PHILADELPHIA -- By the time things got exciting inside the Wachovia Center, almost nobody was left in the building.

The fans had long since stopped booing the home team off the court; the janitors were well on their way to having the aisles swept clean; and the floor crew was taking down the basket stanchions for the final time until fall.

But inside the cinder-block-walled visiting locker room, players in suits, players in towels and players seeking to borrow a sports jacket to comply with the NBA dress code (that would be you, Rafer Alston), had their eyes riveted to the television set hanging from the ceiling.

First, the Orlando Magic were mesmerized by the first overtime of the Boston-Chicago game. Next, they were astounded by the end of the second overtime ("How could they not foul Ray Allen before he hit that ninth 3?" was one of the prevailing expressions.)

Then, when the game finally ended with Rajon Rondo missing a heave from midcourt to end triple overtime, the Magic players bolted from the back door of the locker room and made a happy beeline to their waiting bus, at least one of them exchanging a high five with head coach Stan Van Gundy as he sat in the front row of the vehicle.

Yes, it would be a happy flight back to Orlando. And it would be made all the happier because the Magic knew they would not be turning right back around Friday to reboard their charter jet and fly up to Boston for Game 1 of the second round.

Instead, their next opponent remains unknown, which means they'll have two extra days to rest, get a little healthier and soak up some of the adulation they'll get back home after finishing off the Philadelphia 76ers with relative ease Thursday night in Game 6 of their first-round series, 114-89, despite playing without two starters.

Center Dwight Howard was forced to watch the game from a hotel as he served a one-game suspension for throwing an elbow, and Courtney Lee was recovering from surgery for a fractured sinus at a local hospital.

Were they missed?

The smiles afterward on the faces of Marcin Gortat and J.J. Redick showed how much they weren't.

Redick played what arguably can be called the most clutch game of his NBA career, knocking down five 3-pointers for his 15 points, and Gortat manned the middle admirably in Howard's place, pulling down 15 rebounds, scoring 11 points and making a sequence of key plays midway through the third quarter when the Sixers' one and only charge came up woefully short.

"It's an amazing feeling," Gortat said. "The whole year for me was hard. Playing behind Dwight Howard isn't easy. I'm happy I helped my team win the game, I'm happy I didn't disappoint my coach, and now we're in the next round."

Not a lot is known on these shores about Gortat, the 25-year-old from Poland who was a 2005 second-round pick and will be a free agent in line for a windfall this summer.

We could call him the Poler Opposite, or the Poler Excess, although Gortat wasn't all that enthralled with those monikers as he explained afterward that he is known in Europe as "the Polish Machine" and in the Orlando locker room as "the Polish Hammer."

Whatever you want to call him, the guy was a heavyweight who made certain the Magic didn't miss their All-Star center. (Best Gortat fact: His father fought Leon Spinks twice, losing to the eventual world heavyweight champion at the 1976 Olympics after defeating Spinks earlier in a World Amateur championship bout.)

To read the entire Sheridan column, click here.

CHICAGO -- After leaving his heart and soul out on the floor at the United Center on Thursday night, Ray Allen retreated to the Celtics' locker room with his head down. Walking past me his eyes gave a vacant stare, like someone in a trance, someone so focused he was oblivious to everything around him. Afterward, we would find out he wasn't thinking about his career-high 51 playoff points or the 58-plus minutes he had just played on his 33-year-old knees. Allen was contemplating the shots he had missed, the chances he had squandered and the fact that one of his greatest career moments would be remembered in a loss.

"Of course, it's easier to appreciate playing well when you win," he said after the 128-127 triple-overtime loss to the Bulls forced a Game 7 in Boston Saturday night. "All I could think about in the shower was the shots I should have made."

For six periods, Allen was unstoppable. His 18-for-32 shooting provided the bulk of a stellar performance that wound up being the most points scored against the Bulls in the playoffs. Nine of his baskets were 3-pointers, often with a defender's hand in his face. It was a classic case of reality imitating art. An effort Jesus Shuttlesworth would be proud of.

Using screens, cuts, picks, fadeaways, pull-ups and crossovers, the nine-time All-Star showcased everything that has earned his reputation as one of the game's purest shooters. The performance left the sellout crowd in Chicago in disbelief and his coach in awe.

"He was phenomenal, just unbelievable," Doc Rivers said. Teammate Brian Scalabrine said Allen set the tone from the opening tip. "From the start of the game, he was aggressive," Scalabrine said. "His mindset was to go at them, and we needed him to lead our team."

Allen was typically low-key after the game. He said he didn't change his approach from any other playoff game. "It was business as usual," Allen said. "Whatever I did, I want to remember it."

The question now is, will he have enough energy left for a Game 7 after playing 58 minutes in Game 6?

"You get tired out there, but you learn how to conserve energy," he said. "I don't feel any fatigue right now. We've done these Game 7s before -- last year against Atlanta in the first round -- so we'll be ready."

On the flight back to Boston, Allen probably still will be reflecting on all his missed shots -- and the shot he never took. In the dying seconds of triple-overtime with the Celtics down by one, the Bulls finally figured out how to deny Allen the ball.

"They made a good switch and closed off the passing lane," Allen said. "I trust my teammates. I felt OK with Rajon [Rondo] taking that shot. He had just scored on our last possession."

Allen was referring to Rondo's 12-foot jumper that, had it gone in, would have given the Celtics the lead; instead, it was blocked by Derrick Rose.

Allen took just one shot in the third OT period -- a two-pointer, which he made. He can take some comfort that there's still one more game to be played in this series, which he calls "the best I've ever been a part of."

Come Saturday night, Allen has another chance to write history, another chance to leave basketball fans in awe, another chance to leave his opponents in disarray. Of course, Ray Allen calls that business as usual.

David Amber is an ESPN bureau reporter based in Toronto.