Game of the day: Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics
By: Nick Parsons
The Celtics set their sites on an unlikely sweep in tonight's Eastern Conference finals. After winning eight straight playoff games, the Magic trail the series 3-0. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.
To be the best...
The Boston Celtics have beaten the NBA's best regular season teams so far in the playoffs. They knocked off Cleveland with its NBA best 61 regular-season wins and now are on the verge of beating Orlando who had the best record in the game after Jan. 1.
Who's next, the Lakers?
Boston raced out to a 21-6 lead in Saturday's 94-71 win and never looked back.
Blowout city
The Celtics aren?t just winning these games, they?re rolling. Rajon Rondo, who has emerged as the perhaps the best player on team known for their ?Big 3? had 12 assists in Saturday?s blowout. The Magic had just 10 as a team.
And Rondo's hustle and steal in a duel against Orlando's Jason Williams were all the rave on the highlight shows after the game. The Celtics seem to just want it more.
After Boston swept Orlando on the road, Paul Pierce said the series was not going to come back to Florida. While Celtics coach Doc Rivers told his star to hush, Boston seems to be backing up Pierce's boasts.
Boston has not only won all three games, they've covered the spread in everyone easily. All three games have gone under the total.
Break out the brooms
Ray Allen is banking on the sweep. "Monday is do or die for us," he said.
Said Rivers: "They're going to come back in the next game and they're going to give us their best shot. Quite honestly, we're not good enough to let up. I can tell you that. And they're good enough to get it going. And so we have to be very conscious of that."
Superman to the rescue?
Dwight Howard had just seven points and seven rebounds Saturday night.
"They played a lot harder than us tonight," said Howard. "They went after all the loose balls. And they did it from tip-off to the end of the game.
"It seemed like tonight our bodies were here but our minds weren't. Our hearts -- it seemed like we weren't really into it."
Howard concluded: "We can't hold our heads. This is a very tough situation, but if we already think about being defeated, then we shouldn't even come for Game 4. So we got to just keep fighting and stay together."
Injury report
Orlando's Matt Barnes played 15 minutes with a sore back in Saturday's loss. He could have played more but why bother. He'll be probable for tonight's game.
The Celtics are old, but healthy.
Trend-setting
While Orlando has great numbers on the road as of late, remember that they finished the season so well and then won eight straight games to start the playoffs.
Are the numbers skewed for this one?
Here they are:
The Magic are 20-8-1 ATS in their last 29 games.
The underdog is 7-1 in the last eight games in this series.
The Magic are 6-1 ATS in their last seven road games.
The C's have covered the spread in six straight and are 7-1 ATS against teams with a winning record. On the downside, Boston is 9-21-1 ATS after winning a game by more than 10 points.
Game 4, Orlando at Boston
By Brian Edwards
If you weren’t playing close attention to Saturday night’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, you might’ve mistaken the Orlando Magic for the Atlanta Hawks. In other words, like Mike Woodson’s (former) team in the East semifinals against the Magic, Orlando brought no fight, no intensity, no heart and no competitive fire to a must-win game against the Celtics.
The result was a 94-71 shellacking that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicated. Other results could follow. Translation: Like Woodson, Stan Van Gundy is now on a boiling hot seat and that might also apply to General Manager Otis Smith. To his credit, SVG stepped up at the post-game press conference, pointing all of the blame at himself for his club’s atrocious performance.
Dwight Howard should thank his head coach for taking the bullet of blame. He went 3-for-10 from the field and 1-of-4 at the charity stripe, finishing with only seven points and seven rebounds in 39-plus minutes of playing time. His plus-minus rating was a team-worst -29.
Rashard Lewis should also thank Van Gundy for taking one for the team (or him). Talk about non-existent in a series! Lewis, who owns a $118 million contract, has been a complete no-show. In Game 3, he had just as many points (four) as he had turnovers.
But that’s enough about the Magic. At this point, it’s time to offer props galore to the Celtics.
Boston (61-35 straight up, 44-50- against the spread) now has a shocking and commanding 3-0 series lead and will attempt to deal out broom treatment at home Monday night. Most betting shops have installed the Celtics as seven-point favorites to do just that in Monday’s Game 4.
The total was 188 as of late Sunday afternoon. Bettors can take Orlando (67-26 SU, 53-38-2 ATS) to win outright for a plus-280 payout (risk $100 to win $280).
Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis came off the bench to score a game-high 17 points in Game 3, while Rajon Rondo finished with 11 points, 12 assists and four steals. Paul Pierce added 15 points and nine rebounds, while Ray Allen had 14 points, six assists and six boards.
The C’s raced out to a 27-12 lead at the end of the first quarter and the Magic never threatened to make it a game the rest of the way. By halftime, you knew the game and the series was over. Orlando’s body language said it all, as the team looked bloodied and beaten.
Now Van Gundy’s bunch is looking at its most generous underdog spot of the season. The Magic have been a six-point underdog three times this year, going 1-1-1 ATS in games at Boston, at the Lakers and at Cleveland. They won 83-78 at Boston way back on Nov. 20, lost 98-92 to L.A. on Jan. 18 and lost 115-106 to the Cavs on Feb. 11.
