On Friday night, Santa Claus flew around the globe and gave away millions of toys to the world’s children. On Saturday afternoon, the Celtics took the court at the Amway Center in Orlando and gave away a basketball game.
The Celtics arrived in central Florida amped up for a highly anticipated rematch of last spring’s Eastern Conference finals, but their play didn’t back it up when it mattered most. They started terrible and ended even worse, rendering everything in between irrelevant. The Magic started the game with a 13-0 lead, closed it with a 15-1 run, and sent the Celtics home empty-handed on Christmas. The C’s gave away the game, they gave away their 14-game winning streak, and at least momentarily, they gave away their bragging rights as the best team in the Eastern Conference.
Of course, you can throw out all the caveats in the world to soften the blow.
The Celtics were without their best player. Rajon Rondo watched from the bench in his finest Christmas suit, helpless as Nate Robinson gave 43 erratic minutes in his place.
They were unprepared for a revamped Magic roster. The Celtics were armed up until last week with a thick notebook of scouting reports on the defending Southeast champions, and they had to throw it all away when the Magic traded away a large chunk of their rotation. They weren’t mentally ready to take on Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson or Gilbert Arenas.
And on Christmas, on the road, with a national television audience watching, they may not have been 100 percent focused.
They say that in difficult road environments, the role players are the ones who struggle most. That theory makes perfect sense for the Celtics. Robinson shot 2-for-15 and was defenseless as Jameer Nelson hit a series of big shots in crunch time to make the difference. Shaquille O’Neal was titanically overmatched in his face-off with Orlando center Dwight Howard. And then there’s Jermaine O’Neal, playing his first game in six weeks after a knee injury, who was rusty and uncoordinated on both ends of the floor.
What you saw was two streaky teams playing extremely streaky basketball. The Magic started out with a 13-0 lead, as the Celtics missed every open look in sight and looked too uptight defensively. The Celtics stormed back with a 15-0 spurt of their own, while the Magic rushed shots and lost focus on D. The Celtics closed the first half with a 17-4 run; the Magic closed the second half with the deciding 15-1 streak to sink the Celtics.
Maybe next time these two teams meet, on Jan. 17 at the TD Garden, their game will have more cohesion and more flow. But for now, we’re left to reflect on an awkward game from two teams that could have been played much better.
For the moment, the Celtics’ hopes of dominating the Eastern Conference this season have been dashed. They’re still 23-5, which happens to be the same record they led the East with at this time last year, but the Magic have put a dent in their confidence and their momentum going forward.
The Celtics gave away a game on Saturday. Now it’s time for damage control, to make sure they don’t give away anything more.
