Like a boxer who just got knocked down twice in the last two rounds, the Boston Celtics return home for Game 6 with a couple of bad headaches, an aching back and a little bit of doubt in their ability to knock out the suddenly surging Orlando Magic in the 2010 Eastern Conference finals.

When asked if the Celtics could fall into the same fate as this year’s Boston Bruins – who lost four consecutive games to the Philadelphia Flyers after winning the first three in their Stanley Cup playoff matchup – Celtics forward and vocal leader Kevin Garnet emphatically said, “This is not hockey.”

Boston still leads its best-of-seven series with Orlando, 3-2, but its position has been compromised a bit with the way the Magic have won the last two games. And, with the mounting injuries and possible suspension of starting center Kendrick Perkins after he received his sixth and seventh technical fouls of the playoffs, the Celtics went from a possible sweep to a must-win situation in three days.

Celtics forward Glen Davis lies on the court disoriented after taking an elbow to the head from Magic center Dwight Howard in the third quarter of Game 5. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

The Celtics took one on the head literally in Game 5 when two players, Glen Davis and Marquis Daniels, suffered concussions and both had to be helped off the court.

Davis caught an inadvertent Dwight Howard elbow to the face late in the third quarter that knocked him down to the floor. When he tried to get back up, he staggered into the arms of referee Joey Crawford before teammate Rasheed Wallace came over to help keep him up. Davis walked off the court under his own power but never returned.

Just minutes after Davis’ injury, Daniels slammed his head into the chest of Magic backup center Marcin Gortat and went down to the floor. The Celtics were forced to foul just to get Daniels off the court, and Rivers said later that the backup guard also blacked out for a moment. Then, with the game well in hand, Wallace tweaked his lower back on a layup and he also had to leave the game and went to the locker room to get treatment.

“I know [Baby] blacked out on the floor. I was just trying to get him back down on offense. And Marquis was the same thing. A lot of elbows,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, whose team lost 113-92 in Game 5 in Orlando. Boston’s lead is down to 3-2 in the series and Game 6 now becomes a critical game for the Celtics because they want to avoid playing a Game 7 in Orlando.

Rivers is not sure about “Big Baby” Davis’ availability for Game 6, and joked that Davis may not pass the battery of tests anyway because of his wacky personality. “I don’t know what kind of tests they’re gonna do with Baby because he’s a little delirious half the time anyway so I don’t know how he’s going to pass the test. I’m worried about that,” Rivers said while cracking smiling. “But I guess he’ll have to do something before they clear him.”

Game 5 took a physical toll on the Celtics and it appears that the Magic, particularly Howard, are now the ones dishing out the punishment. “The team that’s been the most physical has won the games,” Rivers said. “It was us for the first three and I think it’s been Orlando the last two.”

As for Howard’s physicality and his loose elbows, Rivers said while shrugging his shoulders, “I didn’t know it was legal. Listen, he’s a physical guy. We know that, and you know what he should be. That’s his gift. So he’s going what he’s should do and we just need to do a better job to take the hits, I guess.”

Howard disputed any dirty tactics on his part or his team, and explained that being physical is the best way to combat the Celtics.

“Our intent is not to hurt anybody out there,” Howard told reporters. “Basketball is a very physical sport. You’re playing against a very physical and tough team in the Boston Celtics so our biggest thing is not try to fight and wrestle with them. Like I tell [my teammates], it’s all mental. We don’t want to get into a pushing match with those guys. We just want to run and play our game.”

Howard added that he certainly did not intend to hurt Davis and he was just as concerned as everyone else.

“At first, when I got back, I was looking for him because that was my man. Then when I saw him down I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ I didn’t know what to do,” Howard recalled. “I wanted to help him, but he’s on the other team. So I just stayed back and just wait. I just hope he’s OK. He’s one of my friends. You don’t want to see anybody, specially your friend, go down like that.”

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Kendrick Perkins got the initial assignment on Dwight Howard and established a physical tone. Then, when Perkins needed a break, Rasheed Wallace came in and applied an even tighter grip on Howard.

Perkins and Wallace, along with forward Glenn Davis, took turns in harassing Howard into a 3-for-10 night shooting from the field and held the Magic All-NBA center to 13 points in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Defense was the key to Boston’s 92-88 victory and for Orlando to unlock the Celtics’ game plan, Howard needs to stop acting like Blankman and start playing like Superman

“Rasheed was phenomenal defensively tonight, and he’s been good in the playoffs for us and that’s what we wanted from him when we signed him,” Rivers said of Wallace, who also scored 13 points off the bench.

Orlando's Dwight Howard struggled against Boston's defense in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Wallace knows Howard very well, and he seems to get in Howard’s head whenever they go head to head, going to back to Wallace’s days in Detroit when the Pistons knocked out Howard and the Magic twice in the postseason.

“He’s a knowledgeable big who has a lot of game,” Rivers said of Wallace, who was acquired during the offseason to bolster Boston’s frontcourt. “I thought, defensively, he did some old tricks that were just terrific.”

On one play in the first half, Wallace forced Howard into a traveling violation after pulling the chair on him. Howard became visibly upset when Wallace pinned his arm as both men locked up on the wing trying to gain post position.

“They’re going to make it tough for him. They’re going to foul him and get physical with him,” Vince Carter said of the Celtics’ defensive approach in stopping Howard. “I mean, he’s a physical presence himself but that’s what they are going to do. We have to do a better job, first of all when he’s open, getting him the ball. And we have to make plays to make it easier for him. Once we’re making shots and making plays, then we let them kinda worry about what we’re doing and I think it opens things up for him. Some nights when he gets rolling, it opens things up for us. So we have to return the favor.”

Carter’s advice to his teammate?

“Just keep playing. It’s going to be a battle, it’s going to be a war. We know that,” Carter said. “They’ve been there before, we’ve been through some battles throughout this season and we still feel good about ourselves. We’re going to continue to support him and stay on him to make sure he’s not frustrated, and just play basketball and have fun.

“He puts pressure on himself because he wants to win. He wants to be perfect or as perfect as possible and do what he has to do to lead this team. But at the same time we always tell him he’s not out there by himself. We’re going to support him. And I think when he realizes that, he settles down.”

Carter is confident the Magic will bounce back. He said it starts with better execution on offense, avoid turnovers and match Boston’s intensity on both ends of the court.

“I don’t think we were prepared for the level that they were ready to play. They were ready to go from the jump and we weren’t on their level in the beginning more than anything,” Carter said of the Celtics, who took a 22-14 lead in the first quarter and led by 16 after the third quarter.

“They’re relentless, they’re aggressive. They work on a string and play well together. So, we’ll just have to be smart, continue to move the ball to the open man to get good shots. They do a great job of contesting when they took away the paint. Took us a while to figure it out, but when we did we played a lot better. When you have a team like that that plays smothering defense and very physical at the same time, you just have to be patient. They tend to rush you, and that’s how they play.”

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Through the first 29 games last season, the Boston Celtics were on a phenomenal 27-2 run and seemed poised to challenge the 1996 Chicago Bulls’ record of 72-10 mark. But something happened to the Celtics’ bullet train that derailed their championship aspirations and date with history.

On Dec. 25, 2008, the Celtics lost to the Lakers 92-83 and that’s when the wheels started to lose some air. Cedric Maxwell said that last year’s Celtics started so fast they were gunning for 70 wins, which pushed the team into exhaustion and began to wear down.

With All-Stars Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rasheed Wallace, Celtics GM Danny Ainge has built a formidable unit in Boston.

Then an injury to All-Everything forward Kevin Garnett forced the Celtics to play the postseason without their emotional leader and anchor on defense. The BIG THREE was reduced to THE BIG TWO. The result: A seven-game war with the Chicago Bulls, which they eventually won but not without a price. The Celtics were so drained, particularly Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, by the first-round series that fatigue became a huge factor in the next series, losing to Orlando in seven games.

