. They might be right.

After commerce, the Cs cut into the lead as Dwight Howard leaves points at the free throw line, Rondo returns, and Ray Allen hits. But Howard answers off a Jason Williams assist -- one suspects that he hasn't enjoyed the last few days of watching Rondo outhustle him -- and the lead is back to six. Mickael Pietrus continues his terrible series by missing from the arc, but Davis misses, leading to a Howard make off a Reddick dish, and the lead is 8 as Rivers takes the timeout. Howard is now 5 for 6 for 12 points and 5 boards, and maybe he's not quite ready to have his season end.

Rondo with a miss, and Kendrick Perkins picks up his second, as the Magic hope grows a little more. Howard even hits the free throws, and Pierce breaks the run with a layup and Pietrus foul, and that ten point lead certainly didn't last long. Pierce completes the old-school three, and Vince Carter comes up small on the jumper. Kevin Garnett with the make, and Howard can only make one of two. Pierce trims it to four, then Perkins blocks Carter -- major momentum change happening now -- and a travel on Pierce keeps the roof on the building. A Brandon Bass miss -- he's getting extended run tonight for some reason --leads to Pierce drawing a Matt Barnes foul, and commerce. Hard to imagine the Magic ending the half with the lead, and they really need to.

I pick up the game again at 56-55 in the third, the Magic having ended the first half up four points. Howard and Garnett get into each other, Carter turns it, and Garnett misses at the line, rather than tie it. Barnes keeps a possession alive as Boston Fan screams, and Barnes has a make. Lewis takes his third foul as Rondo sells it. Perkins picks up his third on a moving screen, which is to say that Perkins gets his third foul for being Perkins. Howard with a nice bank shot to push the lead to five. Garnett flops for Howard's third from an absolute touch foul elbow, and Celtics Fan wonders why people hate his team. Somehow Garnett recovers enough to take a jumper five seconds later and misses. Howard can't convert on the other end, and Carter loses Ray Allen for an open three, which goes down easy. Carter with a miss on the other end, but Howard spikes the follow. Perkins draws Howard's fourth, and while the Orlando center certainly hammered him, the elbow from Perkins on the way up wasn't exactly kosher, either. Perkins bitches about the call to boot, as Boston Fan wonders why the world hates... well, you know the rest. Two makes from the reprobate cut the lead to two, and Howard takes a seat.

Bass with a desperate make at the buzzer. Perkins gets away with a push for the offensive board after a Garnett miss, and Allen hits the open shot. Reddick answers with a massive three, and the lead is five with a broken run. Big, big make there. Pierce with a miss, and Rondo's flop is actually called for his fourth foul as Boston Fan is utterly and completely convinced of the Game Five Conspiracy. Me, I think if flops were called as fouls, the NBA would be an immensely better game.

Barnes with a save, but Nelson turns it, and the Magic look terrible in half court. The Celtics have that knack. Pierce with great body control to score inside against Marcin Gortat. Nelson is mugged for a turnover. Pierce misses as Nelson gives great effort. Barnes is short and sad on a three. Pierce misses the three for a flat footed Sheed board, and Davis eventually has the make. Gortat called for a block on Rondo, and that's the sixth Magic turnover of the quarter. Get your brooms ready, folks; the Magic are starting to get that Dead Team Walking look again as Mark Jackson does his Never, Ever Tired Manly Deep Voice Thing. Please, Mark, do more of your Manly Deep Voice Thing! It's the only thing that convinces me that some players are good!

Twenty two seconds of good Magic defense is undone by a marginal foul call on Williams, and Allen makes both to give the Celtics the lead as Celtics Fan exhales. Williams misses the three badly. Bass blocks Pierce on a great play, and Tony Allen takes a foul as Jeff van Gundy chastises Pierce for failing to heed the wisdom of holding for the last shot. The fact that the Celtics aren't in the penalty for the quarter in a ridiculously physical game? Why, that just shows my anti-Celtic bias, I think. The third ends with Boston up by a point, and that's yet another third quarter the Celtics won handily.

