Boston Celtics at Orlando Magic, Game 6 (Celtics lead 3-2)
Unless you are a Celtics fan, you have to admit that the Orlando Magic have outplayed Boston overall in this Eastern semifinal and that the Magic have thrown away two games, which if the outcome was reversed would have them headed to face Cleveland in the conference finals.
But credit to the Celtics for making all the big plays at the end of the past two games. Boston takes a 3-2 lead into Orlando tonight for Game 6, and the future doesn’t look rosy for the Magic considering the Celtics are 32-for-32 in series when they lead 3-2.
Yet Orlando is a 7-point WagerWeb.com to return this series to Boston for a Game 7 – in which the Celtics are 17-3, by the way.
The question is how much that Magic center Dwight Howard will get the ball tonight? He called out coach Stan Van Gundy following Game 5, when he had 12 points and 17 rebounds but just 10 shots and none in the final 10 minutes.
“You got a dominant player, let him be dominant,” Howard said, among other things, in the postgame press conference.
But ESPN.com dug up a good stat that showed the Magic were 16-7 during the regular season when Howard attempted 10 field goals or fewer, a .696 winning percentage that comes close to their .720 mark overall. And Howard 10 shots or fewer in 23 of the 79 games he played and averaged only 12.4 per game on the season. So it’s not like this was anything that different.
The big man apologized on Wednesday, and Van Gundy called a team meeting when he originally had planned to give his players the day off. The issue seems buried now, although Van Gundy did say he thought Howard’s energy was only outstanding in Game 3 of this series.
Howard is averaging just 16 points and shooting 54 percent (31-of-57) in the series, but he’s also a bad foul shooter, so it’s tough to get him the ball down the stretch. Still, look for the Magic to feed him early, especially since Boston has no one to guard him if Kendrick Perkins gets into foul trouble.
Boston’s Paul Pierce has really come on in the past two games, averaging 23 points and shooting 57 percent during that stretch. If he has numbers similar to that tonight, this series is probably over. And Glen Davis has been a huge part of Boston’s past two wins as well.
Orlando has lost six straight games when facing playoff elimination.
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