Tracy McGrady added 21 points for Orlando, which won for the fifth time in six games and improved to 18-18, the first time it has been break even since defeating Golden State on December 13.
 Mike Miller's clutch trey sparked the Magic down the stretch. Gary Bassing/NABE/Getty Images |
Miller shot 9-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, and had nine rebounds and five assists.
"Mike Miller tonight, I thought, had the single best game since he has been here, because the Celtics force you to be aggressive," Orlando coach Doc Rivers said. "Mike Miller did that the entire night. He took hits, he was physical and those are the things that we are working with him to do every night."
Five Orlando players reached double figures, including an ill Horace Grant, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.
"Horace throws up during the timeout, not one of the prettiest scenes, I think," Rivers said. "I told him to go wash his mouth, but then he comes back to the floor and plays."
"You've got to give (Grant) a lot of credit because he plays through (pain) and still plays through sickness," Miller said. "You see a lot of players take those days off, and if they would have come back (into the locker room) here and puked like Horace Grant, they probably would have stayed back here."
McGrady made 3-of-6 3-point attempts and had seven rebounds and six assists despite suffering from flu-like symptoms. He was not available to the media after the game.
Boston, which lost for the fifth time in eight games, was paced by Paul Pierce's 20 points. Walker added 19 points for the Celtics, who lost for the fifth time in seven road contests.
"The statistic that stands out is that we turned the ball over 18 times," Boston coach Jim O'Brien said. "It's 18 chances that we didn't get opportunities at the basket, and that's uncharacteristic of our ballclub."
"We just didn't take care of the ball," Pierce said. "We don't try and turn the ball over. I thought we shot good, but ultimately the turnovers just really hurt us and kept them in the game."
After Pierce hit a technical free throw with 6:19 left in the third quarter, Boston led, 59-56. But Orlando closed the period on a 18-8 run and scored the first two points of the fourth quarter on a basket by former Celtic Andrew DeClercq to make it 76-67.
Boston, which had defeated Orlando in its two earlier meetings this season, shot 54 percent (22-of-41) in the first half and received 16 points from Pierce to take a 51-48 lead. Miller led Orlando with 13 points in the first half.
Neither team shot particularly well, with each making just 43 percent of its attempts. Orlando converted just 33 percent of its 3-point attempts (9-of-27), while Boston was even worse, making 26 percent (6-of-23).
"They did a nice job of fronting and bringing Grant over behind it," O'Brien said. "We had a lot of looks, and we thought they had some problems with the pick-and-rolls. We passed the ball well out of trap situations, but the shot just didn't fall."