Headline PH: Magic fail to make history with loss to Celts

BOSTON – No historic comeback for the Orlando Magic, no second straight trip to the NBA finals.

Dwight Howard and his underachieving teammates flopped in their bid to become the league's first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit when the Boston Celtics battered them 96-84 Friday night to clinch the Eastern Conference finals in six games.

The Magic led for just 11 seconds. They were outrebounded 56-44. And they couldn't control the Celtics' 3-point shooters.

"Early on we were OK, we just didn't make shots," coach Stan Van Gundy said. "And then we let it get to us, and when we did, it broke down."

Orlando reached last year's finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers then had the NBA's second best record this season. It won its last six regular-season games then swept both Charlotte and Atlanta in the playoffs.

But then it faced the Celtics.

The Magic lost the first two games at home before coming to Boston, where they played listlessly in a 94-71 rout that made the Celtics the 94th team in NBA history to take a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven series. Orlando showed plenty of life in the next two games, winning 96-92 in overtime then 113-92 at home on Wednesday night.

"You're just not playing as free and easy as you are when you're up 3-0," Van Gundy said before Friday's game. "We've been there."

By HOWARD ULMAN,
AP Sports Writer

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