Celtics:94 Magic:71 Series Celtics Lead 3-0.
If that word's meaning resembles that of "complete and total annihilation", you're on the right track.
There are just too many things that the Boston Celtics did better than the Orlando Magic to single out technical reasons for their 94-71 Game 3 victory. They shot better, helped on defense better, found the open man better and just about anything else you can think of. But above all, the reason the Celtics are now four quarters away from returning to the NBA Finals is simple: they fought harder.
Sure, it's a sports clich to say that one team just wanted it more -- and really, both teams "wanted" to win -- but the Celtics showed it, and everyone saw it.
"Our heart, it seemed like it wasn't into it," Dwight Howard said.
"They played harder and wanted it," Matt Barnes said.
"I just didn't think we stayed with the fight very well at all," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.
You don't hold an opponent to 74.6 points per 100 possessions through three quarters without battling, nor do you get the opponent's coach talking about keeping his team from escaping if you aren't breathing fire. But the most talked-about sequence of the game, one single first-half possession, encapsulated everything.
With 8:37 to play in the second quarter, with the Celtics already out to a 17-point lead, J.J. Redick threw an errant pass to Mickael Pietrus that was deflected far into the backcourt. Chasing was Jason Williams, who loped after the ball, either unaware of or undeterred by Rajon Rondo's pursuit. Williams bent down to pick up the ball, Rondo dove. The ball went to the effort, and Rondo made the legal play of standing with the ball before dribbling in for a layup.
"That play was just one of the plays you could point to that was indicative of what was going on," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. " We went sideways mentally and our effort dropped everywhere else."
It was a play that NBA players just don't typically make, and it sunk the Magic, who were never closer than 15 the rest of the way.
It was also the sort of play Rondo has been making throughout the playoffs.
"I told him, that was probably the play of the playoffs to me," Kevin Garnett said. "Pure hustle, pure basketball, pure "I want it more than you".
Beyond Rondo, who very well might be the player of the 2010 postseason, the thrashing was just another example of the Celtics putting their opponents on their heels from the word "Go", and those opponents never, ever, looking like themselves.
It happened against the Miami Heat, when the Celtics did everything in their power to take Dwyane Wade out of the game. They forced the Cleveland Cavaliers into a mode of constant adjustment to what they were doing, rather than forcing Boston to make its own changes.
And against Orlando, the Celtics took away its favorite thing: the three. With Kendrick Perkins playing all-league defense on Howard, the Celtics almost never have to double the post, allowing minimal space for Orlando's many shooters to catch and shoot. So, on every pass, the Celtics can swarm -- allowing just 8-of-30 from deep -- and rather than swarm back, the Magic dissipated into a group of individuals, and ran.
"[There] wasn't a lot of "my faults" tonight," Garnett said. "It was responsible and everybody was doing what they were supposed to do."
That on-court accountability is what the Magic lack. Van Gundy can point the finger at himself as much as he wants -- he did, plenty -- but eventually, blame has to not matter. And the Magic have one day to figure it all out.
"When things are bad, you want to escape from it," Van Gundy said."That's going to be everybody's natural reaction, escape and try to escape blame as much as you can.So it gets placed somewhere else. I'm not saying our guys will do that, I'm saying that's everybody's natural inclination.
"And it takes very mature, very mentally tough people to stand up and say 'No, I'm part of this and we're going to pull together.' That's not an easy thing to do.It goes against everybody's human nature right now, but if we don't have that kind of toughness, then we shouldn't be here anyway."
