Celtics Dominate Magic
Boston, MA — The Boston Celtics opened their title defense with a decisive 103-86 victory over the Orlando Magic in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series at TD Garden. The Magic fought to start the game, but got easily overpowered by the Celtics’ versatility and second-half firepower as they took a 1-0 series lead over Orlando.
Promising First Half of Play
The Magic played extremely well in the first two quarters of play as they led the reigning champions 49-48 heading into the locker room. Orlando was actually able to outshoot Boston from deep, something nobody was expecting of
the worst three-point shooting team in the league going up against one of the best teams from three, but Orlando’s 7-18 shooting from deep was a higher volume than Boston’s 7-16. The Magic seemed dedicated to catching a rhythm from three-point range and wanted to beat the Celtics at their own game.
Magic stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner were the best players on the court by far for the first half of play as they poured in 19 and 15 points, respectively, and outplayed the Celtics’ super wing duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Derrick White was able to keep Boston close with his onslaught from beyond the arc, as he had 16 points going into the locker room. Sixth Man of the Year finalist Payton Pritchard also picked up the starters’ slack with his minutes early in the game.
Second Half Disaster
After the half, the Celtics turned it up as they came out looking like a completely different team. Their defense was relentless and they forced the Magic to change up their scheme from the first half. The Magic went on to take just nine threes in the second half at a 33.33% clip, much different from the team that was going toe to toe with White and Pritchard earlier in the game.
Orlando, despite the struggles from deep and the different points of attack in the final two quarters, was still aggressive. Nobody could stop Banchero on the night as he ended up with 36 points, and 11 rebounds coupled with Wagner’s 23 points. The problem came from the rest of the team, as Boston did a great job of making everybody’s lives miserable with their size. No other Magic scored more than seven points on the night, so it was very much a “give the ball to your best players and hope for the best” kind of game. Turnovers didn’t help as the Magic committed 15 turnovers, leading to 24 Celtic points.
Looking Ahead
Orlando, now down 0-1, knew this series would be tough. If the team wants to be competitive, the stars are going to need some help from the Magic role players. The Magic has seen their bench unit play well, even against Boston in their final matchup of the season, so they will need to plan better for Game 2 if they want any chance in this series. Orlando will stay in Boston for the next game on Wednesday evening.
