BOSTON, (Reuters) – Hedo Turkoglu made 25 points and 12 assists as the Orlando Magic dethroned the Boston Celtics with a convincing 101-82 victory over the NBA champions on Sunday.
The Magic led for most of the game and pulled away from the Celtics in the final quarter to win the best-of-seven series 4-3 and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
Orlando will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers for a place in the NBA finals, starting with an away game tomorrow.
“We had a lot of confidence and these guys always believed in each other,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters. “We had to prove ourselves over and over all season and we really proved what kind of basketball team we are tonight.”
Dwight Howard added 12 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots for the Magic, who made 13 of their 21 three-point attempts and led for all but 36 seconds in the game.
“When we go out there and have fun and play the way we can play, we can win,” Howard said. “We’re a different team now.
“Our goal is to win a championship.”
The Magic led by as many as 14 points at the half, but the Celtics clawed back to 45-42 early in the third quarter. Orlando’s superior shooting saw them carve out a 66-61 break going into the last, however.
An 8-0 run at the start of the fourth put the Magic well in front, as the weary Celtics, playing without Kevin Garnett, appeared to run out of gas.
“We just didn’t have enough left to get by a very good team,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said of the Celtics, who needed seven games to finish off the Chicago Bulls in the quarter finals.
After winning 62 games in the regular season, the Celtics wound up 7-7 in the post-season, as they struggled without marquee player Garnett.
Ray Allen scored 23 points and Paul Pierce had 16 for Boston, who battled back to a 3-2 lead in the series after struggling in the early games.
The 17-time NBA champion Celtics had never lost a playoff series after being ahead 3-2, but squandered a 10-point lead to surrender game six in Orlando on Thursday.
