Celtics work their magic for a 116 to 110 win over Orlando

"I'm coming for you Magic Johnson"

The Celtics defeated the Magic 116 to 110, in a game that the Celtics looked to be in control of early with a 12 point lead in the first half. The second half was however a different story when the Magic worked their magic from beyond the arc as Arron Afflalo, JJ Redick and Jameer Nelson all had threes leading to a 34 point third quarter. The game went to overtime when Paul Pierce missed a field goal at the buzzer. In OT the Celtics clamped down on D to grind out a tough win.

Rajon Rondo set the tone by running and forcing the tempo almost finishing with a triple double while still notching his 37th consecutive game with 10+ assists, tying him with John Stockton for the 2nd longest streak in NBA history, he finished with 16 helpers. He is now only 9 more 10+ dime games away from tying Magic Johnson’s all time consecutive game record.

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett led the Green with 23 points and 24 points. Leandro Barbosa had a solid first half scoring 11 points in 5 minutes, but didn’t play again until the very end of the third finishing with 15 points leading the bench.

The Magic were led by Jameer Nelson and JJ Redick, which resembles their days at St. Joe’s and Duke, by scoring 20 and 21. Josh McRoberts was a beast on the glass grabbing 14 boards and former friend Glen “Big Baby” Davis was friendly to his former team shooting 3 of 12 but finished with 15 points.

This game was a tale of two halves for the Green; the first half was up tempo and attacking, the second half bad defense and wide open threes. This game left me with multiple questions: What happened? Did we get tired? Are we old? Why didn’t Barbosa get more playing time in the second half? It was an ugly win but we grinded it out and dodged a bullet.


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