The Magic Choke Again

The Orlando Magic have completely choked the past two games of the series. Last night they led by as many as 14 in the 4th quarter before throwing it away, and Dwight Howard wasn't shy of who to blame after the game.

"Our coach has to recognize that when he has a certain group out there and they are getting the job done we have to leave those guys on the floor," Howard said after the game about Coach Stan Van Gundy.

Very rarely do you see a player blame his coach for a loss, but Howard only touched the ball three times on offense in the 4th quarter. Instead you saw Rafer Alston, Hedo Turkoglu, and Rashard Lewis fire up miss after miss. Dwight definitely has a case here.

How does a team not run their offense through a player like Dwight Howard? You feed Howard down low, let him draw in the defense, and then hit your spot up shooter like Turkoglu and Lewis. Instead, the Magic brought the ball down the floor, made two passes at the most, and settled for contested shots.

Stan Van Gundy apologized for his coaching in the Game 4 loss, and he probably should have apologized for Game 5 as well. Now the Magic have went from possibly going up 3-1 in the series, to being down 3-2 to the defending champs.

I don't see the Magic battling back from this. The players clearly are in disagreement with Van Gundy and the Celtics are playing with all of the momentum. The Celtics are playing with a great balanced attack on the offensive end and players like Glen Davis and Eddie House are contibuting more than expected on the offensive end.

Put this one in the bag and let's get ready for the Celtics and the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals.