pictures courtesy of the bleacher report

According to Jeff Van Gundy’s thinking, it’s a good thing Pippen is being inducted this year, because Van Gundy predicts that record might fall this season.

Van Gundy, speaking Monday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000, backed up a prediction he made to the Miami Herald that the Miami Heat can break the Bulls’ record.

“I would think that everybody would think they would have a great shot at it,” said Van Gundy, a former NBA head coach and current ABC/ESPN analyst. “I don’t know if I said they will or they have a great chance, whatever I said, I just think if they’re healthy, the discrepancy between their talent level and and the next level is so great, that I just don’t see how they lose games. I think they’re that good.”

Van Gundy told the Herald that the Heat will break the record, and that they have a “legit shot” at the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 33-game win streak, which they set in the 1971-72 season.

“Erik Spoelstra is a heck of a coach, so they’re going to be motivated to play well defensively, which is about coaching, and offensively they’re going to be an absolute nightmare to deal with,” Van Gundy said on ESPN 1000. “If LeBron James can win 66 games in the regular season with the guys he played with, who I think are better than people have given them credit for in Cleveland, then I think you add Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Mike Miller, it’s not a stretch to say they can win six more.”

Van Gundy backed off — slightly — from his claim that the Lakers are the only team that could beat the Heat in a playoff series.

“I think Boston — with the [Shaquille] O’Neal signing — has a legitimate chance as well,” he said. “But I think those are the only two teams that have a chance in a playoff series to beat them.”

Van Gundy said he likes what the Bulls have done in adding Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, C.J. Watson, Ronnie Brewer and Keith Bogans, but he still doesn’t see Chicago among the elite in the Eastern Conference.

“I think you’ve got Miami, and you have Boston just a notch below them,” he said. “Orlando would have to be right below them, then I think Atlanta’s a very good team.

“I would put those four teams clearly ahead of them right now, and I think Chicago could be fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth — somewhere in that range.”

Van Gundy believes it’s become popular to pick against the Heat.

“I think people are trying to pick on Miami right now instead of opening their eyes to just how great they are,” he said. “There are going to be no chemistry issues. Wade and James are unselfish players.

“That doesn’t mean if they win a championship it’s a great accomplishment either, because they’re so much better than everybody. But to discount just how good they are, I think people are making a mistake.”

www.espnchicago.com

An NBA schedule disseminated in two takes instead of one doesn’t really change the drill around here.

The league’s insistence Tuesday night on revealing only the details for the games that will be broadcast nationally during the opening week of the season and on Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. Day still generates sufficient fodder for the sort of rundown you’ve come to expect this time of year.

Breaking down what we know by date, as always, until the full team-by-team schedule is released next Tuesday:

Tuesday, Oct. 26: Opening Night (Heat-Celtics, Rockets-Lakers)

I get the feeling some of you are deeply disappointed that we’re not getting Miami at Cleveland in regular-season game No. 1 of 1,230. I’m just not quite sure why.

The first night of the season is just too soon for a scene that wild and emotional. Miami at Boston strikes me as a far more appropriate season starter: LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh against the reigning East champs, who also happen to be the NBA’s perennial champions of cockiness and — according to Rajon Rondo — not all that impressed by the glittering roster Pat Riley has assembled.

Trust me. You’ll end up liking it better this way … unless you’re a Clevelander incapable of digesting this matchup in any form. Word is LeBron won’t make his first trip back to Ohio with the Heaters until Dec. 2 — on the second night of a back-to-back for Miami — which means the drama will build for a good month-plus.

Seeing LeBron at The Q in someone else’s uniform before we even get to Halloween? Way too soon to me. You generally want to work up to the most anticipated game on the regular-season schedule, not lead off with it.

There’s also no rush when Miami-Boston on TNT should be sufficiently tasty on its own. The Heat’s SuperFriends era will officially commence in an atmosphere that will be plenty cauldronlike, knowing how much Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen (as well as all those Bostonians spewing venom at TD Garden) will want to muck up the occasion.

