The Boston Celtics’ season ended tonight with a 101-82 loss to the Orlando Magic. It wasn’t Boston’s best game but it was a loss that was inevitable, whether it was to Orlando or Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. There was just no way that the Celtics could have kept up this battle. Even though they lost, I have to give them credit. Considering that they beat the Bulls and made it to game 7 against the Magic without Kevin Garnett or Leon Powe, Boston played with the heart of champions. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough.

Losing to Orlando in 7 games is still a lot easier to swallow than losing to Cleveland in 4 or 5 games. I couldn’t imagine Boston, nor do I expect Orlando to win anymore than a game or two against the unstoppable Cavs. This year is Cleveland’s year. They have blown through the playoffs so far and should be able to take their momentum into the conference finals and dominate Dwight Howard and Douche Van Gundy’s Magic. It will be interesting to see who will be on next year’s Celtics roster. Neither Marbury nor Mikki Moore gave the Celtics organization a reason to keep them around. I can only hope that KG’s knee surgery goes well and he can return to full strength by the beginning of next year. It’s pretty obvious that the Celtics need at least one more big man on the team to help out on defense and play the post. The Celtics also have to realize that the big 3 are not getting any younger. I expect that the Celtics roster will look a lot different than it does right now but that is only speculation. It’s tough to say goodbye to anyone on this team but it’s obvious that a change is necessary. The Celtics put on a good show this year but tonight proved that it was not their year. 2009 belongs to another team, and if I were to take a guess, I would say that team is the Cleveland Cavaliers.