BOSTON — There were still 20 seconds left in the game when Paul Pierce decided he didn’t need to see any more and headed to the locker room.
In the hallway, he repeated aloud: “One more. One more.”
Pierce helped the Celtics open a 16-point, first-quarter lead, then watched as Rajon Rondo and Glen “Big Baby” Davis let them coast to a 94-71 victory over the Magic and take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.
The Celtics are one win away from their second trip to the Finals in three years. No NBA team has ever lost a playoff series after winning the first three games.
“We’re motivated for what’s at stake. We see the big picture,” said Pierce, who was the Finals MVP when Boston won its record 17th NBA title in 2008. “Guys know what its like to win a championship and play for a championship.”
The Magic have to win Game 4 tomorrow night to avoid a sweep and force the series back to Orlando. They’ll need a better effort than in Game 3, when they fell behind early for the third straight game. This time, they didn’t even mount a late charge to make it close.
“The most disappointing to me was that I didn’t have our team better ready to play,” said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who was knocked over late in the game when Kevin Garnett was pushed into the Orlando bench going after a loose ball.
Davis scored 17 points, and Rondo added 11 points and 12 assists. One game after scoring 30 points, Dwight Howard had just seven and seven rebounds.