Fans, the media, your local bartender, pretty much everybody is shoveling dirt on the Orlando Magic. They are not only down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, they lost their first two games at home. Orlando has to go into Boston and win, and the Celtics don’t have all those banners hanging overhead because they lose a lot at home in the playoffs.
But the Magic can win, it is not an impossibility. It’s a longshot, a crazy longshot, but Boston sports teams have blown plenty of sure things over the years.. It’s just that a few things need to happen.
That starts with Rashard Lewis. And if he doesn’t start with him it will end with him.
His role in this series was to pull Kevin Garnett and his amazing help defense away from the paint -- hit threes and force Garnett to come out and get him. Lewis is 1 of 9 from three in two games. By the second game, Garnett was willing to lose him in the half court and let the rotations -- a couple times the not fleet-of-foot Big Baby -- make the run-out at Lewis. Garnett is leaving him; the Celtics do not fear him.
It is a favorite point of Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don’t Lie and he is dead-on -- if Rashard Lewis isn’t hitting shots, he hurts the Magic because he doesn’t do much else. He’s not a good rebounder for a four (something you sacrifice because he wants to be on the perimeter) and he is not a great defender. (To be fair, Garnett is just 9 of 30 shooting through two games, on that end Lewis is holding up his end of the bargain,)
Lewis needs some confidence -- maybe he needs to get going by putting the ball on the floor and getting a couple layups. He needs a bucket, he needs to get going. Because if the Magic are to have any hope, Lewis has to drain the three -- he is a stretch four for a reason. If he does, things open up for Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter driving the lane. If not, Game 3 will look a lot like the first two.
The other thing the Magic need to do -- what they have been working on in practice -- is taking away the easy transition buckets for the Celtics. Rajon Rondo loves to push the pace and probe after turnovers and misses, and the Celtics have picked up some easy buckets that way. It has been a decider in close games.
At the same time, the Magic and Nelson need to turn the tables -- create some turnovers of their own and get a few easy baskets. Buckets are hard to come by against these Celtics in the halfcourt, but they struggled this season against teams like the Hawks that could create turnovers and finish in transition. The Magic need a little of that.
Do all that and the Magic can make a comeback this series. They can. Really. Thing is, the Magic need to do it today in Game 3.
If they lose this one, we can all pick up a shovel and start throwing dirt on them.