Boston Celtics Rally Against Orlando Magic: What the Win Can Do for This Team

It is no secret that the Boston Celtics had gotten off to a slow start. They were 5-9, and Danny Ainge was threatening to break up the team if he saw a good opportunity to do so. Count me as one of the people who was never buying into the whole "Celtics are done" mantra.

Why?

Well, first of all, Boston played its first three games, all losses, without Paul Pierce. One of those games was a blowout loss to the New Orleans Hornets, but the other two, defeats at the hands of the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, were contests that the Celtics probably would have won had Pierce played.

Upon Pierce's return, the C's won four straight, but they then proceeded to drop five in a row (their longest losing streak in the Big Three era). In their defense, though, that was an incredibly tough stretch for them, as they played the Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls, Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers twice. Of course, championship-caliber ballclubs are expected to beat other squads in the same vein, but with Boston still getting its older legs underneath it from the lockout, I think Doc Rivers and company deserved a pass.

Then, to make matters even worse, the Celtics lost Rajon Rondo after he injured his wrist after a flagrant foul in their 96-73 win over the Toronto Raptors. Boston would then go on to lose to the Phoenix Suns, and in its next game, a win over the Washington Wizards, Ray Allen injured his ankle.

So at this point, Boston is playing without two starters. They say an animal is most dangerous when it is wounded and backed into a corner. That is what the Celtics were, and they knew that.

Unfortunately for the Orlando Magic, they didn't seem to get the memo.

A day after beating the Wizards, Boston absolutely obliterated Orlando 87-56. Perhaps this was the game that was going to turn the Celtics' season around? Maybe, but in the process, they suffered another injury, as Jermaine O'Neal tweaked his knee. Now, Boston is missing three starters, and another game against the Magic loomed.

That game was Thursday, and it appeared that losing three of their key players would prove to be too much for the C's, as they fell behind by 27 points to Orlando in the first half. Boston looked dead in the water, and even the most optimistic Celtic fan had to wonder if all of the injuries were ultimately going to consume the team in what is a shortened season.

Well, whatever Rivers said to the team in the locker room at halftime, it worked, as Boston came out and outscored Orlando 54-25 in the second half for an unbelievable (and potentially season-changing) 91-83 win. Unsurprisingly, the C's suffered yet another injury, as Keyon Dooling left the game with a hip pointer, but that gave rookie E'Twaun Moore the chance to shine, as he drained all four three-pointers he attempted and finished with 16 points.

Still think the Celtics are done?

Boston has now won three in a row and sits just three games back of the Philadelphia 76ers in the loss column in the Atlantic Division, and let's face it—the 76ers have played the easiest schedule imaginable thus far. Their best wins have come over the Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks, but their other 10 victories? Twice versus Washington, then Phoenix, the Golden State Warriors, New Orleans, Detroit Pistons, Toronto, Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks.

To prove my point even more, five of their six losses have come against decent to good teams: the Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz, New York, Denver and Miami. They also have a loss to the New Jersey Nets to go along with that. Sorry, but I am not jumping on Philly's bandwagon.

Don't get me wrong, the Sixers are a nice team and will certainly make the playoffs, but come on—you can't tell me that that junior varsity schedule hasn't been a pretty significant reason as to why they have been playing so well. I'd put my money on the Celtics surpassing them in the division sooner rather than later.

I think it is very possible that Ainge made the comment about breaking up the team to light a fire under the C's, and if that's what he was trying to do, kudos, because it seems to have worked. Boston has not been healthy all year, but it has hung around and kept itself afloat. Now, the Celtics are very much in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference when they very well could have folded, something this team has too much character to do.

Remember two years ago when Boston limped through the second half of the season and nearly everyone was declaring Rivers' bunch a walking corpse that was ripe for a first-round upset? Well, that walking corpse made it all the way to the NBA Finals and was a Kendrick Perkins injury away from winning it all. I understand that that was two years ago and that this is a different Celtic team, but my point is that counting out a group of grizzled, battle-tested veterans such as this is silly.

Judging from Boston's body language yesterday and from Kevin Garnett's entertaining postgame interview with TNT's Craig Sager, this is not a team that is ready to wave the white flag. No, this is a team that still knows deep down that all it needs to do is hang around and lay in the weeds until it has to flip that "on" switch.

Don't believe the Celtics can still do that? Just look at how they've responded after Ainge's statement and how they rallied from a 27-point deficit against a solid Magic team on Thursday night, the latter of which coming, once again, without three of their starters.

Keep counting out Boston. It wouldn't be the first time.