The Orlando Magic has only one goal: to stay alive. Without giving too much thought to the fact that nobody has won a series after a 3-0, ever, their mind is set on one objective: winning their next game. With their last game they won for the second time in a row, and the series is now 3-2 as the location of their next game shifts to Boston once again.
For Orlando, Jameer Nelson had a good performance of 24 points, 5 assist and 5 rebounds, while Rashard Lewis contributed with 7 rebounds and 14 points, Dwight Howard, with another double-double, is at 21 points, 10 rebounds and a really impressive 5 blocks; coming out from the bench and with a couple of well timed 3 pointers is J.J. Redick, getting 14 points.
Last night, Orlando not only won against Boston, but also played a very strong game of basketball. They showed a terrific performance, took the advantage from early in the game and never let go. The 3 big guys from Boston never seemed to catch up with the game and had just average numbers; this time Garnet and Allen barely contributed points to their team.
With only 36 seconds remaining in the first half, Kendrick Perkins got his second technical foul and was ejected from the game. Not only did this put his team in an awkward situation for the game, but they got into a lot more risk since this was the 7th technical foul in the playoff, which has a penalty of 1 game suspension. But the worst part was that the Celtics left Orlando very bruised; Glen Davis left the court in the last seconds of the third quarter after suffering an accidental hit from the elbow of Dwight Howard as he stumbled trying to get up, and once he finally did it he almost fell to the ground just a couple of steps later, hadn't referee Joe Crawford caught his fall. He did not return to the game anymore, in order to prevent any further harm to himself, due to a concussion. Just a couple of minutes after that incident Marquis Daniels got a concussion as well after smashing his head against Gortat's chest. Boston's top scorer of the night, Rasheed Wallace, also left the court in a foul out with a tweaked back.
The next game will take place Friday night in TD Garden in Boston. Maybe this beat down from Orlando (both score-wise and physically) is what Boston needed to recover the momentum they had at the beginning of the series.
* Updated: The NBA has just announced that the second technical foul on Kendrick Perkins has been rescinded and that he will be allowed to play in the 6th game of the series. Now Perk has to stay away from his next technical or he could miss an even more important game if the series continues to the 7th game, or his team advances to the finals.