Just imagine, furthermore, if the Celtics actually sign Shaquille O’Neal between now and then. Just to spice things up.

P.S.: The Lakers and Rockets are hooking up in a TNT nightcap that’s destined to be one of the more unjustly overshadowed NBA games in recent memory. This matchup is teeming with subplots, too.

Subplot No. 1: L.A. will be collecting its championship rings before the opening tip.

Subplot No. 2: Houston’s Trevor Ariza, who obviously never wanted to leave his hometown team after winning a ring with the Lakers, faces the discouraging prospect of watching Ron Artest collect his Lakers ring.

Subplot No. 3: I’ve been assured by Someone Who Knows that Yao Ming, barring any setbacks in training camp, will indeed be ready to play in his first game that counts since Game 3 in the second round of the 2009 playoffs.

Wed., Oct. 27: ESPN doubleheader (Bulls-Thunder, Blazers-Clippers)

Two young teams that (just a hunch) will routinely threaten to the crack the top five of ESPN.com’s weekly NBA Power Rankings are lined up to tip off ESPN’s regular-season schedule: Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, new coach Tom Thibodeau and the rest of the Chicago Bulls will visit Kevin Durant‘s Oklahoma City Thunder.

The intrigue in the nightcap, meanwhile, is obvious: Will we see No. 1 overall pick in 2007 Greg Oden, 2009 No. 1 Blake Griffin or both — or neither — when the Portland Trail Blazers go to Los Angeles to face the Clippers and new coach Vinny Del Negro?

Thursday, Oct. 28: TNT doubleheader (Wizards-Magic, Suns-Jazz)

The season’s first TNT Thursday will be recorded as certifiably historic in Orlando, where the Magic will play their first-ever game at the Amway Center against John Wall‘s Washington Wizards.

You can’t help but wonder, though, whether the league’s mythical scheduling computer spit out Washington as the first visitor to Orlando’s new building just in case the Wiz and Magic decide to resuscitate those trade talks headlined by Gilbert Arenas and Vince Carter over the next six weeks or so. Wall’s debut against Arenas? Tantalizing thought.

TNT’s second doubleheader of the week will then be capped by Suns at Jazz in a matchup of Western Conference contenders that have taken on drastically different looks since we last saw them, with Hedo Turkoglu replacing Amare Stoudemire in Phoenix and Al Jefferson replacing Boozer in Utah.

(Quick aside: Steve Kerr has to be working that game for TNT. Has to. Right?)

(Quick follow-up to the quick aside: Kerr has to do the in-game interview with Suns owner Robert Sarver. Has to. Right? I would say so unless TNT wants Chris Webber — after his unforgettable courtside repartee with Minnesota’s David Kahn during summer league — doing all these interviews from now on.)

Friday, Oct. 29: ESPN doubleheader (Magic-Heat, Lakers-Suns)

Week 1 of LeBron’s new life might prove to be uncomfortable even without the trip back to Cleveland, thanks to the news that Orlando will be coming to Miami for the Heat’s home opener just 72 hours after the new-look Heat’s first up-close look at Boston.

We don’t have to wait long, in other words, for our first look at how Miami deals with Orlando’s size advantage, knowing that Bosh wants no part of playing center.

The Lakers and Suns then follow up in Phoenix with a Western Conference finals rematch, despite the fact that — with Hedo at the 4, Josh Childress on the bench and Grant Hill‘s longtime agent, Lon Babby, now running the front office — these aren’t quite the same Suns.

Dec. 25: Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas! (Five games)

Let’s be real: You’ve known that the Heat would be playing the Lakers on Christmas Day for weeks.

LeBron versus Kobe on ABC’s first broadcast date of the season?

An automatic from the moment LeBron, more than 20 minutes into “The Decision,” finally confirmed that he was taking his talents to South Beach.

Just don’t forget that the whole holiday is a festival of hoops nowadays, with the NBA thankfully sticking to the “five live games” blueprint for Christmas that was introduced a couple of seasons back. The result in 2010 is more than 12 straight hours of Christmas coverage, starting with Chicago at New York on ESPN at noon ET.

The two ABC games are next: Boston at Orlando as a heated prelude to Heat at Lakers. Then we’ll dribble back to ESPN for two more games, with the first starting at 8 p.m.: Carmelo Anthony and Durant squaring off in a Denver-Oklahoma City scoring duel … after which the Golden State Warriors (coach: TBD) make a rare prime-time appearance by hosting the Blazers.

Jan. 17: Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Three games)

The usual full docket of games on this Monday holiday begins with Chicago at Memphis on ESPN at 1 p.m., which features the Bulls’ Rose returning to his collegiate backyard.

A tasty TNT doubleheader looms in the evening, too: Magic at Celtics, followed by Thunder at Lakers.

www.espn.com

Saturday it was Orlando’s turn to have its spirit broken, after Cleveland and Miami already submitted in the first two rounds. Yes, Boston won Game 3 going away, 94-71, to take a commanding 3-0 series lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals, but that barely scratches the surface of the real story: A frustrated Magic team had the fight taken out of them.

One play from the middle of the second quarter perhaps defines it best — a play Kevin Garnett aptly called a “pure, I-want-it-more-than-you type of play.”

After a deflected pass rolled into the backcourt, Orlando’s Jason Williams trotted after it. Boston’s Rajon Rondo trailed Williams, but he didn’t trot, he flew. And when it appeared that wouldn’t work, he launched into a full-out dive, snatching the ball from Williams’s shoe tops while sprawling out on the floor.

“I wanted to make a play on the ball,” said Rondo. “He had the angle on me so I decide to dive for it.”

“I didn’t think he could get to it,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “I don’t think Jason Williams thought he could get to it, honestly. I don’t know how he got it.”

Rondo completed the play by getting up and making a difficult layup over Williams to put the Celtics up 36-17, sending the sellout crowd of 18,624 into hysterics. While party poopers will point out that he blatantly traveled by getting up, it misses the larger significance of the play. In a game where the Celtics routinely outhustled and outcompeted their opponent, this sequence was the defining example.

There were others, of course. So many others. There was Rondo challenging Orlando’s Ryan Anderson for a rebound after a wayward end-of-shot-clock heave by Ray Allen, tapping the ball seemingly out of bounds until Glen Davis dove into the crowd to save it to Garnett. There was Davis fighting for a missed free throw, pushing Vince Carter into Dwight Howard and causing the Orlando big man to fumble the ball out of bounds. And early in the second half, there was Orlando’s Matt Barnes getting so frustrated that he shoved Garnett in the back and took out his own coach.

“I just didn’t think we stayed with the fight very well,” said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. “I thought there were several hustle plays like [Rondo's] in the first half that all went their way. I thought they worked harder than we did. I thought they outcompeted us.”

As a result of Boston’s superior effort and physicality, the Celtics defense suffocated Orlando. The league’s second-leading offense in the regular season scored only 48 points in the first three quarters, while the Celtics built up a 27-point lead, before the Magic added 23 points’ worth of window dressing in an utterly meaningless fourth.

The Celtics, a No. 4 seed who won only 50 games in the regular season, are on the verge of topping the two teams (Orlando and Cleveland) with the best regular-season records — with a combined six-game winning streak against the two.

“Being an older group, it’s probably easier for me to get their focus in the playoffs,” said Rivers. “Our overall chemistry is phenomenal.”

A good example of that chemistry came on a possession in the second quarter when the Celtic’s initial pick-and-roll play didn’t work, and they swung the ball from one side … and then to the other … and then back up top … and then to Rondo down the lane … and finally, after eight passes and just one dribble, to Garnett for an open jumper.

“Their ball movement has been outstanding,” said Van Gundy.

Of course, defense, chemistry and effort alone aren’t enough. That’s where the electric play of Rondo comes in. Even compared to a year ago, he’s a different player, one that has tilted the balance from the seven-game series won by the Magic last season. While some may point to Kevin Garnett’s presence, he’s been a limited factor — just 13-of-36 for the series with averages of 9.3 points and 8.7 rebounds.

Instead, the story is Rondo. He shot only 37.5 percent in the series against the Magic a year ago, including a 2-of-12, seven-turnover performance during Boston’s Game 1 loss at home.

This time around he’s dominated at both ends. Rondo scored 25 points and added eight assists in Boston’s pivotal Game 2 win (it’s easy to forget after Saturday, but the first two games were nail-biters), and then added 10 points, 12 assists and four steals in Game 3. His plays were impactful ones too — the assists high-quality looks producing layups, the points concentrated in the opening 18 minutes when Boston seized control of the game.

It was his impossible runner late in the first quarter, in fact, that first hinted the rout was won. He drove from the left wing to his right toward the rim, took a bump from J.J. Redick that forced him past the lane, and turned and lofted a soft bank shot over charging Defensive Player of the Year Howard that caromed in off the rim. That shot put Boston up 27-11. Later, he contributed a nifty dipsy-do when he faked a retreat to the 3-point line then quickly turned along the left baseline, catching Williams a second time for a foul-and-one.

Additionally he stepped up to the challenge of checking Orlando’s Jameer Nelson, who had a dominating first two rounds but has done little of note against the Celtics.

Nelson is 17-of-44 from the floor and has 10 turnovers against just seven assists. A typical play –and one that furthered Orlando’s frustration — came in the first quarter when Howard established deep post position with Nelson dribbling upcourt. Rondo’s length and pressure made it impossible for the smaller Nelson to get Howard the ball in time, so Howard was whistled for a three-second violation and one of Orlando’s 17 turnovers.

As a result, the Celtics are up 3-0, and no NBA team has ever come back from that deficit. They’ll go for the clincher before the home crowd on Monday night, against another Boston opponent broken by the end of a series — just as Cleveland was last round, and just as the Lakers were by the end of the 2008 Finals.

Rivers couldn’t quite go there, but admitted his team had the advantage Saturday night.

“I don’t see that,” said Rivers. “I think [losing spirit] happens during games at times, and maybe for moments, but they’re a competitive group.

About all Orlando can use for solace is this city’s penchant for defying the laws of physics on 3-0 leads in best-of-seven series. In the last 30 years only two North American sports teams have come back from such deficits — the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees and, just a week ago, the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins.

Those Bruins played in this very arena, but it’s hard to imagine an encore performance for their NBA club with Boston playing as energetically as it has since the playoffs started.

“We’re not good enough to let up,” said Rivers. But unlike the Magic, there’s no indication this team will.

John Hollinger is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

You can’t just turn it on for the playoffs … um, right?

Maybe you can, after all; at least if you’ve done it before. The Boston Celtics, champions in 2008, limped through the final two-thirds of the regular season and were mostly counted out heading into the playoffs.

Magically, all that changed once the postseason started. Boston blew past Miami in five games, shocked Cleveland by winning the final three games — including a 32-point rout in Game 5 — and continued its stunning run by beating Orlando 95-92 on Tuesday to take a 2-0 series lead in their best-of-seven series. Game 3 is Saturday in Boston.

The Celtics have won five straight games against the East’s two regular-season heavyweights — Boston’s first five-game winning streak in more than half a year — and as a result has one foot in the NBA Finals and is six wins away from claiming a second championship in three years.

So … did they just turn it on for the playoffs?

“I know it’s starting to look that way,” said Paul Pierce, who scored a team-high 28 points and shook off a second-quarter chop to the face from Dwight Howard that resulted in a flagrant foul.

