Paul Pierce scored 28 points and Rajon Rondo had 25 as the revived Boston Celtics again avoided a late collapse to take a commanding lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 95-92 victory over the Orlando Magic in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Boston bullied and bruised its way to a 2-0 series lead on the road against a Magic team that had won 14 straight until this series.

Limping its way through the majority of the regular season, many experts had their doubts on whether the Celtics were built for a long playoff run as Charles Barkley famously stated “Older people die; they don’t get healthier.” in regards to a Celtics roster that was plagued by injuries and dependent on an older veteran core of Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace.

Dwight Howard bounced back from his Game 1 struggles with 30 points and Vince Carter and J.J. Redick scored 16 apiece for the Magic, who overcame an 11-point deficit to take a brief lead in the fourth quarter. But they couldn’t hold it.

Carter missed two free throws with 31.9 seconds left that cost Orlando dearly. The same old song must have been playing all over again to Magic fans who watched Howard’s damaging misses at the stripe in Game 4 of the NBA Finals last year and Nick Anderson’s four bricks in Game 1 of the 1995 finals.

Before the final heave, Redick also made a crucial mistake by dribbling to half court before calling timeout. That wasted seconds and forced the Magic to take the ball out from beyond half court.

The result was a desperation heave from Jameer Nelson that airballed.

Game 3 will be Saturday night in Boston.

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