Doc Rivers’s squad has now won six in a row both SU and ATS since losing Game 3 at home to the Cavs in the East semifinals.
The ‘under’ has cashed in five consecutive Orlando games. The ‘under’ is 55-36-2 overall for Orlando, 30-16 in its road assignments. Meanwhile, the Celtics have watched the ‘under’ go 48-47-1 overall, but the ‘over’ is 24-23-1 in their home games.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.
**B.E.’s Bonus Nuggets**
Rashard Lewis had six points in Game 1, five in Game 2 and four in Game 3. His shooting performances from the field have looked like this: 2-for-10, 2-for-6 and 2-for-8. By my math, that’s 6-for-24 from the field for a pathetic 25-percent clip. Lewis averaged 14.1 points per game and shot 43.5-percent from the floor during the regular season. Obviously, that’s not the postseason production you want out of a player whose contract is for more than $100 million.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel issued Sweep Dreams to the Magic’s season after the Game 3 debacle.
Ira Winderman, who is the Miami Heat’s long-time beat writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, thinks Udonis Haslem might be that toughness piece the Magic could use next season.
vegasinsider.com
NBA PLAYOFFS
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Orlando (8-3 SU, 7-4 ATS) at Boston (11-3 SU and ATS)
The red-hot Celtics aim to complete a shocking sweep of the second-seeded Magic in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals at TD Garden.
Boston hammered a desperate Orlando team Saturday night, allowing just 12 first-quarter points on the way to a 94-71 bashing as a 3½-point home favorite to take an ostensibly insurmountable 3-0 series lead. Glen Davis (17 points) led a balanced attack, as six Celtics scored in double figures, with Rajon Rondo netting a dozen assists to go with his 11 points. Boston, the No. 4 seed in the East, also forced 17 turnovers and committed just nine.
Boston has now won six in a row SU and ATS against the teams that posted the top two regular-season records, taking Games 4, 5 and 6 from the top-seeded Cavs before snagging the first three from the Magic.
Orlando had only three players score in double figures Saturday, and none were named Dwight Howard, who had a meager seven points and seven rebounds. Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson scored 15 apiece, but the Magic shot a dismal 36.9 percent (24 of 65), hitting just 8 of 30 from three-point land (26.7 percent). Stan Van Gundy’s troops allowed the Celtics to shoot 46.6 percent overall (34 of 73) and 54.5 percent from long distance (6 of 11).
No team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-7 NBA playoff series, in 93 previous opportunities.
Boston is 5-1 ATS (4-2 SU) in the last six meetings with Orlando, and the Celts’ SU and ATS win in Game 3 halted a 7-0 ATS tear by the visitor and the underdog in this rivalry, a streak that dated to Game 7 of last year’s second-round playoff series – won by Orlando. Doc Rivers’ squad is 15-7 ATS in its last 22 home starts against the Magic.
The SU winner has cashed in each of Boston’s last 24 games overall, including all 14 playoff contests, and the SU winner is 18-1 ATS in the Magic’s last 19 contests.
Boston is 30-18 SU this season at the Garden but just 18-29-1 ATS. In the playoffs, though, the Celtics are 6-1 SU and ATS at home. Orlando is 29-17 (26-19-1 ATS) on the highway this season and has won 12 of its last 15 away from home (10-4-1 ATS), with Saturday’s meltdown marking its first SU and ATS road loss in this year’s playoffs.
The Magic are 1-4 ATS in their last five conference finals tilts, but despite the debacle in this series, they remain on several positive pointspread sprees, including 20-8-1 overall, 6-1 on the highway, 10-4-1 after a non-cover, 18-7-1 after a day off and 16-7 against Atlantic Division foes.
Along with their 11-3 ATS mark in the postseason (6-0 last six), the Celtics are on pointspread upswings of 6-1 at home, 4-0 in conference finals contests, 6-0 after a day off, 7-1 against the Southeast Division and 5-1 laying points.
Orlando sports a bundle of “under” streaks, including 8-2-1 overall (6-1 last seven), 40-12-1 after a non-cover, 28-9 after a SU loss, 9-3 as a pup (all on the road) and 37-13-1 after a day off. Likewise, Boston is on “under” rolls of 5-1 overall (4-0 last four), 10-2 in conference finals contests (6-1 last seven), 5-1 after a day off and 6-2 as a playoff chalk.
Finally, the total has stayed low in 10 of the last 11 Celtics-Magic clashes overall, including six of seven this season, with all three games of this series falling short of the posted number. Also, the last five meetings between these two in Boston have stayed low.
