We’ve seen it time and time again, NBA players and even coaches making bold comments to gain a psychological advantage.
Sometimes, it works to your advantage and other times it blows up in your face. Take the Lakers/Thunder series for instance. Phil Jackson’s comments about Kevin Durant getting calls from the refs fueled Durant and the Thunder to turn some heads in a near-first round upset. This is what many people may fear that Paul Pierce has just done with his comments after game two. It was first thought that he had tweeted, “Anybody got a BROOM?” implying that the Celtics were going to sweep the Orlando Magic.
By Justin Mertes-Mistretta
Pierce claims that someone hacked into his Twitter account and wrote this. Paul Pierce is known as the “Truth” so we have no choice but to believe him. However, in a post-game interview with Doris Burke (watch it here) Pierce stated, “We’re coming home to close this out in two games,” as looks into the camera (presumably talking to Boston fans). “Y’all hear me? We’re coming home to close it out.”
Sure, Pierce’s comments were confident, maybe even a little arrogant, but we’re they out of line? I think not! I don’t understand why people think this will help the Magic in any way. If Pierce said this at the beginning of the series, then it would be a little worrisome. If, after losing their first two games at home, the Orlando Magic need something like this to motivate their team, then they have already lost. This isn’t like Amare Stoudemire, after game one of the Lakers/Suns series, calling Lamar Odom’s 19 point, 19 rebound performance was lucky.
That was dumb because the Phoenix Suns had just been worked by the Los Angeles Lakers. The last thing they needed was to give the Lakers more of a reason to win.
This is not the case with the Celtics, who have the clear advantage here. This is Paul Pierce smelling blood and going for the kill. The Orlando Magic, as a team, are clearly rattled. They don’t have an answer for the balanced attack of the Celtics, who have gone 13 nights in a row with a different leading scorer from the previous game. Kevin Garnett’s tantalizing defense is causing Dwight Howard fits. And on the offense end he’s forcing Howard into foul trouble. 
When Howard is on the bench, the Magic lack a one-on-one presence that is able to break down the Celtics’ stingy defense. One would think that a NBA-caliber coach would be able to make some adjustments to get things going after losing their first game at home. This was not the case as Orlando seemed to make the same mistakes in game two.
Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy looked as though he needed to be talked down from the ledge after game two. This is worrisome seeing as though a team tends to take on the personality of their coach. So, heading into game three down 0-2 and having to play the next two games on the road, the Orlando Magic are in a world of hurt. Not even a pre-game speech given by Tony D’Amato could motivate this team right now.
The Celtics are 32-0 all-time when leading 2-0 in a best-of-seven series. Coincidently, Orlando is 0-5 all-time when trailing 0-2 in a best-of-seven series. I understand the games were close in Orlando, but Boston has complete mind-control right now and they get to play at home where they are 5-1 during the playoffs. If I was the betting type, I would take the Celtics minus three for game three and leave the country.
Orlando is done, finished, finito. They might as well just stay in Orlando, start the off-season early.
If Paul Pierce won’t admit to saying it, then I will. “Anybody got a BROOM?”