The Celtics won for the second time this week over the Magic in stunning fashion. On Monday at TD Garden, the Magic were held to a franchise-low 56 points. Last night, the Celtics limited the Magic to 25 points in the second half, catching Orlando midway through the fourth quarter.
A team that took more than a month to round into playing shape, and considered by many too decrepit to compete, has turned its season around in a matter of days, pulling off the improbable without Rajon Rondo (wrist) and Ray Allen (ankle).
“This was a character builder for our team,’’ said coach Doc Rivers. “It’s all we talked about at halftime. Just get back in it, just hang in there long enough and just give yourself a chance to win. You know what I love about this team? Everybody responded.’’
A combination of the most experienced (Pierce) and the least experienced (Moore) helped the Celtics notch their third straight win. Pierce finished with 24 points, 19 in the second half, while Moore added a career-high 16 in 18 minutes. The Magic, meanwhile, missed 27 of 35 second-half shots and were outscored, 27-8, in the fourth quarter.
“I told the guys in the locker room [at halftime], if we just cut this lead in half, they’ll give us a chance to win the game,’’ said Pierce. “Once we saw the lead go to 11 at the end of the third, we were like, there’s some life right here. Usually Doc will pull the plug, especially in a back-to-back situation, if we’re down 18 going to the fourth quarter, but he saw there was life in us.’’
During the break between the third and fourth quarters, Rivers told Pierce he was going to pull him from the game after the first possession of the fourth. But Moore drained a 3-pointer 37 seconds into the quarter to reduce the deficit to 75-67, and Rivers scrapped his plan.
“We saw that they got frustrated,’’ Pierce said. “Yelling at the refs, picking up techs. We started getting to the loose balls. I thought we played with more energy the second half. We hustled. We were the aggressor.’’
