Magic beat Celts: Orlando 119 - Boston 111

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     Coming off their close loss to the Heat last night, the Celts
showed some signs of fatigue this evening in Orlando. After playing a
fine first half (59-51 lead at the break), the Celts were hit with a
40-22 third quarter by the Magic.  The Celts managed to get the lead
down to 3 points with 1:16 left in the game, but twice gave up
offensive rebounds off missed free throws.=20
     The first quarter shaped up as a scoring duel between Todd Day
and Rony Seikaly.  Siekaly scored 10 of the first 14 Magic points
while Day put in 8 of the C's first 16.  The Celts built themselves a
comfy 27-21 lead with about 2:30 to go in the period, but M.L. tried
to get some of his bench into the game.  The Magic took advantage and
went on a 7-3 run to make the score 30-28 at the end of the first
period.  Day had 13 in the quarter, Seikaly had 12.
     The C's continued to get strong offensive play, especially from
=46ox and Williams, in the second quarter.  They had slowly built a 5
point lead at 47-42, when M.L. rested Wesley (his only break of the
game I believe).  The C's had actually increased the lead by a couple
when Wesley came back into the game (53-46).  The Celts briefly got
the lead up to 10 at 58-48.  The half ended with the score at 59-51.
Siekaly had 26 points in the first half as the Celts refused to
doubleteam him.
     The Magic pulled all their respective tricks out of their sleeves
to start the 3rd.  They tightened their defensive intensity and went
to the guard matchups.  Hardaway and Anderson combined for the first
20 Magic points of the period and by the time they were done Orlando
and pulled to within 2 at 73-71.  Then Dennis Scott hit a three to put
the Magic in front for the first time since they led at 8-6.  At 74-73
they never trailed again in the game.  By the end of the quarter their
lead was up to ten at 91-81.
     The Celts would not give up.  They slowly chipped away at the
Orlando lead throughout the quarter, but it still stood at 9 110-101
with 3:15 to go.  The Celts went on an 8-2 run to bring the margin
down to three with 1:16 left.  Walker fouled Siekaly and Rony missed
both free throws.  It looked as though Walker had tracked down the
rebound (giving the Celts a chance to tie the game), but Eric Williams
was called for a loose ball foul.  Brian Shaw hit both free throws to
put the Magic up by 5.  On the next play Wesley turned the ball over
and the game was pretty much finished.  The Heat hit 5 more free
throws to make the final score 119-111.
     The Celts shot the ball very well tonight (.518 overall, .600
from 3land!) while the Heat were .545, but only .357 on 3's.  By
current standards the Celts should have won the game easily.  In a big
turnaround from recent games though, the Celts only had 10 offensive
boards (11 for Orlando) and had 4 more turnovers than Orlando.
Because of this the Heat had 19 more free throws than the C's (the
Celts had 4 more shots from the field: whether the extra Magic
possessions turned up as shots or free throws didn't make much
difference as they were only 64% from the line).  Although the Celts
got 12 steals in the game, the Magic only had 17 turnovers, so they
made very few unforced errors.

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Fox, Williams, Walker
         Magic- Hardaway, Anderson, Scott, Strong, Seikaly

Players- Fox- The Magic held him to 30 tonight (this is getting
strange).  Rick shot 11-18 (3-4 on threes), 4 boards, 4 assists and 5
steals. =20

Wesley- More than any of the Celts showed the effects of the
back-to-back.  5-15 from the field for 14 points, 12 assists, 6 steals
and 6 turnovers.  Made a lot of unforced errors and missed some very
easy shots.=20

Williams- Scored 21 and made any number of terrific moves.  Shot 9-13
from the field, hit a couple of jumpers and made an amazing 360 spin.

Day- Was extremely hot early as he hit 7 of his first 8 shots.  Ended
the game with 25 points and 7 boards.  Shot 4-5 from 3land.  Of course
Todd's problem is that if he gets hot at the beginning of the game, he
has to keep shooting until his FG% gets back down below .500.

Walker- got taken out of the game by Seikaly's hot start (and maybe
Day's too).  Uncharacteristically M.L. backed down and took Walker out
of the game in favor of Lister and Conlon.  As a result Walker only
got 34 minutes.  Scored 13 points, 5 boards (only 2 offensive), 3
assists, and 4 turnovers (0 steals).  Siekaly played Walker and sagged
way off him.  Walker didn't try to hit the jumper over him and only
tried to drive on him a couple of times.

Conlon- also a slow game.  6 points and 3 boards in 21 minutes.

Lister- Lister came in and tried to keep Seikaly under control.
Wasn't that successful, but he did have 7 boards and a block in 11
minutes.

Hamer/Szabo- 4 fouls in 6 minutes.

Coaching- M.L. let the Magic dictate the matchups in this game.  When
Seikaly scored so much early he went away from the small lineup to a
degree.  Walker and Williams who have both been consistently over 40
minutes a game recently, played 34 and 38 respectively.  That took a
lot of stream out of the Celt's pressure game.  The C's bench players
(who got a total of 38 minutes - a lot for them) committed 10 of the
Celt's 29 fouls. =20

Seikaly- scored 32 points on 11-17 shooting and 10-17 from the line,
12 boards, 4 steals and 4 blocks.  Although, Seikaly is no Shaq, it's
astonishing that the Magic could come up with someone this solid to
replace him.  Since the old Magic never added up to the sum of their
parts (since Hardaway and O'Neil weren't really complimentary
players), they don't need a player as good as Shaq to be as effective
as they were.  It sure changes the expectations for them, though.

The Celts record is now 11-35.  They are off until after the all-Star
break (they play again next Tuesday in ClipperLand).  That marks the
start of a 7 game West coast Odyssey.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.com