The third place of the Eastern Conference in the regular season, the Orlando Magic, dethroned the current NBA champions the Boston Celtics by winning the seventh game of the series 101- 82 this past Sunday.
The Magic played an incredible game as visitors, having an aggressive defense and shooting 13 of 21 from the three-point line. On the other hand, the Celtics seemed out of gas and played an unusual game at home, shooting poorly from the field goal for a 39.2% as well at the three-point line for just 25%. The Celtics fans were shocked about the low performance of the current NBA champions and how bad they looked during the game, but it was just too much magic for them.
Since the beginning of the game, the Orlando got an early lead with just 5:02 remaining with a score of 22-9. However, the Celtics tried to cut the lead and finished the first quarter losing 27-17. In the second quarter, things got rough for the NBA Champions who even though they were trying to come back in the game, the Magic did not let them to come closer that easy and took a lead up to 15 points. Nevertheless, the Celtics had a good run that gave them hope, cutting the score 45-38 at halftime.
Entering the second half of the game, it seemed that Coach Rivers had a great talk with his players, who came to the game more aggressive and with more desire than ever. The Celtics were down only four points with 6:36 remaining in the third quarter by a great shot of Ray Allen. But after that play, Orlando’s shooting guard J.J. Redick, made a three point shot and increased the lead again to 7 points. The quarter finished with a score of 66-61 to Orlando.
At the last quarter, Turkoglu and Howard took dominated the game for the Magic; the Turk made 10 points during that quarter and Howard had the control of the boards. Ray Allen tried to help his team but it was too much for him to handle alone. At the end with a great run of 13-0, Orlando closed the game and dethroned the NBA champion at home with a final score of 101-82.
The best scorers for the Orlando Magic were Hedo Turkoglu with 25 points, 12 assists and 5 rebounds, Rashard Lewis with 19 points and 5 rebounds, Mickael Pietrus with 17 points, Rafer Alston 15 points and 4 assists and finally Dwight Howard with 12 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks. Whereas for the Celtics the best scorers were Ray Allen with 23 points, Paul Pierce with 16 points, Glen Davis with 13 points and 4 rebounds, Rajon Rondo with 10 points and 10 assists and Kendrick Perkins with 8 points and 15 rebounds.
With this incredible triumph, the Orlando Magic is hoping for a great performance on this Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is a favorite contender to win the NBA Championship this year. However the Magic also knows its team has great players and great coaches that can take the team to the next level and get to the NBA Finals.