But he insisted that the Celtics’ charge really began in the final 10 games of the regular season. The results weren’t there yet — they lost three times to lottery teams — but the spirit was.

“We were seeing that we were turning the corner,” Pierce said. “Even though some of the things didn’t result in wins, I thought Coach really saw some things that we did in those last five or 10 games that were positive things that we really didn’t do for most of the season. I think we saw it coming, [so] we stayed positive.”

“I thought our intensity went up really well, and eventually when the playoffs started, it turned full circle for us.”

The win continues an amazing transformation for the Celtics.

Less than 10 days ago, they were viewed as a spent force, an aging team that closed the season 27-27 and was trailing 2-1 to Cleveland after losing Game 3 at home by 29 points. No sane person thought they had a prayer of beating the Cavs, much less advancing to the NBA Finals.

“The things that were said were probably deserved,” Pierce said. “We didn’t play well; we didn’t play consistent.”

“We’re the team that started the season,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. That Boston squad got off to a 23-5 start, including an 86-77 win in Orlando on Christmas Day, but had scarcely been seen since.

On Tuesday, the Celtics continued their rejuvenation by overcoming a staple of their second-half malaise: a blown fourth-quarter lead. Boston led by 11 early in the fourth but the Magic rallied to regain the lead 90-89 on a Vince Carter jumper with 3:35 remaining. Kendrick Perkins had already fouled out, Orlando regained the ball after a Kevin Garnett miss and the Magic crowd was roaring. At that moment, it seemed Boston had squandered a golden opportunity to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.

From that point, however, the Celtics simply out-executed Orlando. The Celtics forced Vince Carter into a contested miss to get the ball back, and Garnett hit a tough fadeaway in the corner over Howard to regain the lead. Boston caught a break when a Garnett reach-in went uncalled and eventually led to a charge on J.J. Redick — drawn by Glen Davis, who contributed a valuable 28-minute relief stint that included a rare dunk.

Boston took advantage when Rondo finished off a brilliant performance (25 points, eight assists, suffocating D on Jameer Nelson) by hitting a back-breaking 16-foot jumper over Howard at the end of the shot clock.

That shot put the Celtics up by three in the final minute, and with the help of two huge late mistakes by Orlando — a pair of missed free throws by Carter that caused Nick Anderson flashbacks throughout Central Florida, followed by Redick’s failure to immediately call timeout after a Boston miss with seven seconds left — Boston had its landmark win.

Although it’s a bit premature to prepare a eulogy for a Magic team that lost twice by a combined total of seven points, the Celtics now possess an overwhelming advantage: Teams that win the first two games on the road have won 22 of 25 times in best-of-seven series.

A hacker may have inadvertently provided Orlando some added motivation afterward — Pierce’s Twitter account said “Anybody got a BROOM?” but the timing of the post seemed to coincide with when he was answering my question on the podium.

“Pride comes before a fall, just know that,” said Howard, after being informed of what were originally believed to be Pierce’s comments.

Howard at least has some history on his side — Orlando has won its past three meetings in Boston, including Game 7 of their second-round series last season.

That said, winning four of the next five — including at least two on the road — is a daunting task, given that Boston’s playoff résumé suddenly looks incredibly impressive. Orlando and Cleveland won a combined 120 games, but the Celtics beat the two teams five times in a row — three of them on the road. For the playoffs, the Celtics are 10-3 with a plus-60 scoring margin against what is by far the toughest schedule of any postseason team.

Ironically, the veteran Celtics now are the ones wishing the playoff schedule didn’t include so many off days. Originally, most felt the three days off between games would favor Boston, particularly the gimpy knees of Perkins and Garnett. But after taking the first two on the road, Boston would probably rather go for the kill immediately.

“Unfortunately we have a month off before the next game,” Rivers said, “so we have to keep it together. For four days we’re going to hear how great we are.”

For four months the Celtics heard the opposite. But whether it was intentional or not, they turned it on at just the right time.