Getting eliminated by the Magic in the Eastern Conference semifinals was a sign that the Celtics needed to add another important piece to their roster.

Enter Rasheed Wallace.

Wallace enters his 15th NBA season, not exactly the fresh legs the Celtics were hoping for but what he brings to the table is a championship pedigree and some much-needed frontcourt help in case Garnett slips and falls again. Wallace is a top-notch post defense despite his advanced age, and he is a threat to score from anywhere on the court. His ability to hit the 3-ball will open up the court for Pierce and point guard Rajon Rondo, who became an absolute star during the playoffs. If anything, Wallace’s post defense will allow KG to become a free safety.

“He’s so versatile, the way he shoots the ball, his IQ, and he’s going to give Kevin [Garnett] a break and we’re not going to rush him along too much. He looks like the Rasheed of old,” Pierce said of Wallace.

“We’re very focused,” Pierce continued. “You could see this is a very serious group from Day 1 in training camp. We’re out here like somebody stole something from us. You can see it in everybody’s eyes. Everybody came back in great shape and ready to go.”

With the addition of Wallace, the Celtics can field a dynamite five in Garnett, Allen, Pierce and Rondo to finish games. Kendrick Perkins will end up starting at center, but expect Wallace to be the closer when it matters.

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Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton, holdovers from Detroit's 2004 championship team, will be sitting out the rest of the NBA playoffs after getting swept by Cleveland in the first round.

Rip Hamilton would always say that, “If it ain’t rough, it ain’t right.” Well, it has been a really rough last 12 months in the state of Michigan. First, The Big Three (Ford, Chrysler and General Motors) sputtered with the rest of the economy. Second, the University of Michigan suffered its worst season in more than 120 years. And third, the Detroit Lions became the first NFL franchise to go 0-16.

Now, add the Detroit Pistons to the state’s list of casualties.

Deeeeetroit basketball is dead! Deeeeetroit basketball is dead!

After six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference finals, the Pistons and their play-the-right-way approach finally broke down like a 1980 Oldsmobile. The wheels started coming off in the first two games against top-seeded Cleveland and then the engine blew out in the last two games. It did not come as a big surprise that the Pistons were eliminated by the Cavaliers in the first round. What was a little disturbing was how the once proud Pistons bowed out, getting swept in four ho-hum games and LeBron James and Co. barely breaking a sweat in doing so.

Here are some of the stat lines in Game 4 from the core of the Pistons’ 2004 NBA championship team: Rip Hamilton, 2 for 12 in 37 minutes; Rasheed Wallace 0 for 7 in 29 minutes; Tayshaun Prince, 1 for 5 in 31 minutes. All three combined for eight points in an embarrassing 99-78 loss at home.

GM Joe Dumars will have a busy offseason retooling this squad, and there are a ton of questions he needs to address. Will he bring back Michael Curry as coach? Will Sheed walk out as an unrestricted free agent? Is Rodney Stuckey now the face of the franchise? Is Prince on the trading block? There is no need to address the Allen Iverson situation because A.I. has left the station a long time ago, sending a clear message to Dumars and the Pistons that he does not want to come off the bench and be a token player. Don’t let the “back injury” fool you. The Answer was not down with the whole sixth-man thing.

But the Pistons began losing its way long before the Iverson issue. The demise of the franchise could be traced to the Chauncey Billups trade to Denver, a move that still baffles a lot of Detroit fans. There are some guys you just don’t get rid of. Sure, Billups was probably on the downside of his career but Mr. Big Shot was the unquestioned leader of that locker room and moving him out was a huge gamble on Dumars’ part.

Basically, you could say that getting rid of center Ben Wallace knocked the Pistons down, and getting rid of Billups was the final blow that put them to rest.

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