BSJ Game Report: Celtics 112, Magic 96 - Jaylen Brown's career night fuels complete Celtics win

Everything you need to know about the Celtics’ 112-96 win over the Magic with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

A (mostly) complete win the way it’s supposed to be done. The Boston Celtics defended! They attacked! They moved the ball! They played inside out! For one glorious afternoon in March, the disappointing, frustrating, underachieving Celtics played good basketball the way they were supposed to play. 

“Guys really, I thought, played with a great mindset today and shared it, played with good purpose, good passion, good togetherness,” Brad Stevens said after the 112-96 win over Orlando. “It was a step in the right direction, for sure. But put a few weeks, or a month, or two months together where it’s like that and we’ll be making good progress.”

The Celtics had 27 assists on their 40 made baskets. The Celtics are 13-2 when they have 25 assists or more. This could be a coaching “I told you so” moment for Stevens, who can pop the game film on and say “SEE! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO THIS!” 

“It takes teams time for a number of reasons,” Stevens said. “Sometimes it comes quick to teams, sometimes it comes at different stages of the season, and some teams never get it. But the goal is to find your best version. ... “We’re going to be fine if we stick to this. Now we just have to go on this road trip and see if we can take it on the road.”

Jaylen Brown was unconscious. Once again, Jayson Tatum and Brown accounted for about half of the team’s points (they combined for 57 of the 112), but this was Jaylen’s game. He shot 12-24 from the field and he hit a career-high 10 3-pointers on his way to 34 points. He was one shy of Marcus Smart’s team record of 11 3’s. 

“If he would have told me that, I would have shot two or three more,” Brown joked after the game. “I had lost count at a certain point. I wish somebody did tell me that. I would have fired up at least five or six more to make sure I beat Marcus.”

TURNING POINT

Orlando cut a 23 point lead down to eight, but Evan Fournier missed consecutive 3-pointers which Boston turned into points to push the lead back up to double digits. It never dropped below 10 again. 

TOP PLAY

Look at this ball movement:

https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1373743723960537090

FIVE UP 

Jaylen Brown: It’s hard to hit 10 3-pointers and not have some of them be timely, but he hit two huge 3’s (and an assist to Tatum) at a critical point when Orlando was only down 10. 

Jayson Tatum: Tatum was aggressive and selective. He didn’t force things, even after scoring 11 points in the first quarter. He moved the ball, had four assists, and came out of the game with a true shooting percentage of 77.9%. 

Marcus Smart: He was a steadying force in this game. He led the defensive charge and was a big reason why the Celtics ball movement was so good. 

Daniel Theis: His 13 point, 11 rebound night might slip through the cracks, but Theis was not just scoring and rebounding, he was a very big part of getting guys open shots. He had five screen assists in the game, and his dribble hand-offs on the perimeter were crucial to opening up lanes to the basket.

Boston’s defense: It was just good as a whole, and this game turned when they turned up the pressure. This has been a woefully underperforming defense all year long, so seeing them amp up the pressure is a welcome sign that they have it in them.

ZERO DOWN 

Let’s be real here, The Celtics needed this win in such a big way that it’s not a time to nitpick. Sure, you’d like to see them hold that 23 point lead rather than let it get down to 8, but they answered Orlando's run. 

“Good teams with good players, good coaches, there's runs, they make comebacks and that's why you just have to move on to the next play,” Stevens said. “You have to have the team-ness to do that. You have to have the individual resolve to do that.”

For once, they showed that. 

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

This was great… but… This was like Homer Simpson remembering a wedding anniversary. This bumbling group of Celtics finally played a mostly complete, good game. They made plays they were supposed to make. They took a fourth-quarter punch and didn’t wilt. They showed us they were capable of playing like this. 

But to paraphrase Winston Wolf, let's not go celebrating just yet. 

“This team has been in a funk, in some ways, with that stuff, but that's not who they are,” Stevens said. “We've watched these guys play, a lot of these guys play, for a long time. We've seen what they do when their backs are against the wall. We know that there's never been a question with that kind of thing, so you just have to do that as a team if things aren't going well. When you're kind of in that funk, stop thinking about yourself and start leaning on each other.”

Maybe Daniel Theis should start? There have been growing, and very understandable, calls for Robert Williams to start. I’m certainly not disputing their validity, but I think the overarching point behind those is to make sure Williams gets the right amount of playing time. 

Theis was an underrated part of Boston’s success Sunday afternoon and demonstrated all last season that he can be a huge part of a good thing. At the very least, who starts should be situational, and on a day like this where Boston’s offense really needed to get the ball moving, it was Theis’ comfort and familiarity that really helped spring the Celtics. 

Let’s not forget that Theis has had a lot of success as the starting center. The winning formula might be equal parts Theis and Timelord, with Robert Williams running amok against bench units. Then Stevens can see how the game is going and pick the more effective center of the day for the stretch run.