John Hollinger is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

In 2007 Bryant felt trapped on an inferior squad, one that quickly bowed out to the Suns in the first round while he spent his final postgame interview issuing an icy demand that the front office do something. With Bryant gone LeBron James turned the playoffs into his own American Idol moment, turning in that virtuoso performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Soon thereafter Bryant began his Radio Free Kobe tour of making trade demands over the airwaves.

Back to 2010 and the entire scenario is reversed. All the drama is surrounding LeBron — the way he went out, and where he’ll head next — and Kobe is left as the singular star of the playoffs. LeBron still might generate the most talk (and unsubstantiated rumors) and trend higher on Twitter, but he won’t score another point until next season. Steve Nash has never been about individual numbers. Dwight Howard is caught in a downward scoring trend as the playoffs advance. Rajon Rondo is the player who added the most wattage to his shine in these playoffs, but it would be out of character — and probably detrimental to the Celtics’ team-oriented approach — if Rondo went for 40.

Kobe hits 40 by necessity, by habit, by sheer will, by the force of whatever it is that drives him. He does it with enough regularity that the only consolation Suns coach Alvin Gentry could find after Bryant did it to his team in a 128-107 Lakers victory in Game 1 was “I’m pretty sure that we’re not the first team that he scored 40 against.”

It’s happened 11 times in the playoffs during Bryant’s career. He’s gone for 30 more in six straight games this postseason, stretching back to the end of the Thunder series, the sweep of the Jazz and now the conference finals opener.

Bryant turned this into his game — and put his name at the top of the playoff storylines — with a 21-point outburst in the third quarter. The Lakers stretched their lead to 19 points. Out of respect for the Suns’ scoring ability, Phil Jackson eschewed his normal rest period for Bryant and left him in for the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, enough for him to get five more points and reach 40 in only 35 ½ minutes of playing time, needing only 23 field goal attempts to get there.

Since it’s practically an NBA regulation that there has to be some intrigue surrounding Bryant at all times, the interminable break between series allowed the speculation about the state of his right knee to build, culminating in a Los Angeles Times report that he had fluid drained from it. Phil Jackson wouldn’t confirm the date of the procedure, Bryant dismissed it along with any problems that might have come from him not practicing.

“My legs benefited a lot,” he said. “I was able to take some time off and just get stronger, get my legs stronger, body stronger.”

For all of the talk of the Suns’ improved defense their path to victory still follows the premise of volume scoring, which had to make it demoralizing when Bryant produced 12 more points than their starting backcourt of Steve Nash and Jason Richardson.

That Kobe’s 40 came in addition to the Lakers’ 56-36 scoring advantage in the paint and Lamar Odom’s 19 points and 19 rebounds and the Lakers’ 58 percent shooting only adds to the workload the Suns have on their hands before Game 2 Wednesday.

And since the Suns have no answer for their main disadvantage — “They’re probably going to continue to be taller than us as the series goes on,” Nash said — they might have no choice other than to double-team Bryant.

Gentry didn’t want to in Game 1 because, he said, “You totally break down everything.”

Bryant said, “They send two guys at me, I’ve done my job. We’ll be ready if that happens.”

But if you’re Phoenix, wouldn’t you rather see if the Lakers can get another 14 points from Ron Artest, or challenge Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmar to duplicate the 7-for-12 shooting between them than to leave your fate in the hands of the most consistent scoring threat in the playoffs? They should have listened to Odom’s warning.

“You understand that he can go on those spurts,” Odom said. “He’s the best scorer in the league. Fadeaways, and of course gets out on the break and plays with his back to the basket, inside, outside.”

This is a bad matchup for the Suns because they have to deal with a variety of problems from Bryant alone. And unlike the last time they faced him, he doesn’t have an equal amount of animosity directed at his teammates and front office. It’s all aimed at them.

