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- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “Most things are overstated in the ying and yang of the playoffs, but this is not one of them: Tonight’s the biggest night in the history of the Orlando Magic since 1995. Why? If the Magic win Game 6 against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, they will have a chance to play their next three games at Amway Arena — an improbable Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, plus the first two games of the NBA Finals. Yes, the championship would go through Orlando, just as it did 15 years ago.”
- John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com: “As it turns out, staving off elimination and winning an overtime nail-biter in Boston in Game 4 was the easy part. And then coming back to gash one of the NBA’s best defensive teams in Game 5 for 13 3-pointers and 113 points, well, that was child’s play by comparison. But now, with the Orlando Magic having the full attention of the Boston Celtics, things expect to get infinitely more difficult in a Game 6 in Boston. And that’s just fine with a Magic team that is oozing confidence out its every pore following two landscape-altering victories that have swung momentum back to their side. Though they know they a face an all-out basketball battle Friday in Boston’s TD Garden and are still staring at a 3-2 deficit, it is the Magic who possess the swagger of the favorites now.”
- Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe: “Without question, the Celtics are now in a fight. In Game 4, the Magic swung wildly simply to stay alive. In Game 5, the blows left bruises. And even though they’re still fighting off elimination, the Magic are defiant, convincing themselves the past two games that they can become the first team in NBA history to climb out of a 3-0 series hole to win.”
- Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe: “Don’t go to that dark place, people. Not yet. The Celtics are going to win tonight. They have a healthy Big Three. They have Rajon Rondo ready to answer Jameer Nelson. They have Kendrick Perkins, granted a stay by the NBA’s behavior police. [...] Keep your heads. The Celtics failed to close this out in Game 4 at home. They were predictably beaten at Amway Arena in Game 5. But now they are home. And they are better. And they will end this tonight. Or they have a Sunday date with history and humiliation.”
- Jarrod N. Rudolph of The Boston Globe: “The Magic have always been resilient. This season alone they’ve fought through suspensions, injuries, slumps, and most recently a 3-0 hole. Their ability to move on to the next game without dwelling on previous disappointments has been their trademark and the one of the biggest factors for their charge back into the series. [...] Winning the last two games has been huge for the Magic, but the Celtics are still leading the series. Orlando knows being confident and having momentum doesn’t mean anything if its performance isn’t the very best.”
- Ron Borges of the Boston Herald: “There is a time and place for everything. Tonight is the time, and the Garden is the place. It is time for Dwight Howard to be Rambis-ed. [...] It is all well and good to talk of hard fouls and the playoffs being a time to expect them. It is quite another to turn a basketball court into the caged Octagon that made MMA a sport for a new generation. Far be it from me to advocate gratuitous violence, but in the case of the Magic’s elbow-swinging cheap-shot artist, two words come to mind: Why not?”
- Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: “The real question is why the Celtics ever stepped foot again in Amway Arena after dancing off the floor on the night of May 18. In Paul Pierce’s moving speech (literally – he was walking off the floor) that evening, he told his listeners he would see them next year, when the Magic are playing in a new building that just might have luxury boxes. But “next year” translated to “a week and a day” when the Celts failed to perform the necessary maintenance in Game 4. Remember, the Magic seemed to be looking simply for a way to expire with dignity when they showed up at the Garden that night, but the C’s decided to wrap Orlando’s self esteem in a victory when they chose not to share the ball or play defense with concerted effort. So the C’s could have taken all the Game 5 weirdness off the table by making sure there wasn’t a Game 5. Let a team hang around on a given night, and you risk a loss. When you let a series hang around, you risk a trip to the offseason.”
