The Celtics take on Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals, with Game 1 today at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The Magic are 8-0 in this post-season, sweeping Charlotte and Atlanta in the first two rounds. Those of you who recall Boston's struggles against the Hawks this season might be a little scared by that statistic, but don't be; for whatever reason, Orlando consistently blew Atlanta out this season.
The truth is that I've been too busy with exams (now complete) that I haven't had time to watch the playoffs, other than Boston games. So I can't really tell you too much about how the Magic are playing now, whether they've turned a corner or just had some favorable matchups.
What I can do is give some more or less random thoughts heading into the series.
- I believe that if Boston advances to the Finals, Paul Pierce will be the reason. He was more or less neutralized in the Cleveland series, a casualty of an unfavorable matchup with LeBron James. His job gets significantly easier against Orlando. Stan Van Gundy has said that Matt Barnes will start out on Ray Allen, which means Pierce draws Vince Carter. The book on Carter on defense is the same as the book on Carter on offense; good when he wants to be, but he doesn't seem to want to be consistently. Pierce let the other guys do the heavy lifting against the Cavs, but it's now time for the Truth to shine.
- There really are favorable matchups all over the court, on both ends. A big one is going to be Kevin Garnett and Rashard Lewis, who basically shouldn't be able to guard each other now that KG's a step slower than he used to be. The Big Ticket was as assertive on offense as he gets against Cleveland, and I'd like to see him keep that up by taking Lewis into the post. The more Lewis has to work on defense, the more tired his legs get, and the smaller the basket looks in the fourth quarter.
- What's interesting about the apparent mismatches on both ends of the court is that in at least two of the matchups during the regular season, neither team could put the ball in the basket for huge portions of the game. It's a testament to how good both teams are defensively that this many talented offensive players have such a difficult time scoring on each other. Some credit goes to the players, but a great deal of it goes to the coaching staffs for their defensive schemes.
- Boston beat Cleveland despite some serious foul trouble among its bigs. Like Cleveland, Orlando is deeper than Boston, but I think a quick whistle may actually favor us in this series. Dwight Howard has not become the offensive force his physical gifts suggest he could be, and Kendrick Perkins guards him better than anyone else in the league does, but he's a game-changer on defense and on the glass. He's also consistently shown that he'll allow the officials to take him out of the game mentally, complaining that he doesn't get the same calls on offense that they hit him with on defense. A couple quick ones on Howard would change the tenor of any game.
- I think Doc Rivers needs to be willing to go to Shelden Williams earlier than he did against Cleveland. On at least one occasion, Doc let Rasheed Wallace pick up four first-half fouls before bringing Williams in (I believe Perkins and Glen Davis had three at the time). I know Doc likes to keep his playoff rotations short and Davis has really stepped up his game in the post-season, but Williams has performed well enough on the rare occasions his number has been called and I think we may want to conserve Wallace and Davis a bit more.
- This is going to be a contentious, physical series. Both teams are packed with egos; Orlando doesn't think we respect them; and we're looking for payback from last year, when Orlando took the last two games (including Game 7 in Boston) to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Expect a lot of talking and a lot of technicals. Keeping our heads about us will be vital.
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