ATS ADVANTAGE: UNDER
NBA RoundUp For 5/24
By Dan Bebe
Magic @ Celtics - Boston by 6 with a total of 186.5. Adjust, adjust, and adjust some more, has really not only been the motto of this series for oddsmakers, but of the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the Playoffs, in total. One team just keeps dominating, just about everywhere you look, but absolutely, positively, the Celtics have owned the Magic in every aspect of the game. There is literally nothing that the Magic are doing better than Boston, and so, when Boston was a +7 dog on the road, we were mildly surprised when they were laying 3 or 4 at home, and now that number has jumped another 2 points with the Magic on the brink of elimination. And in most circumstances, you'd start with the underdog and work your way towards the favorite, but I'm just not sure we can do that with this series. The Magic are clearly not involved in this series, the pride is just not there, and I'll point to one moment in game three when we knew (a) that our Boston wager was in great shape, and (b) that Orlando wasn't going to play the rest of the series - the end of the first quarter, when the Magic should have played for the last shot, they paid no attention to the game, Dwight Howard got fouled with 9 seconds left, and made 1 of 2. Yeah, the Magic got a point, and obviously, scoring helps a team win, but the fact that they were so disengaged with the game that they'd commit a sin that a High School Varsity team shouldn't commit in, arguably, the biggest game of their season just illustrates the extreme mental edge the Celtics have in this series, on top of their physical advantages. This series is over. Yes, based on power numbers, Orlando is getting about 3 points of value against the line, but at the same time, how many points is pride worth? 3? More? I wouldn't touch Orlando, here. If you're going to play Boston, though, definitely consider playing it small. This is a lot to lay for any team, especially one that was a 7-point dog a week ago, but for me, it's Boston or nothing. On the total, we had game two come close to going over, and the others have stayed well under the mark - honestly, while the line appears to be moving up from the opening number, I'm not sure we get to this number, either. If Orlando gets behind, though, my concern is that they stop taking things seriously, and the game turns into a bit of a scoring fest. I don't believe there's a strong edge built into this total, and oddsmakers know they can split money if they just keep it where it sits. With the Magic likely getting eliminated, there should be ample fouling, so I lean just a tad to the Over, but we'd need a quick start to get there.
NBA News and Notes
Now its must-win for Orlando team that has given very little resistence to surging Celtic squad that allowed 92 or less points in each of their last seven games. Barnes/Lewis are combined 10-39 in series; Magic has to get more out of them if they're going to salvage some pride and at least get one win in this series. Magic shot just 36.9% in Game 3 (their %age has gone down in all three games) but somehow got just three offensive rebounds. How Dwight Howard could play 39:04 and get only a single offensive rebound is staggering. Any stat I could give you wouldn't mean as much as this question: Have the Magic had enough, or do they have any fight, any heart left? After Saturday's debacle, its doubtful.
Tips and Trends
Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics
Magic: Is Orlando quitting for the second year in a row? That's the million dollar question, as the Magic themselves question their own toughness. It appears that the Celtics simply want this series more than Orlando does, as the Magic are wilting under the pressure. Orlando is down to their final breath, and they need to step up their offense if they are even going to be competitive. The Magic only scored 71 PTS in Game 3, as they had 17 turnovers to only 10 assists. Only 3 players scored in double figures in Game 3, and nobody had more than 15 PTS for Orlando. C Dwight Howard was terrible in Game 3, as he only had 7 PTS and 7 rebounds in 39 ineffective minutes. The lone bright spot in this series is the play of G J.J. Redick. Redick is averaging double figures against Boston, in limited minutes off the bench. F Rashard Lewis has been an enigma against the Celtics, as he has a total of 15 PTS in this entire series. Orlando is 67-26 SU and 53-38-2 ATS overall this season. The Magic are 29-17 SU and 25-18-3 ATS in road contests this season. Orlando is 5-1 ATS this season after scoring 85 PTS or fewer in their previous game. The Magic are facing their largest underdog spread of the season tonight.
Magic are 6-1 ATS last 7 road games against a team with a winning home record.
Under is 6-0 last 6 games following a SU loss of more than 10 points.
Key Injuries - None.
PROJECTED SCORE: 94 (Side of the Day)
Celtics (-7, O/U 188): Boston is 1 win away from the NBA Finals. Boston has been dominant nearly all postseason, but what they are doing to the Orlando Magic is mind boggling. The Celtics are up 3-0 in their 7 game series, 1 win away from sweeping what was widely considered to be the best team in the Eastern Conference. Sweeping Orlando would be especially sweet for Boston considering the Magic eliminated the Celtics last season. Boston continues to play stifling defense against the Magic, as they limited them to only 71 PTS in Game 3. The Celtics played an efficient offensive game, as they had nearly 3 times as many assists than turnovers in Game 3. 6 different Boston players scored in double figures, including a game high 17 PTS from Glen Davis. PG Rajon Rondo continued his amazing play, as he had 11 PTS, 12 assists, and 4 steals in Game 3. Boston is 61-35 SU and 44-50-2 ATS overall this season. The Celtics are 30-18 SU and 18-29-1 ATS in home games this season. The Celtics are an impressive 11-3 ATS during the playoffs this year. Boston is in a powerful position being up 3-0, as they've never lost a playoff series after starting off 2-0 in their 36 opportunities.
Celtics are 6-0 ATS last 6 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600%.
Under is 14-3 last 17 against a team with a winning SU record.
Key Injuries - None.
PROJECTED SCORE: 95