BOSTON -Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu helped dethrone the defending champion Boston Celtics on Sunday night and gave Orlando a chance to bring a crown to the Magic Kingdom.
Howard had 12 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots, and Turkoglu had 25 points with 12 assists in Game 7 on Sunday night, leading Orlando into the Eastern Conference finals, 101-82.
Orlando trailed for just 36 seconds and built a lead it couldnt squander to earn the right to play LeBron James and the Cavaliers for a spot in the NBA finals. Game 1 is Wednesday in Cleveland.
Ray Allen scored 23 points for Boston, and Paul Pierce had 16 before they were taken out of the game for a courtesy cheer with 2:30 left and the Magic up 99-78. The other member of the new Big Three, Kevin Garnett, awaited them on the bench, where he watched the whole series in street clothes with a right knee strain.
Garnetts absence derailed the Celtics title defense before it got started, forcing them to fight through a seven-overtime, seven-game series against Chicago in the first round and leaving them perpetually playing from behind in the second.
The Magic nearly blew a 28-point lead in Game 1, then did waste a 14-point lead in Game 5 to give the Celtics a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven series. Boston, which won the last of its unprecedented 17 NBA titles last year, had never lost a series after being ahead 3-2.
Lakers 89, Rockets 70
LOS ANGELES – Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and the Lakers emphatically silenced the doubters and the Rockets, winning Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.
With Gasol scoring 21 points and grabbing 18 rebounds, the Lakers looked like the conferences top-seeded team, not the maddeningly inconsistent one pushed to the decisive final game by the undermanned Rockets.
The Lakers dominated the paint on both ends, forcing the Rockets into turnovers and bad shots, and owning the backboards. They had an 8-0 lead a few minutes in and widened it to 25 points on Gasols jump hook shortly before halftime.
The Lakers, trying to reach the NBA finals for the second straight year, host the opener of the conference finals against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.
Trevor Ariza scored 15 points while Bryant and Andrew Bynum 14 apiece. Bryant added five assists and seven rebounds.
Aaron Brooks scored 13 and Luis Scola 11 for Houston. Ron Artest (seven points) and Shane Battier (three) were nonfactors.
