Don't let the final score fool you

A lot of times in sports, games are determined by one play or one shot. If the shot goes in or the play succeeds the team is great. If it misses or the play doesn't work out the team stinks. Whole franchises can be affected by this alone.

The media always drives me nuts when they change their opinions on teams every other day based on one play. They should look at the body of work, because more likely than not that will determine how the rest of the season or series will go. It's like they think just because a team blows out another team suddenly they are going to win the whole series and have all the momentum.  Winning in the playoffs is not a sprint it's a marathon.  To recognize the best team you need to look at how a team is playing overall, not each game individually.

Why do I bring this up now? Well, some optimistic Magic fans might look at the scores of Game 1 and 2 and say “well we had a chance to win both games." Sure, if Carter hits those free throws and Rondo misses that tough jumper who knows what could've happened. Basketball, more than any other sport comes down to a few possessions at the end of the game.

However, the reality is the Celtics have dominated both of these games. The only reason the Magic have gotten back into it is because the Celtics got complacent and stopped running their offense. This is still a problem for Boston and the only obstacle to winning a championship this year. The Celtics don't care about the final score as long as they have more points than the opposition. Also, remember this is basketball and everyone makes a run.  The Celtics played well enough to win by 20, but the Magic were on their home court, got hot, and made it close. It doesn't actually mean they are that close to being ahead in the series.

There was never really a doubt in my mind they'd win the last two games, which shows you how much the Celtics have changed in the last month. If this was a few weeks ago I would've bet anything the Celtics would lose one, if not both games. But this is a different Celtics team. The days of blown fourth quarter leads seem a distant memory. Don't let the fact that the Magic came back in both games make you think this series is close. Let's hope the Celtics close this out in the Garden so we can get well rested for the Finals.