Five Alive Magic beat Celtics in game four overtime
At the end of game three the chant coming from the stands in TD Garden was “Beat LA!”, but first the Boston Celtics will have to beat Orlando after they lost game four in overtime.
It was Orlando’s duo of Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson who helped the Magic force a game five, scoring 55 points between them to beat the Celtics 96-92. Howard also pulled down 16 rebounds and blocked four shots and Nelson added nine assists and scored the first six points of overtime to avoid the four-game sweep.
Although Nelson and Howard stole the show for Orlando it was Boston’s offensive inefficiency which handed Orlando the win.
"There were a couple of plays down the stretch offensively that we botched, plain and simple. We're kicking ourselves. We had a great opportunity," said Boston’s shooting guard Ray Allen.
"There's no need to panic. We like the position we're in. But it's a lesson: We have to take care of the small things and we'll get to where we want to be."
The city of Boston will be hoping the game four OT loss isn’t an omen, the Boston Bruins also lost their game four in the Stanley Cup play-offs whilst being 3-0 up. The outcome of that series? The Bruins went on to lose in seven games.
But the Magic will take anything given to them and the team knows they have to take one game at a time if they are going to climb out of the hole they find themselves in.
“We know that we were down 3-0, and we didn't want to go home [for the season]," Howard said.
"It starts with me and Jameer. Me and Jameer showed our leadership by playing hard. We've got to be the leaders for this team. It's not about points, but just showing everybody, 'Hey, follow us and we'll lead the way.'"
If they do come back from 3-0 down it will be the first time a team has done so in NBA history.
"At some point, somebody is going to come from 3-0 down and win a series. The only thing I knew for sure was it would start by winning Game 4. I figured that one out. You have to win Game 4. ... This was a must-win,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Game five heads back to Orlando and once again it will be win or go home for Van Gundy’s men.
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