Orlando, FL – The Magic traveled to the TD Garden in hopes of improving their road record and fell short with a 128-111 loss to the 1 seeded Celtics.
The first quarter can be described by just two words: size and speed. Orlando wasted no time getting out ahead with their fast paced offense and hard runs on the transition. Defensively, their length swallowed the Celtics who were without their top three centers Orlando took full advantage of the fact that 6 ‘6 Lamar Stevens was the starting big man. Their switch everything defensive plan was making life hard for Boston’s stars and with Stevens’ weak three point shooting they were able to allow Goga Bitadze freedom to man the paint and grab boards to start their fast breaks.
They relentlessly attacked the basket and Boston had no answer to stop them down low, but they responded with long range jumpers to get themselves back into the game, something that Orlando couldn’t replicate. Payton Pritchard and Neemias Queta were subbed in for Boston and plugged the issues they had the first few minutes, which made it difficult for the Magic to continue taking advantage of their height.
Jalen Suggs went up for a block to stop the transition from Pritchard but landed awkwardly on his wrist and had to be subbed out. The defense notably suffered with Gary Harris and Cole Anthony having the assignment to stop Jaylen Brown, who was on fire the second half of the quarter. In combination with their late defensive woes, the team turned the ball over a stunning seven times. With this, the Celtics went on a run and capped off their run to pull themselves ahead of the Magic for a six point lead going into the second.
The Celtic momentum carried over from their strong finish to the first and made life on offense tough for the Magic. They tightened up their lackluster defense from the first quarter and Orlando definitely were able to feel the difference, especially in the first few minutes. The Magic played smaller to be able to match up man to man against the Celtics by playing Jonathan Isaac at the center position for the majority of the quarter, and although it opened up more opportunities offensively in Coach Mosley’s eyes, it didn’t play out on the court as well as might’ve been expected.
The team struggled to convert on their shots and were turning the ball over, which led to some open transition buckets for the home side. Brown continued to show his elite athleticism and dominance over the smaller defenders that the Magic switched onto him. Jayson Tatum began to heat up as well and things weren’t looking so hot for the Magic with a stale offense and some stars terrorizing their defense.
For some good news, Jalen Suggs was able to play about half the quarter after returning from his injury in the first quarter, although he was still visibly shaken at times. Ultimately the quarter closed off at 27-34, which was reasonably close, especially considering all the troubles that Orlando went through to get to that point. They headed back to the locker rooms to try and regroup themselves while down 13.
The second half wasn’t kind to Orlando and it seemed like everything went Boston’s way. The third quarter allowed the home side to continue to extend their lead with a lot of help from their bench. Before this game, the Magic had one of the league’s best bench units while the Celtics had one of the worst, but this game the script was flipped. Boston’s bench, headed by Pritchard, Hauser, and Brissett, had some great production while Tatum was able to draw contact and get to the line.
Not only was their offense going, their defense limited the Magic’s options offensively. The Magic’s original game plan of pure size didn’t work as well in the second half. Orlando’s key players Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, and Goga Bitadze had a turnover problem this game that carried well into the ending of the game and Suggs was still shaken up from his injury in the first quarter. With about three and a half minutes to go the Magic decided to get the end of the bench in the game seeing as it was almost a 30 point game at some points during the 4th in order to keep their players fresh for Sunday.
The Celtics and Magic are now tied up 1-1 on the season series and they have their final matchup against each other this weekend and Orlando hopes to bounce back from this game and reclaim a top three seed in the Eastern Conference.
