Lakers and Celtics drop crucial home games
Monday night in the NBA saw both the defending champion Boston Celtics and the Western Conference champs from last season Los Angeles Lakers go down in the first match of their round 2 playoffs.
For Boston it was the Orlando Magic who like Chicago put the champs in a hole first up. Unlike Chicago, the Magic buried the Celtics in regulation time. Orlando pulled off a 95-90 win. The Magic led early and held off a fast finishing Celtics team. At the halftime break Orlando were up 54-36. Rashard Lewis was leading the way with 14 of his 18 points in the first half. There was a good spread of scoring across the team as Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu and Mickael Pietrus all scored nine points in the opening half.
For Boston Ray Allen only managed two first half points and nine for the match, Rondo also had two. It was left to Paul Pierce to pickup the scoring and his 23 for the match was not enough.
Going into the final quarter the Magic held a 78-62 lead. For the first nine or so minutes the margin was around 10 p0ints. A free throw by Howard to complete a three-point play saw the score at 89-77 before an eight point run trimmed the lead to four with 2:08 to play. A Pierce 3pt shot with 6.6 seconds left got the score to 93-90 in favor of the visitors but a pair of free throws by JJ Redick sealed the win.
Game two will be played in Boston on Wednesday night.
Over in the Western Conference the Los Angeles Lakers were outmuscled by the Houston Rockets and lost their first home game of the 2009 NBA playoffs. The final score was 100-92.
Yao Ming playing in the NBA Western Conference semifinals for the first time carried his team with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Ron Artest sporting a Houston Rockets logo shaved into his hair added 21 points and Aaron Brooks 19.
There was concern for the Rockets Yao when he bashed his knee against Kobe Bryant. He left the game for treatment but thankfully returned to the game with four minutes to play. He then managed to add eight points to help seal the win.
Game two will be played in LA on Wednesday night.
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