NBA - Turkoglu, Air France fly past Celtics; Gasol dominates as Lakers advance
BOSTON (NBA) - The Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers each won a deciding seventh game on Sunday to advance to their respective conference finals. The Magic had to play at Boston but blew away the defending champions 101-82 with Turkey international Hedo Turkoglu scoring 25 points and corralling 12 rebounds. Turkoglu was lethal from ...
BOSTON (NBA) - The Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers each won a deciding seventh game on Sunday to advance to their respective conference finals.
The Magic had to play at Boston but blew away the defending champions 101-82 with Turkey international Hedo Turkoglu scoring 25 points and corralling 12 rebounds.
Turkoglu was lethal from long range, drilling four of his five attempts.
Orlando's ability to knock down three-pointers was crucial.
France's forgotten man Mickael Pietrus, a player who was left off his country's national team squad at EuroBasket 2007, buried all three of his attempts on his way to 17 points.
Pietrus has earned the nicknamed Air France in America.
Orlando will now take on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
James, a teammate of Orlando's Dwight Howard on last year's USA gold-medal side at the Olympics, is the NBA's MVP for 2008-09.
As for the Celtics, they survived won their first-round series against Chicago in seven games without Kevin Garnett but the absence of their defensive leader hurt them badly in the showdown with Orlando.
"We still felt like this was a team that could have gone to the championship and won it, regardless of the injuries," Boston captain Paul Pierce said.
"It felt like we ran out of gas."
The Lakers are the team Boston beat in last year's NBA Finals and they are now just four wins away from making it back to the championship series after beating Houston on Sunday.
Spain's Pau Gasol had 21 points and 18 rebounds as LA won Game 7 of their Western Conference semi-final showdown over Houston, 89-70.
Team USA’s Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant heaped praise on Gasol after the game.
"I was just proud of the way he played," Bryant said.
"He answered the challenge and he played like one of the best players in the world. I was just excited for him."
Now the Lakers will go up against the Denver Nuggets, the hottest team in the Western Conference.
FIBA