ORLANDO, Fla. — The Philadelphia Flyers cap Celtics forward Rasheed Wallace has been wearing to support his hometown team might not be something Boston fans want to see.

More than a week after the Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead to the Flyers, the Celtics are getting an unwanted trip back to Orlando. They’ll try to close out the Magic again today or put a city that knows all too well about such comebacks halfway to their latest installment.
“It can be done,” said Magic guard Jameer Nelson, who grew up outside Philly.

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Rajon Rondo and the Celtics had a chance to put the series away Monday night. Didn’t happen, and now Game 5 awaits at Orlando. The Associated Press

Only four times in the history of major pro sports has a team won a playoff series after losing the first three games.

It has happened three times in the NHL — most recently by the Flyers — and once in baseball, when the Red Sox came back to beat the Yankees in the 2004 AL championship series.

It’s just never been done in the NBA.

“At some point,” Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said, “somebody is going to come from 3-0 down and win a series.”
Here’s Orlando’s chance to take another step toward history.

The Magic have Game 5 and Game 7 on their home floor, meaning if they can shift things back to Boston, a series that was seemingly over would suddenly have new life.

Orlando’s overtime win in Game 4 showed the grit of a team that had played all year wanting to redeem its NBA finals loss to the Lakers.
Center Dwight Howard expects the gritty team to show up tonight, but really it’s anybody’s guess.

“We didn’t win the game just to win a game to say we were in this series,” he said. “We want to make this a series and win this series. I told the guys before the game, ‘Put out all disbelief, anxiety and fear. We just got to keep playing.’ ”

The Celtics, meanwhile, aren’t exactly about to implode.

Even with the Magic playing the best they have all series, Boston still had chances to win. The Celtics never trailed by more than 10 and overcame a night when Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett were far from stellar.

They also had the ball for the final possession of regulation, but Paul Pierce lost his dribble as his teammates crowded him near the top of the key. Time expired amid the scramble for the ball, and then they lost in overtime.

The Bruins? Well, they also lost Game 4 in overtime.

“There’s no need to panic,” Celtics guard Ray Allen said. “We like the position we’re in. So we have to take care of the small things, and they’ll add up to what we ultimately want.”

The Celtics still have three more chances to win the series and advance to the NBA finals for a shot at their second championship in three years. They’ve never gone more than five games in a series in which they won the first three.

After swarming the Magic defensively in the first three games, the Celtics finally let them get loose. The Magic shot a series-best 44.6 percent from the field.

Nelson hit back-to-back 3-pointers in overtime, and the Magic rode their sharp shooting to a season-saving victory.

“At the end of the day, even though we struggled offensively to get some momentum going, we still didn’t get any defense when we had to,” Pierce said.

The Magic were able to extend their season even with their biggest acquisition busting.

Vince Carter had only 3 points on 1-for-9 shooting. He struggled so much he was replaced by J.J. Redick with 3:57 remaining in regulation.

Carter returned about 2 minutes later to play alongside Redick, who has been far more effective than Carter in the series. But Carter maintains that he’s not giving up on himself.

Or his team.

“Just believe,” Carter said. “We feel like we’re a championship team, we’ve built this base from day one and we’ve played outstanding basketball the second part of the season.

“We’ve had a lot of success the first two rounds of the playoffs, shoot. Why go lay down now? Fight the fight and see what happens.”
 

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