On Thursday night, when the series comes back to Orlando, the Magic may want to stock the Amway Arena with signs instead of t-shirts, noisemakers, and towels. What would the signs say? “WARNING: Choking Hazard.” Although after watching the Magic lose another lead to the Boston Celtics, fans may not need the warning. Despite leading by as much as 14, the Magic lost 92-88.
Tradition would give you a recap of the game, and an explanation for why the Magic evaporated in the second half, but that would be redundant. NBA fans know all too well what a Magic choke job looks like. Instead, here are a few of the reasons that Orlando will likely be at home watching TNT next week, instead of in Cleveland playing on TNT:
Shot Choices
The Magic have allowed Boston to push them into taking bad shots. Throughout the game, Orlando took a series of off-balance and highly contested shots. Another problem is that a team of jump shooters has effectively abandoned the mid-range jumper. Only 17 of the 80 shots taken in Game 5 were mid-range jump shots between 10 and 20 feet. The majority of the Magic shots came on contested three pointers and poorly executed drives. The unfortunate reality is that Rashard Lewis is the only Magic player capable of driving to the hole with efficacy.
Coaching
Stan Van Gundy is a good coach. He looks silly, and he sounds silly, but he is usually a smart coach. In the past two games, he has coached silly. His rotation seems to be all out of synch. In the final two minutes alone, Van Gundy had eight variations of players on the floor. He has somehow lost his grip on the right combinations of personnel.
Rashard Lewis is his greatest asset, and Van Gundy has no idea. There isn’t a person in green that can come close to stopping Lewis, but Van Gundy has failed to find ways for him to touch the ball. If things were run the right way, Lewis would touch the ball almost every possession. There is no reason that he can’t be scoring 25 to 30 points a game. Especially shooting 48% from the floor and 35% from three-point range like he is thus far this series. With that kind of a percentage, he should be taking 20 shots a game, and he isn’t.
His starting lineup is wrong too. Van Gundy is sticking with JJ Redick as Courtney Lee continues to come off the bench. In 29 minutes on the floor, Redick shot 17% with 3 points and 3 assists. In 11 minutes, Lee nearly matched those numbers shooting a better percentage going 1-3 for 3 points and 2 assists.
Dwight Howard
No kryptonite needed. There were times on Tuesday night, as there have been many nights in the past, when it seemed as though Howard opted to skip the trip to Boston. In the fourth quarter, down by one with the chance for a game changing rebound, Magic fans held on to hope thinking, “Oh man we really need this rebound! Whew, thank God we have the most dominant center in the NBA.”
These thoughts were soon interrupted by confusion as Howard stood with his feet on the floor, watching as the clearly gettable rebound bounced out to Paul Pierce on the perimeter. Instead of grabbing a much-needed defensive rebound, which he could have gotten had he jumped, the so-called “Superman” disappeared. Although he managed to come away with 12 points and 17 rebounds, he had no blocks and only 6 of those boards came in final three quarters.
Orlando had chances to win in the final minutes of Game 5, but they again failed to capitalize. The true failure, was that the Magic even needed those fourth quarter plays to win. Tuesday night the Celtics erased the good work Orlando had done early on the way to another comeback. In contrast to Game 1, Boston was able to complete the resurgence. There are a series of flaws that need to be cured, and if those shortcomings are not addressed, this series may not make it back to Boston.
