Howard corralled 10 of his teammates' misses and put a mess of 'em back in the basket. It wasn't scientific. But it sure was effective, allowing him to post a 23 points and 22 rebounds line as the Orlando Magic created yet another Game 7 for the Celtics with an 83-75 victory at Amway Arena last night.
"That's the best way to get the ball," Howard pointed out. "My first coach, Johnny Davis, told me that. Go get it yourself."
The Celtics of yore won games like this themselves. They beat the Lakers in 1984 and the Bucks in '87 in Games 7 when all they had going was grit, power, and determination. Winning when you shoot 37 percent from the floor and 55 percent from the line is not easy. But it really is very satisfying, because it pretty much tells you who deserved the game. There's something to be said for beating both yourself and the opponent.
"We certainly didn't win this game with our potent offense," quipped Magic mentor Stan Van Gundy. "You know, 36 percent from the floor and [55] percent from the line and not very good shooting from the three [6 of 26]. We did take care of the ball pretty well. We shot well down the stretch and our guys fought pretty hard, as we did all year."
In a game like this, for every proud, relieved, victorious coach there is a frustrated and perplexed losing counterpart.
"It's tough to score when you turn it over 19 times," Rivers said with a sigh.
There are turnovers, and there are turnovers. Far too many of the Celtics' turnovers were costly. The Magic scored 28 points on those 19 turnovers. The Celtics scored 3 points on a meager nine Orlando turnovers. That's a brutal discrepancy.
The truth is the Magic had pretty close to no real offense and yet they won an elimination game.
"I didn't think our defense was bad at all," Rivers said. "They only had 83 points, 28 off turnovers. With all the turnovers, the offensive rebounds and the free throws [31-13 Orlando advantage], that may be all they scored. I liked our defense tonight. I didn't like our offense."