He’s been wearing all black outfits, as if he’s trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and that all-white photo shoot, but maybe because he’s preparing himself for another team’s funeral.

He spent part of this game locked into a battle with Grant Hill as if he were traveling back 10 years and trying to settle the argument of who was better.

“It’s never personal with me,” Bryant said, flashing a big grin that let you know if he was hooked up to a lie detector it would have run out of ink.

He explained his scoring burst by saying, “Part of it was to show them that we’re a different team than the one that they’ve faced.”

He didn’t specify whether he was talking about this season or prior playoff matchups, but knowing how much he’s still doing battle with the past and the team that eliminated him in his first playoff forays without Shaquille O’Neal, it’s probably a combination of both.

J.A. Adande is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

Instead, the foul in question was akin to something straight out of a martial arts movie, a haymaker of a hack across the arms of Dwight Howard on Orlando’s first possession of the fourth quarter.

No matter that Howard subsequently went to the line and made both shots. The foul was one of several strong messages sent Orlando’s way on an afternoon when the main message — that defense is going to be the most important component of this series — was delivered again and again and again.

This opponent isn’t just going to give its fouls or use its fouls. The Boston Celtics are going to give those fouls with zest, with gusto.

And if the Orlando Magic can’t take it, well, the Boston Celtics will take that.

“You’ve got to be physical. He plays physical,” Wallace said after the Celtics defeated the Orlando Magic 92-88 Sunday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. “That’s the one thing we looked at and seen over the last few series. Guys just let him do whatever he wanted to do. We’re definitely going to fight him, we have a lot of fouls. I have my six, so do Baby [Glen Davis], Perk [Kendrick Perkins], Shelden [Williams], Kevin [Garnett].”

But the Celtics didn’t merely play a dirty brand of defense. They stayed home on Orlando’s shooters and defended the 3-point line so well, the Magic went 0-for-9 in the first half. They were active with their hands, poking balls away, getting their mitts on loose balls, stepping into passing lanes and coming up with eight steals.

Through three quarters, as Boston was building a 20-point lead, the Magic were making less than 38 percent of their shots. Yes, they recovered and made a late run at the end as the Celtics went more than five minutes without scoring a single point, but it was a quintessential case of having too little, too late.

“It was a defensive game, and we like those. That was fine with us,” said Boston coach Doc Rivers, whose team clearly benefited from going up against an opponent that hadn’t played a game in a week and hadn’t played a tough team in more than a month.

And these Celtics were tough, frustrating Howard not only with their fouls, but also with their ability to push him away from the basket and take him away from his low-post comfort zone.

Kendrick Perkins was able to do it a year ago when the Celtics (without Kevin Garnett) took the Magic to seven games, and Wallace had done it in the past, when Orlando could never get past the Detroit Pistons back when Wallace was one of their defensive anchors.

“They’re going to try to frustrate me and get into my head and play head games, and I have to do my best to maintain my focus,” said Howard, whose 13 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks were discounted by his seven turnovers. “I got into a little wresting match with all their guys, and that’s to their advantage. That takes me off my game.”

There was no singular offensive star for the Celtics, who got 25 points from Ray Allen, 22 from Pierce (but only two in the fourth quarter) and 13 from Wallace. Kevin Garnett and Rashard Lewis basically played to a draw, Jameer Nelson had 20 points to Rajon Rondo’s eight but lost the assists battle 8-2, and the bench contributions were basically a wash.

Where the difference came in this game was in which team took the fight to the other from the get-go, and the Celtics were that feistier team.

“That’s who we are, we’re a defensive team. We can get up on their shooters and not let them open their 3-point game,” Pierce said.

Still, Rivers told the team at halftime that the Magic had attempted seven 3-pointers in the second quarter after taking only two in the first 12 minutes. And he warned them that eventually those 3s were going to start dropping unless Boston continued to defend at the arc.

