Orlando’s Game 4 tease won’t faze these Celtics

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Mike Parente, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

I usually don’t stay awake past midnight for the sole purpose of being teased unless I’m six Jagerbombs deep in the VIP lounge at the Satin Doll.

Monday happened to be one of those rare exceptions. Instead of getting a decent night’s sleep – like most fans without a horse in this race would do – I sat wide-eyed and bushy-tailed watching both one of the greatest and most meaningless basketball games I’ve ever seen.

Orlando’s 96-92 Game 4 overtime victory against Boston in the Eastern Conference finals was one for the ages, but not one for the aged, such as yours truly, who could barely stay awake long enough to gaze into Stuart Scott’s lazy eye. And while a game like this one should have been more exciting and pivotal, it simply wasn’t thanks to the fact the Magic faced an insurmountable three-games-to-none deficit before they even took the court Monday night.

As a result, this victory – this thrilling, gut-check win – will do nothing but rack up airline points for both teams. Even with the series returning to Orlando for Game 5 Wednesday, it would take a Boston Bruins-style meltdown for the Celtics to let another trip to the Finals slip away. Tiger Woods will remarry before two teams from the same city cough up 3-0 series leads within two weeks of one another.

Quite frankly, it’s a shame we haven’t had more games like this in the conference finals. With the way these two teams matched up on paper, this should’ve been a competitive series with plot twists, late-game heroics and critical turning points. Instead, we’ve been treated to three no-shows by the Magic and one legit “game” in which both teams took us on a rollercoaster ride of excitement before Orlando pulled away in overtime.

The end result of Monday’s thriller was equal parts grit by Orlando and ineptitude by Boston. Despite horrific execution throughout the night, the Celtics rallied from a seven-point deficit in the closing minutes of regulation before unraveling one last time. They got away from what brought them here; they stopped being smart and started being selfish, which resulted in a painful three-and-a-half minute stretch in overtime in which they failed to hit a basket. By then, Orlando had already opened up a six-point lead on back-to-back threes by Jameer Nelson and was well on its way to sending this series back to the Sunshine State for at least one more night.

There’s no need to panic if you’re a Boston fan, even if you’re still wallowing in the Bruins’ epic collapse against the Flyers. For starters, the Celtics are actually a better road team, which is where they’ll be Wednesday when Game 5 tips off at the Amway Arena. Since the postseason began, they’re 5-2 away from home. And – unlike the Bruins, who lacked balanced scoring by NHL standards – the Celtics still have the “Big 3” of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and it’d take a defensive game plan of military proportions to shut each of them down for the next three games. That’s not even including Rajon Rondo, who is arguably as big a scoring threat as anybody in this series right now.

Conversely, the Magic can’t survive much longer without some sort of effort from Rashard Lewis. Orlando’s $18-million corpse gave us another inspiring performance Monday with as many fouls (4) as field goals, though it’s worth nothing his 13 points were a series high, eclipsing his six-point “outburst” in Game 1. And while we were all impressed to see Nelson remembered where the basket was in Game 4, how much longer will the Celtics allow him to drive the lane unmolested before someone delivers a Greg Valentine clothesline to set him straight? Trust me, it’s worth the foul if it takes him out of his element.

To put it bluntly, Orlando’s win on Monday does absolutely nothing to change the landscape of this series. The Magic would need to win Wednesday, too, before rear-ends in Boston begin to clench. Until then, this epic, edge-of-your-threat thriller will go down as nothing more than a pointless tease – minus the sultry horseplay and overpriced drinks.