All About Advancing

Shank warps up the Celtics - Magic series:

It took longer than it should have, but Celtics finally found their game and advanced

The world champion Celtics beat the pedestrian Orlando Magic, 120-89, in the Causeway Street gym Tuesday to advance to Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. Boston will play either the Knicks or Pistons in the conference semifinals (New York leads that series, 3-2).

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t wait to get these Orlando bums in the rearview mirror. The Magic are rugged and have some good young players (particularly Paolo Banchero), but they were a 41-41 team and supposed to be a mere speed bump on the Celtics’ road to banner number 19.

It was, therefore, somewhat annoying when the Celtics lost Game 3 in Orlando last Friday.

Making matters worse, the Celtics couldn’t hit a three and fell behind by 9 points in Game 5 Tuesday. Boston trailed, 49-47, at intermission and made . . . zero . . . 3-point baskets in the first half. It was as if Marcus Smart and Greg Kite were back in the house.

The Celtics will have to win more games like that.