The defending champion in '09 won 62 victories, why did they lose to the Magic in the end? How are the Big Three performing?

There is no 24th in the rivers and lakes

2024-05-27 09:54Posted in Henan Sports Creators

Since 2010, this season is considered the most championship-looking year for the Celtics, and although they also reached the Finals in 2022, the Celtics have made too many upgrades compared to the roster of that year. However, even with the superiority on paper, the Celtics still can't afford to be careless, and it is not a season in the team's history that has not been "overturned in the gutter", such as 2009.

That season, the regular season Celtics played 60+ wins for the second year in a row, and in addition to the team's Big Three, young players such as Rondo and Perkins also had obvious growth. Therefore, at that time, the Celtics' road to defending the title was still relatively bright, and everyone was looking forward to seeing the yellow-green battle in the Finals again. However, in the end, the Celtics not only failed to make it to the Finals, they were eliminated by the Magic in the second round, and they were abused by 19 points in the tiebreaker, so why did they lose that round of the series, and how did the Big Three perform?

Garnett's injury season was reimbursed, and the team's offensive and defensive system collapsed

Since joining the Celtics in 2007, Garnett has made sacrifices on the offensive end for the team, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have the ability, and when Ray Allen and Pierce don't feel good, he can still play for the team in key moments. However, Garnett's defense is more critical than offense for the team, and as the DPOY of the 2007-2008 season, his defense, rim protection, and rebounding protection are very important to the Celtics.

However, in the regular season against the Jazz, Garnett suffered a torn ligament in his right knee due to an unsuccessful empty catch, and before he withdrew from the game, he played 15 minutes and contributed 8 points, 2 rebounds and 1 block on 4-of-6 shooting, and the Celtics still led the Jazz by one point at halftime, but the team was reversed in the second half. Garnett has been recovering from injuries since then, during which the Celtics' record is only 7-7 (including against the Jazz), so on March 20, 2009, Garnett chose to force a comeback, but apparently his injury has not improved, and he can only play an average of 17.5 minutes per game after his return, and finally played four games before the season was completely declared reimbursed.

Garnett's season reimbursement has made it much more difficult for the Celtics to defend their title, and although they seem to be a 62-win team, the Bulls almost eliminated in the first round of the playoffs with a 41-win game. The Celtics were the league's top defensive team in the regular season, but after losing Garnett, even the Bulls were able to score on their heads, and although the Celtics advanced with a 4-3 score in the end, they allowed the Bulls to average 108.3 points per game in seven games, as a reference to their average conceded points per game in the regular season that year (third in the league).

In the second round, facing the Magic with "Warcraft" Howard in charge, Perkins and Davis couldn't limit the former at all, but the Celtics' defense in this round of the series has worked hard, and with the concerted efforts of the whole team, the Magic averaged 96 points per game.

At least passing on the defensive end, the reason the Celtics lost more was on the offensive end, averaging only 91.7 points per game in this series, and they were inferior to the Magic in terms of the number of times they stood at the free throw line, their three-point production and their overall shooting percentage. Without Garnett's point of containment, the rest of the Celtics have a harder time scoring without his containment in the low post.

Pierce is lost, and Ray Allen is completely out of sight

In the first round against the Bulls, the main reason why the Celtics were able to advance despite poor defense was that Pierce and Ray Allen performed better than in the regular season, among which Pierce, as the FMVP of the year, averaged 23.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2 assists per game.

Ray Allen played better on the offensive end, averaging 23.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, and as a shooter, he averaged 3.9 three-pointers on 46.6% shooting per game, and he alone contributed nearly half of the Celtics' three-point production.

However, in this series against the Magic, Pierce and Ray Allen were both lost, the former averaged 18.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, but compared to Ray Allen, he basically did not decline. "Junzi Lei" averaged 13.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.1 turnovers per game in these seven games, and the shooting rate was as low as 34.4%, even his best three-point shot was completely lost in this round of the series, he averaged 6 three-pointers per game, but only 1.1 shots, and the shooting rate was a dismal 19%.

Originally, the Celtics had a chance to finish the series in G6, but in the end, because of Ray Allen's poor performance, the team was dragged into a tiebreaker. In that game, Ray Allen shot only 2-of-11 and 0-of-7 from three-point range, and only had 5 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, and 4 turnovers. In fact, the G6 Green Army still led by 1 point after the first three quarters, but Ray Allen's performance in the final quarter was really spicy, and he didn't score a point on 0 of 4 shots, and the Magic's first overtake was because Lewis was fouled by him and stood on the free throw line less than 8 minutes after the final quarter.

And Pierce seemed to have 17 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, but at the critical moment, he made a mistake to let the opponent shoot a three-point shot to overtake the score, and missed two key free throws in the last two minutes to miss the opportunity to overtake, which are the main nodes of the burying game. The Greens wanted to win the game the most, Rondo, who scored a team-high 19 points, 6 assists, 4 steals, and also grabbed a team-high 16 rebounds, but unfortunately his teammates still failed his heroic performance.

The seven-tie Magic shooter broke out, and it rained "three points" at the home of the Green Army

However, after losing G6, Celtic still have a chance to advance, after all, the tie-break is on their home turf. On the brink of life and death, Ray Allen finally found his touch, scoring a team-high 23 points on 9-of-18 shooting and making three three-pointers. But apparently only Ray Allen was in shape in this game, and Pierce played worse than G6, scoring 16 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

Compared to the Celtics, the Magic had a better performance in the tie-break, especially their shooters, Turkoglou, Lewis, Alston, Pirruth and Redick, who combined to shoot 13 three-pointers and shoot a staggering 61.9% from the field. Because of the explosion on the outside, Howard, the star of the Magic team, only scored 12 points, but they still won this crucial game.

However, this does not mean that Howard is not important, in fact, Howard can average 16.4 points, 17.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.7 blocks per game in this series, including 4.1 frontcourt rebounds, it can be said that he completely dominates the interior. And at that time, the Magic was already around him playing the tactic of "one star shooting", relying on his containment on the inside, the Magic's shooter group could get more three-point opportunities. Under the influence of "Huo's gravity", Lewis averaged 20.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3 assists per game, Turkoglu averaged 16.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, and Petrus averaged 12.1 points per game.

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