Howard turns to start the third, but the Celtics get every loose board in this series, including this one. It doesn't help, as Tony Allen forgets the clock and dribbles it out. Lewis drives and gets hammered by Sheed, who looks like his lumbago acted up on that one. Reddick feeds Pietrus for a wide-open three that misses, but the Magic save the possession, and Reddick ends it with a three. Sheed picks up a stupid technical -- hey, he's still Sheed! -- to give Reddick an extra point. Sheed's fourth foul is a moving screen ten seconds later, and he's a gift to Orlando right now. Pietrus has another terrible three and miss. Sheed responds with an equally terrible three and miss, but only Davis can collect the loose ball; he ends the possession by forgetting about the clock, then turning it over. Heh. Carter returns with visible goat horns, but it's Reddick with the turnover, and Rondo scores in transition to cut it to one. The Duke product comes back with a three as Tony Allen misses the steal gamble, and it's four again. Garnett can't make over Howard, and Davis is whistled for a foul on an entry pass coming back. We go to commerce with the Celtics looking like the team that played in the regular season. Shame it won't last.

Howard has 23-9-3, the three being blocks. Kind of useful. Carter, on the other hand, isn't, and Davis takes another charge for his fourth foul. Eight minutes left, four point Magic lead, and the corpulent one scores in traffic to cut it to two. Carter's wide open three is bricked, but Howard rebounds one on four, then gets to the line. He whiffs both, and Davis ties it with a jumper. Like we didn't all see this coming.

Carter's pass to Nelson is bad, but his later pass to Lewis is worse, and that's another turnover. If you hate Vince, this has been your series. Garnett with a turn, but the Magic don't push, and Davis turns Lewis on a drive; great defense. The C's play volleyball on the offensive glass but can't get it down, and Reddick eventually controls it. Lewis misses a corner three as the Celtic defense is just going into wilding mode, and Rondo gets to the line before commerce as Jackson slurps every inch of Davis before the break. If the over/under for wet wipes for Jackson per game is 20, I'm taking the over. You've got to admire the man's commitment, as well as his ability to avoid lockjaw, really.

Stan van Gundy talks turnovers, and yet doesn't remove Carter. Orlando has 14 tonight, 10 in the second half as I write this. Rondo at the line used to be a problem, but not anymore, and his two makes give the Celtics another lead. This one's looking on life support, given the Magic offense. Pierce takes a flop and is whistled for it. Nelson feeds Howard, who throws down thunder for the tie. Nice. Reddick steals, can't make the three, but Nelson boards it, then hits his own three. Wow. Magic back up by three with 4:30 left. Pierce gets a bailout call as Nelson keeps getting switched on him, which isn't exactly speaking much to the Magic defense, aka Carter. Two makes cuts it to one with four minutes left.

Lewis gets a call on Garnett, his second, and the Magic are actually going to the line now. Lewis continues his comeback game with two makes, and van Gundy actually swaps out Barnes for Carter. Manly! Pierce goes on Barnes and misses, but he blocks Nelson coming back. The Cs with a bad turn, as Garnett can't connect in the half court. The Magic walk it up, and Reddick feeds Lewis, who misses a relatively easy one. Pierce's three misses, and Garnett gets his third foul for over-the-top body work on the board. With 2:53 left, we go to commerce with the Magic up three and at the line.

Lewis to the line, and he only gets the second. Four point game, Carter on the bench. Rondo misses awkwardly, and Howard boards. Celtic Fan sounds worried, and he's got reason to be, as Nelson feeds Howard on half court pick and roll, and the center flushes it over Davis, and even makes the old school three. Seven point game all of a sudden. Pierce to the rack and slams; ouch. Howard misses on Davis, and the inevitable Ray Allen three makes it a two point game with 101 seconds left. Seriously, do teams in the NBA not watch film, to know that late in the game, the Cs want nothing more than Allen at the arc, and that maybe you should, you know, not lose him there? Gahhh. Reddick on the miss there.

