For the Celtics, there was something special in the air during Game 7 of last year’s semifinal clash with the Cavaliers. Never was this more the case than when, during a key moment, Paul Pierce’s free throw bounced around the rim and seemed all but certain to miss. But then, somehow, the ball fell through the hoop.

“The ghost of Red was just looking over us,” Pierce said following the win.

On Sunday night, that mystique was gone.

There was no magic, no unexpected moments of salvation. The Celtics’ season -- and their Game 7 heroics -- came to an end.

“I think from the jump we didn’t have the energy that we had,” said Brian Scalabrine when asked to compare this Game 7 to ones the Celtics had been involved in over the last year. “The crowd was great [Sunday]; they got behind us. We just never got that spark where we just can make that big run and I think that was the big difference between all the Game 7’s here in Boston and [Sunday].”

Prior to Sunday, the Celtics were 3-0 at home in Game 7 over the last two seasons. They had steamrolled the Atlanta Hawks, pulled off a dramatic victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, and proved the importance of experience against the Chicago Bulls.

In each of those games there was a certain electricity in the TD Banknorth Garden. Fans cheered for 48 straight minutes, players waved towels, there was never a quiet moment.

This time, the Magic crushed that feeling of hope early on. The Celtics trailed 27-17 after the first quarter and got outscored 35-21 in the final twelve minutes. The game began and ended on a flat note.

“We just didn’t get our crowd into it early,” said Kendrick Perkins. “I don’t think our intensity level was high, and they did a great job of taking the crowd out of it. I thought they came in and they knocked down big shots early, talking about threes. We missed easy shots. Myself, it just hurts for me because I feel like a few makes here would change the game around. I picked the wrong game in the world to go three-for-eleven from the field. So that’s why it hurts so much.”

While Perkins points the finger at his own personal performance, he wasn’t the only one who struggled. The Celtics shot a combined 29-for-74 (39 percent) from the field as a team and hit only four three-pointers (25 percent overall).

Pierce, who put the Celtics on his back in so many other Game 7 situations, shot just 4-for-13. He averaged nearly 28 points per game in the previous Game 7’s. This time around, though, Pierce and the Celtics had been run down by injuries and a demanding postseason schedule.

“[Sunday], a lot of times when I got the ball they sent double teams, but that’s not an excuse,” he said. “We’ve got players that are more then capable of stepping up. I’m capable of playing through double teams. I’ve seen it for most of my career so that’s not an excuse.

“We still had our chances. I thought going into the fourth quarter, I think we were down five or six, and we’ve been in that situation many of times where we make a run and we win the game. [Sunday night], it just really felt like we ran out of gas for us to be only down five and to lose the way we did.”

Whether it was fatigue, injuries, or simply better competition, the only magic felt in the Garden was the opponent.

“[The difference was] just the outcome. That pretty much sums it up,” said Rajon Rondo. “We lost by double digits. It’s the first Game 7 that we lost as a team I think these past two years so it’s just disappointing. We didn’t really plan on losing, that’s for sure. We thought we could win. We just didn’t have it.”