Magic Beat Up on Celtics

While you were all gung-ho for the Super Bowl yesterday, other sports remained in action. The NBA didn’t stop its action, putting on one of their premiere matchups on Super Bowl Sunday. The Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics 96-89 in a game that really wasn’t that close—at least not at the end anyway.

The Magic were being out-smarted throughout most of their matchup with Celtics yesterday. Many would say the Magic outplayed the Celtics in the opening half, but because of stupid turnovers and bad defense, the Celtics had an 11-point lead going into the locker room. But sometime in the third quarter, the Magic turned it on and put forth one of the best quarters of their season. They held the Celtics to just 11 points, while scoring 36 themselves, most of it coming at the hands of a 19-0 run that saw the Celtics age before our very eyes. The 4th quarter was basically a wash, as the Magic merely held the Celtics off and won the game more steadily than their 7-point margin of victory might indicate.

ESPN’s Chad Ford talks about how leaving Dwight Howard in the game, despite having four fouls in the 3rd quarter, was crucial to the Magic’s victory yesterday.