Dwight Howard pumps up his Magic teammates in the huddle before Orlando's game against Boston on Sunday. The Magic held on to deal the Celtics their first loss of the season, 104-102.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

Can anyone doubt the Orlando Magic are for real? We dealt the high-and-mighty Celtics their first loss in a hotly-contested game on our home floor. Here's the boxscore.

Our starting five came out gunning against the Celtics, which helped us jump out to an early lead. Keith Bogans scored 7 of his 10 points in the first quarter. Jameer Nelson was similarly keyed-in, dishing 4 of his 6 assists in the period. We lead by 11 at the end of the first and by 17 at halftime, and it appeared as though we had the game in-hand.

But the Celtics came roaring back, lead by Paul Pierce's 15 third-quarter points. By my unofficial count, Boston was a blistering 14-of-18 in the third period. Meanwhile, we couldn't get anything going offensively. Despite the fact that we held a 7-point lead going into the final quarter, Boston held a distinct edge in momentum.

We traded baskets with the Celtics for much of the final period before they took their first lead of the game, courtesy of a James Posey three-pointer. But we took of the Celtics' being in the penalty, and hit our free throws down the stretch. Hedo Turkoglu, who was having a bad game, nailed two key three-pointers with under 5 minutes to play. The Celtics had no choice but to foul for much of the rest of the game. Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis converted their free throws, and the Magic held on for the victory.

The teams were evenly matched, at least statistically. The Celtics shot 53%, while the Magic shot 50%; the Celtics shot 25% from three-point range, the Magic shot 25%; the Celtics shot 69% from the foul line, the Magic shot 70%. The real difference was turnovers. Boston coughed the ball up 20 times for 17 Orlando points. We committed 14 turnovers for 14 Boston points. That's a +3 points-off-turnovers differential in a game we won by 2 points.

Obviously, we're happy with the victory. But at the end of the season, it's not going to matter that we won this game. It will only matter if we win a title. So let's not get too carried away with this win. We face the 9-2 Hornets in New Orleans tomorrow night. They may be without Chris Paul, their franchise player, but that only means more playing time for career Magic-killer Jannero Pargo. So we have to look out for that.

I'd like to give a final shout-out to Keith Bogans for playing stellar defense on Ray Allen, who shot just 7-of-17 from the field for 19 points. Without his efforts, we might not have won this game.

Other notes

• James Augustine got the first non-garbage-time minutes of his career, subbing in for Dwight Howard in the first quarter. Auggie got the call over Adonal Foyle because Stan Van Gundy thought he would be a better match against Brian Scalabrine, the perimeter-oriented Celtics center.
• Rajon Rondo, the Celtics point guard who shot just .418 from the field in his rookie season, made all of his shots in the first half. He finished 8-of-9.
• Dwight Howard needed only 9 shots to score 24 points, thanks to plenty of free-throw attempts. He was just 10-of-20 at the line.
• Trevor Ariza was called upon to defend Kevin Garnett for parts of the game.
• On one third-quarter possession, Rashard Lewis had the ball matched up against Kevin Garnett, an NBA All-Defensive Team selection in each of the past 7 seasons. Lewis spun around Garnett, exploded to the basket, and dunked with one hand.
• Dwight Howard, who entered the game leading the NBA in rebounding at 15.0 per game, grabbed only 6 boards tonight. The Magic were outrebounded 41-28.

I'm doing something different with the preview today. Rather than post a lineup chart and a bunch of bullet points, I'm posting a little Q-and-A I did with Jim of Green Bandwagon, SB Nation's Celtics site. My responses to his questions can be found here. His responses to my questions are directly below this paragraph. Tipoff is at 6 PM on Sun Sports.

Excluding the members of the Triumvirate, which Celtic has been
the most important to the team's success this year?

That's a tough question. In every game Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul
Pierce or some combination of the three has carried the team each
game. For example when Boston played Indiana Pierce blew up in the
second quarter, Allen got hot in the third quarter, end of story. And
Garnett is the center of it all. Meanwhile, other Celtics have played
well for stretches in the first eight games. Eddie House was lights
out against Atlanta. Rajon Rondo put up nice numbers Friday night
against the Heat (9 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists). Kendrick Perkins
protects the rim, rebounds well and gets easy baskets when he is not
in foul trouble. Glen Davis made some noise in his seventeen minutes
against the Nets (2 assists, 2 steals and 8 rebounds). But no one has
really saved the team per say. However, going forward I think James
Posey will be the most important bench player. He got off to a rocky
start with a one game suspension on opening night and then some back
issues forced him out of two games. Yet he finishes well, can hit the
three, is an annoyance on defense, brings a little bit of an edge and
always seems to be in the right place. Although the development of
Perkins and Davis will be essential because no one wants to see KG
banging in the post.

If the Celtics win the title, will it be because of Doc Rivers or
in spite of him?

That's a tough question. I'm not as critical of Rivers as some people
are. In his defense you don't see Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Gregg
Popovich and other great coaches lining up to coach the assortment of
talent Boston had the last several years. And yet Rivers does rub me
the wrong way at times. In the past he came off like a salesman, threw
people under the bus regularly and always had an excuse. But in a lot
of ways he is a good coach for this team. He's great with media. He
has settled on an eight-man rotation – Rondo, Perk, KG, Pierce, Ray
Allen, Posey, House and Brian Scalabrine. And Rivers also had the
foresight to hand the defense over to Tom Thibodeau. Also there are
some definite K.C. Jones parallels here where the coach just has to
not mess things up. And I think Rivers can do that. Although it will
be interesting to see if Rivers can keep the triumvirate fresh come
playoff time. Finally, check out the YouTube clip below and ask
yourself, "Who is in charge?"

If you could, would you trade Rajon Rondo for Jameer Nelson?

I don't know. I really like Rajon Rondo. He rebounds well, is
incredibly active on the defensive end, gets to the rim and provides a
spark. People always attack his shot but Rondo is shooting over 50%
from the field. Granted not a lot of those are traditional jump shots.
But if he can limit his fouls Rondo will make a difference. Having
said all that I do like Jameer Nelson. He is definitely more of a
leader than Rondo and I could even see him taking charge with the
Celtics personnel. He scorched the Celtics last season although
Sebastian Telfair played a big part in that. Ultimately I would say no
because I'm not sure if Nelson is more of a pure point guard. But
realistically, like most Celtics fans, I have an irrational attachment
to Rondo. Blame it on Tommy Heinsohn or as I call him the Minister of
Information.

Do the Celtics have a weakness? If so, is there any chance the
Magic will exploit it?

I'd say the Celtics have a weakness that a lot of teams will have
against the Magic. That being, "What the hell do they do against
Dwight Howard?!" No one can handle him and the Celtics are thin along
their front line. No one in their right mind wants him banging with
Howard. Perkins is foul prone. And Scalabrine, Davis and Powe are all
under sized. Also I have no idea how Rondo will do against Nelson and
Rashard Lewis will get his points. And if it comes down to coaching
I'd take Stan Van Gundy over Garnett...I mean Rivers.