Last night, the Boston Celtics overpowered Orlando 95-92 at Amway Arena taking a second victory in the finals. The Magic collapsed under the stunning performance by Paul Pierce. They missed several decisive shots in the final minutes ending up with a 3 point loss.

Boston demonstrated the advantage of having a veteran squad in the finals by playing great defense and stopping the Magic from taking the lead away from them. The Magic, who had won 14 consecutive matches, including eight of the two sweeps that they achieved prior in the playoffs to the Charlotte Bobcats and the Atlanta Hawks are down now by 2-0 and their only salvation is to win the next two games in enemy territory, the Celtic Arena.

Even Dwight Howard’s game high of 30 points wasn’t even to crack Boston’s defense. Although scoring triples worked well for them in the first game, with a field goal percentage of only 39%, they couldn’t pull it off this time.

Boston came out the gate scoring, but Orlando kept up. Both teams exchanged baskets for several minutes until the Celtics started a run of 14-2, to take the lead to 11 points with 4:43 left. However, Orlando reacted with a run of 10-0 to put the scoreboard 23-22 with 2:15. At the end of the quarter, Orlando finished with a one point lead, 28-27.

The second quarter was more of the same thing with both teams scoring baskets back and forth the court, but ending up with Boston in the lead by two points at halftime.

After halftime, both teams went at it again, scoring 4 times in the first three minutes, but Boston slowly but surely pulled ahead with a 13-1 run. Boston put on the defense and Orlando couldn’t break them and Boston took the lead by 8 points at the end of the 3rd: 78-70.

The fourth quarter was quite a show with the Celtics not budging in their defense for the first 4 minutes; but Dwight Howard and JJ Redick put on a show, taking the lead for the Magic at 90-89 with 3.36 to go. Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett hit some jumpers and took a three point lead for Boston. The Magic disappeared when Carter missed two straight free throws with only 31.9 to go. Boston took the game 95-92.

At the end of the game, Celtics Coach Doc Rivers stated that their intensity and fight in defense and offense was the keys to win the second game. "It was a great game intensity-wise, a game of runs. They brought the fight to us in a lot of ways, and I thought we withstood the hits. That’s something you've got to keep doing, and I thought we did that. I told my coaches I would know who we were at halftime. I didn't know if we were going to win the game or not, but I knew we would be in it. You could see we had great focus,” said Rivers.

On the other hand, Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy said that his players’ bad shooting decisions, lack of focus, as well as t as well as the good defense of Boston was the reason for their loss. “Our shot selection was terrible and we didn't play smart enough and we didn't sustain what worked offensively," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.

The best scorers for the Boston Celtics were Paul Pierce with 28 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds; Rajon Rondo with 25 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds; Kendrick Perkins with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks; and ultimately Kevin Garnett with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks. For the Orlando Magic, the best scorers were Dwight Howard with 30 points and 8 rebounds; Vince Carter with 16 points; JJ Redick with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists; and finally Jameer Nelson with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

About the Author

Ally White has been a prominent writer on daily NBA games; sports news and the sportsbetting industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.