Carter in for Barnes. Hoo boy. Nelson walks it up, then gets to the cup for a Davis foul that's marginal. He only makes the first, and it's a three point game, and that's just pathetic. Pierce on Carter for the old-school three, and it's Nelson's fifth foul to boot. If there's a worse big game player than Carter, I haven't seen him. Seriously, if he's had a good play in this game, I haven't seen it. Pierce ties it at the line with 71 seconds left. Nelson gets turned after overdribbling. Pierce misses over Nelson, but the Magic don't run, and Reddick calls time with 16 seconds on the clock, and 24.3 left in the game.

What option will the Magic choose -- Nelson overdribbling, Carter missing, Lewis turning it over, or Howard missing because he doesn't really have a post game? It's Nelson, and he misses, but Pierce in Hero Mode turns it on the other end without a time out, and if you've seen an uglier last possession in a game, you are one up on me. This sweep won't happen in regulation! Woo!

Carter is on the floor for the overtime. He's got 3 more points, and 2 more rebounds, in 26 minutes tonight than I do. Kudos, Vince. Howard wins the tip to Nelson, who feeds Reddick, and it's a travel with contact. Not encouraging. Allen hammers Reddick for no call, but Howard erases it, then gets to the line on a Pierce foul. Say this for Howard; that's pretty great athleticism for a big man in overtime. But it's not like he's good at the line, and yes, Orlando would have won this game in regulation had they taken care of business at the line. Two misses, but Pierce's three is horrible, and the Magic get the out of bounds board.

Nelson to Howard at the cup, but Perkins erases it. Manly. Lewis fouls Garnett and looks gassed doing it. Pierce takes Carter to the rack, misses, but gets an easy steal coming back. Garnett with a miss after elbowing Lewis in the neck for the entry pass. Nelson with a banked shot three, and that's the first points in the overtime, and pure luck. Allen misses a runner, and Howard boards. Nelson with a monstrous 3 out of a terrible possession, and we're 1:59 away from Game Five. The Magic point guard has the only points in the overtime, and the crowd is quiet in only the way that a spoiled crowd can be quiet.

van Gundy goes to Pietrus, but leaves Carter on the floor. Somehow, the Magic decide to leave Ray Allen wide open at the arc. No, seriously. The three is automatic, and honestly, I don't think the Magic are smart enough to win a basketball game right now. Allen now with 19 and 5, and he's 4 of 6 from the arc. Just a cascade failure of dumb there between Lewis and Barnes. van Gundy calls timeout to scream himself stupider.

Carter feeds Howard down low, who is blocked by Davis, but the second effort is a dunk and a foul. Wow. The free throw is missed, of course. Five point game. Guard Ray Allen? Nah, why do that? He hits a three off a curl, and it's a two point game with 1:13 left. Carter, surprise surprise, doesn't get to the shooter in time as the Lemur fellates Allen's mom. No, seriously. Air sickness bag, anyone?

Nelson walks it up, dribbles for 20 seconds, misses at the cup, but no one blocks out Howard for the putback. Perkins with the goat horns there; how you don't foul the hell out of him, I don't know. Might the Magic guard Ray Allen here? The Celtics are down four with 52.7 seconds left... and yes, they go, and get an unforced Garnett turnover for their effort. 42.7 left. Nelson walks it up, and turns it. Pierce misses two threes, but Nelson can't corral the loose ball, and that's his sixth foul. Just a terrible play on both sides there. 9.6 seconds left, and the Magic have had any number of chances to end this, and yet it's not over... but after the very worst possession you'll ever see, it is. The Celtics inbounded it, had Rondo dribble around like a goober, then settled for a Davis heave with 2 seconds left that missed. And that's that. The Magic avoid the sweep, mostly because Howard had 32-16-4. Howard thanks deities, who probably had more to do with this than Carter or van Gundy...

If you are a creature of hope, a playoff season where the Bruins and Celtics blow 3-0 deficits would be, well, The Bestus Year Ever. But realistically, Rondo won't get into foul trouble again, and Howard's not going to do this three more time in three more games. But a man can dream.