With a home loss already in game one of the NBA Playoffs, the Orlando Magic were already feeling pressure going into game two. The Magic once again had an 18 point lead only to watch it sink to five points, but hung on in the end to even the series at one.
With Dwight Howard fouling out towards the end of the game, he had only one thing on his mind while watching the rest of the game: “Man, I hope these boys don’t come back again,” Howard said. But thanks to players Courtney Lee, who had a career high 24 points, and Hedo Turkoglu, who added 16 points, were able to defend the late rally from the 76ers. But it was Lee who really stepped up on one of the biggest stages of his career so far. The rookie from Western Kentucky was 10-17 from the floor and now has scored 42 points in two games of the playoffs, which is second most all-time for a Magic rookie in the playoffs.
During Stan Van Gundy’s press conference, Stan continued to elaborate on Lee’s play stating that, “He just seems to be playing freer and looser than some of our guys. Some of the guys look like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. Hopefully, we can all start playing like that.”
Even though Lee had a great night, his performance was almost out done by 76er’s late fourth quarter rally again that had Magic fans in almost disbelief. The 76er’s pulled with in five points, but that was as close as the Philadelphia was going to get as Rashard Lewis hit one of his jumpers and put in a lay up to extend the lead to eight points with about 29 seconds left.
Now, the series shifts to Philadelphia for the next two games and the 76er’s are right back where they were last year when they played Detroit in the first round. The Magic have one stat going against them as they head to Philadelphia: If the home team in game one of the playoffs loses their first game, the away team wins the series 95% of the time.
