If you thought it couldn't get any worse than the Orlando Magic's 87-56 loss in Boston on Monday night, you were wrong.
This was worse. Way worse.
The Magic took the floor at home Thursday night in a rematch with the Celtics, hoping to make Monday's franchise-record debacle at TD Garden — fewest points in a game; lowest FG percentage; fewest FGs; fewest second-half points — a distant memory. By halftime, they seemed to have done just that.
But by the time the final buzzer sounded on a 91-83 Boston victory, the wounds of Monday's embarrassment (wounds that had begun to heal after Tuesday's win over Indiana) had been ripped wide open. "It was tough to watch," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. How tough was it? * The Magic blew a 27-point first-half lead — the largest fold in the NBA since Dec. 21, 2009, when the Sacramento Kings rallied from 35 down to win at Chicago. * Orlando also blew a 21-point halftime edge, its worst second-half fold since losing a 20-point first-half lead on March 21, 1999 against the Lakers.
* Thursday's defeat also was the Magic's largest overall blown lead in a loss since Jan. 18, 2001, when they blew a 22-point first-quarter lead and lost in overtime in Dallas. "There were just a lot of things that were a little deflating, and we didn't handle those things well,'' Van Gundy said. "Obviously, we had a loss of composure, and it's a very, very difficult loss to take. There's no question about it."
After the Magic missed seven of their first eight shots and fell behind 8-2, Van Gundy called a time out, and Orlando responded with a 17-3 run to build a 19-11 lead.
When the first-quarter buzzer sounded, the Magic had extended that run to 30-8, and their 32-16 advantage seemed to remove doubts that the other Magic squad still was lingering.
Ryan Anderson, who was 0-of-8 shooting in Monday's loss, hit five of his nine first-quarter attempts on the way to 12 points, and Jason Richardson, who had just five points on 2-of-5 shooting Monday, knocked down four of his six first-quarter shots while scoring 10 points.
A 15-3 second-quarter run helped propel the Magic lead to 52-25, and at halftime, Orlando held a 58-37 advantage, surpassing Monday's point total for the entire game.
After shooting a franchise-low 24.6 percent from the field Monday, Orlando hit 22 of its 44 first-half shots. Those 22 shots were six more than the 16 field goals Orlando had during the entire game Monday. They also had 12 assists — which matched their game total from Monday — and had three more steals and just one fewer 3-point basket.
Then the wheels came off.
In the second half, Boston's defense — the same group that relentlessly hounded Orlando on Monday, holding them to just 20 second-half points on just five field goals and 18.5 percent shooting — made a triumphant return.
The Celtics held the Magic without a field goal until the 6:48 mark of the third quarter, while mounting a small rally of their own. Boston cut the Orlando lead to 15 with 8:39 left in the third quarter.
A 3-pointer by Hedo Turkoglu and layups by Richardson and Dwight Howard helped push the lead back to 21 with 5:12 to go in the period, and at that point, Orlando seemed ready to finally put Monday's demons to rest.
But the Boston defense turned up the heat, and the pesky Celtics offense, led by game-high 24-point scorer Paul Pierce, kept chipping away. By the end of the third quarter — after Boston cut the Orlando lead down to as little as nine — the Magic advantage was just 11.
Orlando then opened the fourth quarter with three turnovers in its first four possessions, and Boston took advantage, using those giveaways to spark a 15-1 run and take a 79-76 lead with 7:39 left in the game. Orlando's first field goal of the fourth quarter didn't come until Howard's layup with 5:58 to play.
By that time — even though the Boston lead was only 79-78 — the game already was over. No rationally thinking person watching the game could have thought the Magic had a chance.
Orlando let the Celtics get in their heads, they let the referees get in their heads, and they let themselves derail what should have been a triumphant "I-told-you-so" victory over an Eastern Conference rival.
"We got frustrated with the physical play, we got frustrated with the officials and we just got totally out of our game," Van Gundy said.
The Magic's struggles continued throughout the fourth quarter, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, they had as many technical fouls — two — as they did field goals in the final frame.
The Celtics won the fourth quarter 27-8 — even in Monday's debacle, the Magic managed 10 points in each of the third and fourth quarters — and a 35-point turnaround was complete. After shooting 13-of-31 in the first half, the Celtics shot 21-of-42 in the second, while the Magic shot just 8-of-35 and got outscored 54-25 over the final 24 minutes.
"We just thought that it was going to be easy after the first two quarters," said Howard, who led the Magic with 16 points.
If that wasn't enough, the Celtics did it all without Ray Allen (ankle injury) and Rajon Rondo (wrist) — who were both also absent for Monday's game — as well as starting center Jermaine O'Neal (knee).
Besides Pierce (24 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists), rookie guard E'Twaun Moore had 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while former Magic forward Mickael Pietrus added 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting. It's losses like this that are driving Howard, a soon-to-be free agent, right out of Central Florida.
Howard wants to be a champion. But championship teams have championship-level toughness. The Magic? They don't. Orlando will make the playoffs, and might even win a first-round series. But in the long run, the Magic are not a serious threat to win a title. Not even close. Not right now.
"We've got 48 games to go, and do we have to get a lot better? Yes," Van Gundy said. "Is this good enough? No. I don't think anybody in there is happy. We're embarrassed as much tonight as we were the other night."
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