Celtics Show Magic It Ain't All About the Three

We're going streaking!!! Tonight was a BIG win, although no one from the team will say so ("Every game's important"..."One game at a time", etc. etc.) Well, team, anytime you beat a conference powerhouse with a legit MVP candidate, who has just gone 4-0 on a West coast road trip defeating all the division leaders out there, it's a BIG win.

Once again, the bench came up huge. House couldn't find the range this time, but luckily, Big Baby was knocking down everything from "baby" hooks to 17- to 18-foot jumpers. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.....this is not my Batman glass. You might be asking, "This 350-pound behemoth made 4 jumpers from beyond 15 feet, and two other jump hooks from 7 and 8 feet?!?" Yes. He did. And he's actually had that shot the entire year. He's consistently worked on it and can knock it down pretty frequently when given the opportunity. It worked especially well tonight because Howard refused to go out and guard Davis when he moved out beyond the paint. Davis also did an admirable job on Superman, holding him to just 11 points and 11 rebounds, which is like holding Bill Russell to only two handfuls of championship rings instead of the two-and-one tenth handfuls he actually got. (I can't tell if that analogy made sense, but whatever.) It was really reminiscent of Scal the other night holding Beasley to 6-16 shooting. 

The game itself was again sloppy, again by both teams. The Celtics committed a 2006-07-esque 21 turnovers, which didn't hurt us too badly because we recovered our D for the most part. With regards to offense, we came in knowing the Magic were a 3-point shooting machine, which as we know from our Antoine days, can be a great thing or a curse. Tonight, as in the last time we played them, was a curse. The great thing about these types of teams is that even if they're shooting 0-40 from beyond the arc, they keep popping them. They were only 7-22 tonight, which saved us from the loss. On the other side of the spectrum, we only attempted 6 (missed them all). But our relentless attack in the paint led to Howard fouling out at a crucial moment in the game (around 2:30 left in the 4th with the Magic making some noise). One thing I didn't like is that when Howard got his 5th, we went a few possessions without attacking the paint. Listen. When you've got a player as dominant as Howard in foul trouble, you've GOT to go at him and try and get him outta there. Luckily, we eventually did and got away with the W. Pierce was solid and took advantage of the lesser Turkoglu, scoring 27, three of which came on an old-fashioned, vintage Pierce play in which he upfaked, had Hedo fall into him, faded away, and knocked it down. LOVE watching those fall. 

Great game tonight and we're now at 7 games in a row. Do I smell 19 again? Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We showed great composure down the stretch and now we get a few days off before we match up with the Mavericks on Sunday.

Anything else you noticed about this game? Does this game show that the C's are still the champs and the team to beat, or are Cleveland and the Lakers still at the top? Discuss.