Watching the Boston Celtics/Orlando Magic match up last night one could have surmised that the Magic would have no chance and fold like a cheap suit in 4 straight games to the Celts. Well this fan was wrong. Orlando showed up or at least most of the team (Vince when will you figure out that you are playing in the Eastern Conference Finals?) did in a 96-92 overtime victory in Beantown last night.

Rashard Lewis with 13 pts came to play as did Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson. They played well under pressure in Boston and they were rewarded with another game back at the O-Rena in Orlando. JJ Redick provided the spark off the bench while The Celtic bench were no shows last night led by Rahseed Wallace 0-4 from 3 point land and received a poor technical foul.

The Celtics better be aware as to what happened to the Bruins and close out this series as soon as possible or else you never know what may happen and that is the beauty of sports, you just never know.

Like watching the game here in Jerusalem this morning on ESPN. The network lost the game feed numerous times during crunch time and I was pleasured to a blank screen and then X-Game hilights instead of the last minutes and forst minutes of the OT period. I was dying, I didn’t even know what had happened in the game with seconds to go. AT 85-80 a see nothing then all of a sudden at jumps to 86-85 with 1:15 left to play. I get to see Paul Pierce know it up at 86 all and then nothing again! I am going crazy. The channel comes back to life with about 33 seconds left and I get to see Pierce miss a jumper and then blank screen city again until midway through the overtime period where it is now 92-86 and I get to see Ray Allen hit a 3 to bring the Magic lead to within 3, 92-89.

Guess what, I lose the game yet again and pick it up at 96-92 Magic with under a minute to go. And that’s how it ends as I see the clock run down.

Please ESPN do not pull that again, this was not the provider but about you, don’t pull the plug!

Speaking of pulling the plug, the life line of the Montreal Canadiens has finally ended losing in Philadelphia 4-2 to the Pumpkin like orange fans of the Flyers. The Habs jumped out to a 1-0 lead to quiet the crowd in the first minute of play, but a poorly played shorthanded goal by Mike Richards sent the Flyer faithful into a frenzy and that was it for the Habs. Game and season done.

For those that haven’t seen the play it’s a must and will be all over the highlights. To see Halak go racing out and Richards barreling in with flat footed Roman Hamrlik on his tail was not a pretty sight to see. UUGGHH.
Time to access the season and begin to get some more parts for another run deep into the 2011 play-offs.

Thoughts from the Pulpit
1) Has David Ortiz finally waking from his season slump and have the Red Sox turned a corner? Could be as they face the top team in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays. The win along with a solid performance by Clay Buchholz can give the Sox a boost of confidence and begin to close the gap in the AL East. The Blue Jays also victors sit 7 games over .500 just behind the 2nd place Yankees. Only the Orioles are out of the race in the tightly contested division.

2) Tonight marks the beginning of the Israel Basketball League Final Four season ending tournament with two semi finals on tap featuring Hapeol Jerusalem Vs. Hapoel Galil/Gilboa and Maccabi Tel-Aviv Vs. Netanya. There is a lot of worry in the Tel-Aviv camp as Maccabi has not played particularly well the last month being extended in their quarter final round to games by Bnei Hasharon and had to eekk out a victory in the last seconds to get into the tournament. There are two factors that are playing right into Netanya’s hands. One is the fact that they have the confidence knowing that they have knocked their opponents off once this season in a game at Netanya and two, the Maccabi players are at this point apathetic and do not care. It’s a pretty rough statement but to the foreign players on the team it has shown and these facts have been all over the Hebrew Sports websites the past couple of weeks. So we shall see which club shows up tonight. The one that destroyed Netanya in its second meeting or the one that showed up in the first.