And indeed, Orlando did hit five 3s in the second half while pulling as close as two (with 8.4 seconds left), but Allen iced the game by making a pair from the line with 6.1 seconds remaining.

With Boston coming off the emotional high of their victory over Cleveland after muddling through the final two-thirds of the season, Rivers had some explaining to do afterward.

How, for instance, could a team that had looked so lethargic so often turn things around so dramatically in the past couple of weeks?

“We’re old, so I think a lot of our guys in the regular season when they were out with injuries, it’s tough to work on defense when you don’t practice, or you only have eight guys for practice,” Rivers said. “But everyone is healthy, everyone’s listening, and everyone’s buying into our defensive schemes.”

Those schemes limited the Magic to just 14 points in the first quarter and 18 in the second. The Magic then allowed a 20-3 run midway through the third quarter as the Celtics went up 65-45, with Howard and Wallace getting double technical fouls toward the end of the run for getting a little too personal as they untangled their locked arms.

“That was a wake-up call we really needed, in my opinion,” said Carter, who was Orlando’s most aggressive player, attacking the paint and trying to create offense. “They’re relentless, they’re aggressive, they do a great job of contesting, especially in the paint, and it took us a while to figure it out, but when we did we played a lot better.”

Wallace told Rivers back in the preseason that he’d end up being judged on his body of work in the playoffs, not the regular season.

So far, so good.

ESPN Insider Chris Sheridan is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

No, this goes much deeper. Orlando is on a torrid hot streak and nobody seems to have noticed.

Want to guess the Magic’s record in their 30 games since March 1?

Would you believe 27-3?

Yes, 27-3. That’s not a typo. That’s their mark in a slate in which 18 of the 30 opponents were playoff teams. And before you dismiss the most recent opposition so easily, remember that the Hawks team they handled so easily won more games than Boston, San Antonio and Portland and as many as Denver and Utah. In fact the Hawks beat all of those teams at least once, as well as the Lakers and Suns, and swept Boston 4-0.

So the Magic have beat a lot of good teams. Actually, that’s an understatement. They aren’t just beating people — they’re killing them. Twenty of the 27 wins have been by double figures, and many were one-sided beatdowns — such as the wins by 43 and 30 over Atlanta in Games 1 and 3. Monday’s win, by a mere 14, barely moved the needle on their average victory margin.

Somehow, despite James’ nine turnovers in the Cavs’ 94-85 season-ending loss, I think Danny Ainge might agree to accommodate him.

Yes, it is the Celtics, not the Cavs, who are advancing to the Eastern Conference finals. A postseason of improbables layered upon implausibles continues for Boston. In the space of six days, the Celtics went from the ultra-humiliating — a 124-95 loss at home — to the ultra-exhilarating: a rousing victory in Game 6 and a sweep of the last three games of this series.

The team won’t — and can’t — dwell on the significance of this achievement, not with the menacing Magic awaiting in less than 48 hours. But when it’s all said and done, by eliminating the No. 1 team of the regular season, this might rank as the Celtics’ greatest playoff upset since the 1969 NBA Finals. No one foresaw this; not the ESPN panel of experts, none of whom picked the Celtics. Vegas didn’t like the Celtics’ chances. You had to think the Cavaliers regarded the Celtics as a stepping-stone.

And now that the Celtics have pulled off the Big One, where does that rate in Paul Pierce’s mind?

“I’m really not that proud,” Pierce said. “Our goal is to win a championship. We didn’t say we wanted to come in and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs. Our goal is to win a championship. We can be excited for one night, but we only get excited here when we put a banner up.”

Well, there’s still a lot of work remaining in that area. Starting on Sunday against a team that hasn’t lost in the postseason and is playing as well as anyone. But this was a night when the Celtics showcased so much of the promise we had seen now and again, on occasion, over the course of the season. (OK, when we did see it, it probably was 2009.) This was a night that vindicated Ainge’s February decision to keep the team intact and hope it got its you-know-what together in time.