BOSTON -- If there's one truth about Boston's unexpected playoff run this year, it's this: The Celtics have come at their opponents with so much effort that by the end, each opponent has been beaten emotionally as much as physically.

Saturday it was Orlando's turn to have its spirit broken, after Miami and Cleveland already submitted in the first two rounds. Yes, Boston won Game 3 going away, 94-71, to take a commanding 3-0 series lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals, but that barely scratches the surface of the real story: A frustrated Magic team had the fight taken out of it.

One play from the middle of the second quarter perhaps defines it best -- a play that Kevin Garnett aptly called a "pure, I-want-it-more-than-you type of play."

After a deflected pass rolled into the backcourt, Magic point guard Jason Williams trotted after it. Boston's Rajon Rondo trailed Williams, but he didn't trot, he flew. And when it appeared that wouldn't work, he launched into a full-out dive, snatching the ball from Williams' shoe tops while sprawling out on the floor.

"I wanted to make a play on the ball," Rondo said. "He had the angle on me, so I decided to dive for it."

"I didn't think he could get to it," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I don't think Jason Williams thought he could get to it, honestly. I don't know how he got it."

Rondo completed the play by getting up and making a difficult layup over Williams, putting the Celtics up 36-17 and sending the sellout crowd of 18,624 into hysterics. Although party poopers will point out that Rondo blatantly traveled by getting up, it misses the larger significance of the play. In a game in which the Celtics routinely outhustled and outcompeted their opponent, this sequence was the defining example.

There were others, of course. So many others. There was Rondo challenging Orlando's Ryan Anderson for a rebound after a wayward heave by Ray Allen at the end of the shot clock, tapping the ball seemingly out of bounds until Glen Davis dived into the crowd to save it and pass it to Garnett. There was Davis fighting for a missed free throw, pushing Vince Carter into Dwight Howard and causing the Orlando big man to fumble the ball out of bounds. And early in the second half, there was Orlando's Matt Barnes getting so frustrated that he shoved Garnett in the back and took out his own coach.

"I just didn't think we stayed with the fight very well," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I thought there were several hustle plays like [Rondo's] in the first half that all went their way. I thought they worked harder than we did. I thought they outcompeted us."

The Celtics' defense suffocated the Magic with their superior effort and physicality. The league's second-leading offense during the regular season scored only 48 points in the first three quarters, while the Celtics built up a 27-point lead before the Magic added 23 points' worth of window dressing in an utterly meaningless fourth.

The Celtics, a No. 4 seed that won only 50 games during the regular season, are on the verge of topping the two teams (Orlando and Cleveland) that had the best regular-season records with what could be a combined six-game winning streak.

"Being an older group, it's probably easier for me to get their focus in the playoffs," Rivers said. "Our overall chemistry is phenomenal."

A good example of that chemistry came on a second-quarter possession when the Celtics' initial pick-and-roll play didn't work, but they swung the ball from one side … and then to the other … and then back up top … and then to Rondo down the lane … and finally, after eight passes and just one dribble, to Garnett for an open jumper.

"Their ball movement has been outstanding," Van Gundy said.

Of course, defense, chemistry and effort alone aren't enough. That's where the electric play of Rondo comes in. He's a different player compared with even one year ago, one who has tilted the balance from last season's seven-game Eastern Conference semifinals, which the Magic won. Although some may point to Garnett's presence, he's been a limited factor -- just 13-of-36 for the series with averages of 9.3 points and 8.7 rebounds.

Instead, the story is Rondo. He shot only 37.5 percent in the series against the Magic last year, including a 2-of-12, seven-turnover performance during Boston's Game 1 loss at home.

This time around, he's dominated at both ends. Rondo scored 25 points and added eight assists in Boston's pivotal Game 2 win (it's easy to forget after Saturday, but the first two games were nail-biters), then added 10 points, 12 assists and 4 steals in Game 3. His plays were impactful Saturday, too -- the assists high-quality looks producing layups, the points concentrated in the opening 18 minutes when Boston seized control of the game.

It was Rondo's impossible runner late in the first quarter, in fact, that first hinted the rout was won. He drove from the left wing to his right toward the rim, took a bump from J.J. Redick that forced him past the lane, then turned and lofted a soft bank shot over the charging Howard, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, that caromed in off the rim. That shot put Boston up 27-11. Later, Rondo contributed a nifty dipsy doo when he faked a retreat to the 3-point line, then quickly turned along the left baseline, catching Williams a second time for a foul and-1.

Rondo also stepped up to the challenge of checking Orlando's Jameer Nelson, who had a dominating first two rounds but has done little of note against the Celtics.

Nelson is 17-of-44 from the floor and has 10 turnovers against just seven assists. A typical play -- and one that furthered Orlando's frustration -- came in the first quarter when Howard established deep post position with Nelson dribbling upcourt. Rondo's length and pressure made it impossible for the smaller Nelson to get Howard the ball in time, so Howard was whistled for a three-second violation and one of Orlando's 17 turnovers.

So now the Celtics are up 3-0, and no NBA team has ever come back from that deficit. Boston will go for the clincher before its home crowd Monday night against another opponent it has broken by the end of a series -- just as Cleveland was last round, and just as the Lakers were by the end of the 2008 NBA Finals.

Rivers couldn't quite go there, but he admitted his team had the advantage Saturday night.

"I don't see that," Rivers said. "I think [losing spirit] happens during games at times, and maybe for moments, but they're a competitive group."

About all Orlando can find solace in is this city's penchant for defying the laws of nature on 3-0 leads in best-of-seven series. In the past 30 years only two North American sports teams have come back from such deficits -- the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees and, just a week ago, the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins.

Those Bruins played in this arena, TD Garden, but it's hard to imagine an encore performance for Boston's NBA club with the Celtics playing as energetically as they have since the playoffs started.

"We're not good enough to let up," Rivers said. But unlike the Magic, there's no indication this team will.

John Hollinger is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

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