Orlando Magic Grades: Boston Celtics 128, Orlando Magic 98
The Orlando Magic got routed in another embarrassing game as the Boston Celtics took it to the Magic in the first of a three-game road trip.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
| Magic | 24 | 24 | 17 | 33 | 98 |
| Celtics | 39 | 29 | 36 | 24 | 128 |
It did not take long for the Boston Celtics to get going.
The Celtics have been an offensive juggernaut for much of the season with Isaiah Thomas leading a pick and roll assault on unsuspecting defenses. Stopping and containing him is the start to any success with the Celtics.
That did not matter. Not with the ease Boston scored again and again and again throughout the first quarter.
Boston missed just six shots in a 39-point first quarter, attacking the paint and butchering Orlando’s defense on the pick and roll. Then they worked the ball out of the paint to the perimeter for 3-point shots. Their confidence was at an all-time high and it made things easy for them over and over in a 128-98 win over the Magic at TD Garden on Friday.
Boston made 56.2 percent of its shots overall, hit on 16 of 34 3-pointers and dished out 39 assists. Jaylen Brown scored a career-high 20 points. Isaiah Thomas had 21 points in just 24 minutes. The Celtics just eviscerated the Magic.
Orlando kept pace only for a few minutes in the first quarter. Nikola Vucevic was especially active early. But slowly that offense faded away. As the bench and reserves came in, the energy went away and the team could not get the ball moving again.
The Magic offense ground to a complete halt. They were unable to regain the momentum, what little they had, from the first quarter. The game felt over before the end of the first quarter. There was no run to get back into the game or push for the lead.
Boston just kept coming at them again and again. Even out of the locker room, the Celtics hung a 7-0 run to start the third quarter and stretch the lead to 27 points. The team was dispirited and demoralized.
Add embarrassed over another 30-point loss.
Nikola Vucevic
C, Orlando Magic
The statistics are fine, but when the Magic ran their offense through him, he made good plays. He distributed the ball, attacked aggressively and made shots. Vucevic backed up some audacious words that he was the team’s best player. Maybe he is not good enough to claim that and be on a winning team, but it is hard to argue it right now.
Defensively, Vucevic’s weaknesses are still his weaknesses. He struggles containing pick and roll defenses. But Vucevic largely stepped up and did his part to cut off his man. The guards were late getting back and he had zero weak side help. The Magic could use more players that put in the effort Vucevic did.
Serge Ibaka
PF, Orlando Magic
Ibaka finished with four points, making just two of his eight shots. More alarmingly, Ibaka failed to grab a rebound. It is not like the Boston Celtics play a lot of stretch-4s. Ibaka was around the basket.
Constantly, though, Ibaka was not near the basket. He was not there when the Magic needed him to rotate to help on the weak side. The whole reason the Magic brought him in, he simply did not do. Orlando needs more from Ibaka and he simply did not deliver.
C.J. Watson
G, Orlando Magic
Give Watson some due though. He was one of the few players in Friday’s game playing with an increased energy and effort and filling his role. Maybe that is not enough as the Magic need a lot of guys to play above their station to win these games.
Watson finished with nine points on 3-for-7 shooting, adding four assists. He perhaps needs to be more assertive looking for his own shot, especially in transition. But do not get anything wrong, Watson still seems very out of place in the Magic lineups.
Jeff Green
F, Orlando Magic
Green finished the game with two points, missing all five of his shots. He helped kill the momentum the Magic built offensively in the first quarter by taking a lot of quick jumpers early in the shot clock. It killed all the flow the Magic had and got everyone in an isolation mindset.
His defense was quite possibly worse. He lost focus off the ball and allowed several players to outposition or cut past him off the ball. He would make the mistake of giving a good first effort and then conceding the second effort. Green has had performances like this, but they were usually buttressed by something good. He did nothing good Friday.
Boston Celtics
28-18, 3rd East
They started by attacking the paint and eventually moved out to the 3-point line. All the while they passed the ball extremely well and just tore apart a lost and disconnected Magic defense.
Their defense did a good job clogging the paint and forcing the Magic into bad shots throughout the night. This is going to be a continuing trend for the team as defenses are just going to dare the Magic to beat them with the outside shot. And without being able to get stops, there are limited transition opportunities. Boston played Orlando perfectly.
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