Round 2 Game 3 : Celtics @ Magic - Friday, May 8th (1-1)

[SichtingLives]

Very disappointing. Horrible team effort in the first half. Nice run in the second half and then they ran out of steam.

Listen up: Paul Pierce played his ass off in the second half and scored I think almost 20 of his 27 points. He did not shoot for a good percentage, but he played his ass off. HE WAS PLAYING BY HIMSELF GODDAMIT EXCEPT FOR EDDIE. Yeah Turkeyglu beat him a few times cause he was wasted - so **** what.

I'm glad you pointed that out, in my frustration I never once mentioned it but Paul did a helluva job driving and creating contact and offense in the 2nd half.

I'm sure not everyone agrees with me but I thought Rajon did a really poor job of distributing the ball tonight and hitting the right guys in the right spots. Usually that is one his strongest attributes, but there were times in the late 2nd quarter and 2nd half in particular that he was just running around looking to be the offense and finally bailing to Ray in the corner or Scal or a dumpoff to Baby/Perk instead of looking for a hot Paul Pierce or Eddie House. I can't say for sure, but he all talked all kinds of stuff in interviews after Game 2 and methinks he got a little ahead of himself tonight.

I can find a lot of blame for most anyone through the entire 48 minutes of this game, but Rondo is the guy who sets the pace and tone of our offense. IMO, he did a very poor job at that tonight, and it at least contributed to a lot of our offensive problems. I def. don't anticipate this to be a problem further down the road but I've been saying for the last two years (in various places), as Rondo goes, so goes the team. The kid's got big shoes to fill, I'm confident he can, but he played outside of his own game tonight.

[SichtingLives]

Oh, and just to give credit where it's due, the Magic played some pretty good D throughout. They made us earn our points and we just didn't earn enough of em'.

[Red2]

celts don't ever take the easy road. this was a very predictable loss to me; the moment alston was suspened I knew we would lose. we have no killer instinct and we came out with not focus. instead of taking advantage of alston being out we just rolled over. to win this series our guards have to play well. ray and rondo need to lead the charge

[BlameTheRefs]

Hopefully Alston starts on Sunday, I don't want old man AJ torching us again

[SichtingLives]

celts don't ever take the easy road. this was a very predictable loss to me; the moment alston was suspened I knew we would lose. we have no killer instinct and we came out with not focus. instead of taking advantage of alston being out we just rolled over. to win this series our guards have to play well. ray and rondo need to lead the charge

That's pretty interesting, and you're not the only person I heard saying that before the game either. I didn't think much of it either way........but what do you think about AJ throwing down that dunk early? I thought those guys got their confidence right off the bat and Johnson actually played as good as I've seen him play in years (even though he was nothing spectacular). I figured Rondo would eat his lunch after picking his pocket so easily in Game 1, but as I said earlier I really think Rondo let that blowout and all the media nuthugging go straight to his head.

Anyway, the only thing I can call this Celtic team at this point is unpredictable. I'm just gonna sit back and watch because I don't think anything, however good or bad, will shock me at this point.

[Red2]

celts will win in 7

[CourtsideTV]

wow what a battle..you guys alway fight through it. im just happy magic showed up. celtics are a very dangerous team when they are on. I think the reffing was more fair and the outcome showed that.

[Fencer reregistered]

He is not going to be suspended for that.

Well...I hope not. But damn..it's basically the same exact play Fisher made. If he doesn't get suspended...the league will give us hell for it, for the next 600 years...

If it matters, I dont think it was malicious as Fishers was, 100% blatent.. Perkins definitely hit Pietrus in the neck but I dont think its worth a suspension.. he got a flagrant which seemed good enough. If there was more force in it though, definitely.

I didnt think Alston should have been suspended though, so going off that Perkins prob will be.[/quote]

Hinrich hit Rondo in the throat just as hard, in his case after the play was over, and almost nobody except me even raised the subject of suspending him.

[ORLd12]

You guys' composure amazes me. How you are able to come back against everybody no matter what has previously happened. At home and on the road. I guess that comes with playoff (and championship) experience. I have a lot of respect for your team in that sense.

Honest curious question, what do you think the series would be like if you had KG and we had no Dwight, but we had Jameer and you had no Rondo?

Rondo is playing amazing this playoffs. The guy can be just brilliant. It's amazing to watch at times. What a player you guys have in him.

Is there a way for your mods to ban certain Magic homers from posting on your board? Some of this is absolutely ridiculous and doesn't represent the majority of Magic fans at all. Notice how these guys only post when we win. You never hear from them after losses.

[Fencer reregistered]

Oh, and just to give credit where it's due, the Magic played some pretty good D throughout. They made us earn our points and we just didn't earn enough of em'.

That was the story of the game for a long time. Breakdowns on dribble penetration notwithstanding, the Cs' defensive numbers in the first half weren't terrible; their offensive numbers were.

[meatball sub]

Honest curious question, what do you think the series would be like if you had KG and we had no Dwight, but we had Jameer and you had no Rondo?

Interesting scenario. I think you'd see your team's defense suffer much like ours has in KG's absence. While Rondo is important to this team's success, he's no where near as important as KG. However, we wouldn't be the champs without either of them. But without KG, we have no defensive identity and it's frustrating as hell to watch us play basketball.

I think you could say the same about the Magic if they didn't have D-12 patrolling the paint. You'd have no true inside presence just like we really don't right now. Perk is good, but he never should be a guy we rely on to score.

We're still a good team without KG, but we're not going anywhere without him. The same can be said for the Magic if everyone besides Dwight were healthy.

[BillessuR6]

What a horrible, horrible defensive performance again...we couldn`t beat the clippers yesterday...

[Kefa461]

The boys will get the next one......

[Fan from day 1]

You guys' composure amazes me. How you are able to come back against everybody no matter what has previously happened. At home and on the road. I guess that comes with playoff (and championship) experience. I have a lot of respect for your team in that sense.

Honest curious question, what do you think the series would be like if you had KG and we had no Dwight, but we had Jameer and you had no Rondo?

Rondo is playing amazing this playoffs. The guy can be just brilliant. It's amazing to watch at times. What a player you guys have in him.

Is there a way for your mods to ban certain Magic homers from posting on your board? Some of this is absolutely ridiculous and doesn't represent the majority of Magic fans at all. Notice how these guys only post when we win. You never hear from them after losses.

you are a pussy

[ORLd12]

LOL just because I'm a Magic fan doesn't mean I can't appreciate the other teams. If I want to say something bad about the Celts, I'll do it on our board not here. Am I less of a fan because I don't talk trash every post?

[MVE85]

Im honestly starting to forget what this team is like when we have KG, he hasnt played solid minutes in months. Games like last night when they come out flat and beat from the get go are perfect scenarios to how KG helped us. All they needed were some defensive stops to get that run going in the 3rd....they just waited too long for it to happen. If KG was on the court the D is 100x better and we have another option when Ray and/or Paul are ice cold like they have been these last couple.

[Thunder7]

Did anyone see when the Magic blew the game open, KG pointed to his watch and yelled "IT'S TIME, IT'S TIME!" They showed it on ESPN and even mentioned it. What does this mean??

[meatball sub]

Did anyone see when the Magic blew the game open, KG pointed to his watch and yelled "IT'S TIME, IT'S TIME!" They showed it on ESPN and even mentioned it. What does this mean??

I think he was just saying, "We still got time," even though we were down 18 with 5 minutes left. While it was pretty obnoxious, that's the type of attitude he brings to this team when he's playing. There's only so much he can do from the bench, though.