Eastern Conference Finals- Game 3 Recap

What Happened

The Boston Celtics are now one game away from returning to the NBA Finals while the Orlando Magic are one game away from being anywhere else.  The Celtics jumped on the Magic in Game 3 and never looked back.  Paul Pierce scored the first bucket of the game on an ugly looking jumper from the elbow.  Say what you want about the guy, but he gets the job done.  Ray Allen knocks down a three pointer and then Rajon Rondo hits a floater over Dwight Howard.  The Celtics are up 7-0 and I think Rashard Lewis is still standing at half court waiting for the jump ball. Vince Carter decides to drive to the basket and loses the ball at the free throw line; but he still runs to the rim and grabs it to remind everyone that "Hey-I may be a horrible performer in the clutch, but I can still jump high."  Ray Allen drives baseline (with the ball) and dunks it with Dwight Howard breathing down his neck.  There are six minutes left in the 1st quarter and the game is essentially finished.

With two minutes left in the 1st, the Magic have six points. This is a professional basketball team playing to make it to the Championship of their sport and they have six points.  Luckily they go on an offensive explosion to finish the quarter with 12 points.  The second quarter begins and Rajon Rondo makes what will be the signature play of the series when he out hustles Jason Williams (who is a white chocolate shell of his old self at this point in his career) for a loose ball and then finishes with a layup over Williams. This particular play received a lot of attention on the highlight shows following the game, but it was only a representation of the overall effort that the Celtics exuded in Game 3. Some of the plays that come to mind right away: Ray's baseline dunk, Rondo's rebound where he ran around Howard for the ball, Vince losing Pierce in transition for a wide open three, and Kendrick Perkins driving to the goal for a reverse layup.

By half time I was in full channel flipping mode and had settled on watching the Cubs play the Rangers in a nail biter (Cubs Win! Cubs Win!).  Thank goodness.  When I checked to see if the game was back on, I saw that ESPN was doing one of those feel-good stories about Vince Carter in an effort to make everyone feel bad about bashing him for his pathetic play. I am always a sucker for those stories so I'm sure it would have worked on me. In all seriousness, it is a good opportunity to remind everyone that athletes are people too. I will be the first to say that being a good person will matter a lot more in life than whether or not your choke under pressure.  See, it worked on me and I didn't even watch it!

The second half of this game was merely a formality. The most exciting play of the half was Matt Barnes pushing Kevin Garnett into a full speed collision with Stan Van Gundy. At least SVG didn't get up complaining about being hurt. Put on a uniform Stan!

Rasheed Wallace continued his efficient playoff run in what has to be the most unlikely event of the decade. Anyone who watched an out-of-shape Sheed play in the regular season could not have seen this coming.  At one point in the second half, he caught the ball at the top of the key and the crowd shouted endearingly "SHEEEED" as he drained the three. If you watched the regular season Celtics, you would hear a loud groan from the crowd every time Sheed caught the ball and then clanked it time after time.  When he made a wide open three (28% of the time in the regular season), the crowd would respond with a sarcastic cheer.  It is an absolutely different season in Boston right now. 

Whats Up Next

Game 4 in Boston on Monday. 7:30 PM (CT) on ESPN.

Around the Corner

The Lakers and Suns play tonight in Phoenix to determine how long we will all have to wait for the Lakers and Celtics to play in the finals.  Boston will be ready on Monday night, so now it is just a matter of seeing if the Suns can make the Western Conference Finals any more intriguing than the Eastern Conference Finals have been.  Be looking for a NBA Finals preview post in the next few days if the Lakers win tonight. 

Fun Idea for Game 4

If I'm Stan Van Gundy, my starting line up for Game 4 is: Jameer Nelson, JJ Redick, Matt Barnes, Brandon Bass (who put forth more effort in his 5 minutes of play in Game 3 than any Magic player this series), and Marcin Gortat.  I mean, why not at this point?  Give me five guys who I feel like are going to give me the most effort and see what happens.