The Official Site of JJ Redick

Sun, May 10th 2009, 23:00

BOSTON STUNS MAGIC ON GAME 4 BUZZER-BEATER

One shot away from potentially holding a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, the Orlando Magic were stunned Sunday night when Glen Davis buried a 21-foot jump shot at the buzzer to help Boston win 95-94 in shocking fashion.

Boston now takes a 2-all tie and homecourt advantage with it back to Beantown.

Orlando led 92-91 on free throws by Dwight Howard and 94-93 on free throws by Rashard Lewis with 11 seconds to play, but Boston’s ``Big Baby’’ saved the day with a jump shot off a perfectly executed pick-and-roll play.

On the final play, Orlando took away a flare cut play for Ray and got the ball out of the hands of star forward Ray Allen, but Davis buried the shot from the wing as time expired after the Magic had switched the pick-and-roll.

The line-drive shot barely beat the clock and just avoided the reach of Lewis. Coincidentally, Davis made a shot from the nearly the same spot in February to seal a victory against the Magic.

``Every time I shoot, I kind of feel myself making game-winning shots. If you see it, you believe it,’’ said Davis, Boston’s replacement in these playoffs for injured forwards Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe. ``A shot like that you have to believe that you are going to make it.’’

Davis’ shot ruined an otherwise great comeback for the Magic. Orlando trailed by as much as nine points and had to struggle offensively most of the night after making just 40 percent of its shots.

Dwight Howard had 23 points and Rashard Lewis added 22. Hedo Turkoglu and Mickael Pietrus each scored 11 points for the Magic.

J.J. Redick had a game-high seven assists, easily his career high in the NBA. J.J. made the first shot of the game, a 15-foot jumper off a curl screen, but otherwise struggled with his shot. He had two points and one steal in addition to his seven assists.

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy lauded J.J.’s ability to overcome a poor shooting night by playing a tremendous floor game with his passing and defense on Ray Allen. The Boston star guard scored just 12 points and is shooting only 34 percent for the series and has made just three of 24 3-point tries.

``He’s a guy who really knows how to space the floor. And J.J. is a guy who is easy for other guys to play with,’’ Van Gundy said. ``He shoots it well, he’s smart, he moves the ball well and he’s not going to make mistakes. If he’s supposed to pick a guy, J.J. is going to be there to pick the guy. And the thing I like most is that he helps guys who play with him and makes them better players.’’

The Magic are still confident that they can recover from Sunday’s devastating loss and win the series. But it all starts with winning in Boston come Tuesday night in Game 5.

``We know it’s going to be tough now, a dogfight really because they are the defending champions and they will protect their homecourt well,’’ Howard said of the Magic. ``We have to go in there with the mindset that from start to finish that we’re going to win the game. We have to have great effort. They’re going to try to knock us out, but we have to sustain their blows. We’ll be ready.’’