Nice 4th quarter effort! C's rally past Magic <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">In my opinion this game was about wake up calls. The first (and in the long run may be the most important if it lasts), was that Mark Blount was awake and functioning effectively for a good portion of this game. He started out against Former Celtic Tony (Batman or El Busto) Battie scoring on FT's after being fouled on a back down in the post. The C's led 5-2 with 10:22 left. Blount then scored on a 12ft jumper from just off the elbow at 9:12. He dunked on Battie to make it 12-6 at 8:55 and this was when the relatively slow start to the quarter ended in terms of offensive tempo. Let the running begin.... A Turkoglu 3pter at 5:03 make it 26-23 (I warned you they got it revved up). Paul Pierce.....well he had one of those games. He was mostly relegated to trying (and not really succeeding) to score against a tight defending Doug Christie and doing the small stuff that wins helps games. He had a nice dunk after getting around Christie at 4:15 to make it 28-25 but his night would be largely quiet in the scoring column. Blount continued to show a pulse when he cleaned up a partially blocked GP layup attempt for an easy hustle 2. 30-25 C's with 3:52 left. Francis got it to 30- 29, but Raef broke his mini-run with one of several big 3pters on the night to make it 33-29 with 2:39 left and the Magic got a timeout. Pierce picked up his 2nd foul at 2:23 and the C's led 33-29. However the Magic, who shot 68% in the 1st quarter, made a run and took the lead from the Celtics with 1:10 left and the Magic now leading 36-35. Kendrick (the Perk-o-later) Perkins came into the game and went right at Kelvin Cato for a layup, keeping the C's to within 1 at 38-37. A fast break led to a Jiri Welsch two-hander to put the C's ahead 39-38 with :33 left and that's how it ended</div>.
Don't know what it is about the Magic, but they seem to bring out the best in the Celtics; always entertaining when these teams hook up.
Great game for Ricky. Walta got it going to bring the game back and Ricky made some very smart plays down the stretch to seal the deal.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CourtVision:</div><div class="quote_post">Walta got it going to bring the game back and Ricky made some very smart plays down the stretch to seal the deal.</div>Walta was pretty good last night, but for every nice play, there was a dumb play. He took an ill-advised three from what seemed like Celtsman's seats, and then he couldn't handle a pass on the front end of the break. The funniest thing about the whole situation was how quickly Tommy Heinsohn changed his mood about Walta. There was that one play when McCarty was taking the ball up court with his head down, and Tommy was screaming "look up!", then he found Jiri for a layup and it changed to "nice play by Walta!". Then he justifiably criticized the Celts approach at attacking the zone, but went nuts when Walta hit a couple 3's. His best line of the night: "If you don't love Walta, go home!". (If I was watching the game anywhere else, I would have.)
