BSJ Game Report: Celtics 98, Magic 97 - Good vibes, but plenty to work on

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics 98-97 preseason win over the Orlando Magic with BSJ insight and analysis.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Wins don’t matter, but winning is still fun: Nothing that happened earlier in the game changes because Romeo Langford hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, but don’t tell that to the TD Garden crowd. The building lit up in the fourth quarter as the Celtics cut into a 10 point Orlando lead. By this point, all the regulars were spectators, so it was up to Payton Pritchard, Aaron Nesmith, and Langford to make big plays, which they did to louder and louder roars. 

“It was just a good reminder of what kind of fans we have here, especially in the fourth quarter, preseason game, everybody getting into it,” Al Horford said. “Really giving us that edge. It's just good to be back in the Garden and be back on this side. This place is special. Just happy to be back." 

Sloppy, but that’s not surprising: They are playing for a new coach and trying to execute a new philosophy that was, as Ime Udoka put it “overemphasized” all week long. So it’s no surprise they overemphasized it in the first preseason game. 

“They were trying to be too unselfish. I had to tell them in the first two timeouts to take the shots when they were there,” Udoka said. “Guys that have been aggressive their whole careers were passing up open shots. They listened to me too much, tried to be unselfish and passed up open shots, so we told them to be aggressive.”

They’re trying to push and play fast: Along those same lines, the Celtics did clearly listen to Udoka because they were pushing the ball when they had their chances. I saw players getting rebounds and outlet passes and scanning the floor for opportunities to push. They seem to be getting the message.

TURNING POINT

Aaron Nesmith scored eight straight points to tie the game with 3:00 left in the fourth quarter

FOUR UP

Jaylen Brown: He came out scorching hot, hitting 6 of 10 shots to start the game and scoring 16 of his 25 points in the first quarter. 

Jayson Tatum: He finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Half of his points came in the second quarter but he scored 5 on one possession thanks to a flagrant foul on a 3-pointer. He really looked aggressive in the third quarter, catching a couple of dunks and bullying his way to the basket. 

“We talked about playing big boy ball down there and then he got to the basket quite a few times,” Udoka said.

Aaron Nesmith: Not much has changed for Nesmith, who continues to throw his body all over the court in ways that make you wonder how he’s leaving the game in one piece. That fourth-quarter explosion was a nice sign for him, and it should lead to more opportunities for him.

Dennis Schroder: OK he was 1-7, so he didn’t shoot well, but his passing was really good. If the Celtics hit an average amount of shots, he would have probably had 7 or 8 assists instead of 4. 

THREE DOWN 

Marcus Smart: Probably the byproduct of all the over-passing and over-thinking going on, but Smart didn’t seem quite as in control of the offense as he should have been. He probably has the biggest learning curve with the coaching change, so it will take him some time to get a full grasp of things. He wasn’t bad by any means. He also wasn’t necessarily good. He was medium. 

Josh Richardson: He had some good defensive moments but he did not make a good case for himself offensively. He was out of sorts on offense the whole night and finished 1-8 from the floor. 

Robert Williams: Orlando’s length seemed to bother him as he settled for an abnormal amount of jump shots instead of going all the way to the rim. 

“I think he may have settled for a few when he should have rolled a little bit more,” Udoka said. “They ran a pretty deep drop coverage and so he was stopping in the mid-lane. We've been working on his touch shot, floaters and some of those, but sometimes we even had to tell him, like Al was doing; he was hitting and really getting out on a roll. We wanted to do that especially with him being such a good lob threat.”

It’s preseason, so Williams can work on his jumpers a little if he wants, but he’s going to help the Celtics the most if he’s creating havoc in the middle of the lane. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

This was probably the right mix of success and failure: The Celtics won the game, so they can go home feeling happy about that. One of the young guys hit the big shot and all of the regulars got to lose their minds on the bench, so the vibes are the biggest winner tonight. 

But there was plenty that went wrong, and so Udoka gets plenty of film session ammunition to go along with the fun stuff. 

“It wasn't bad. We've got to be a little bit more solid, contain the ball a little bit better, but to be honest I think we did an OK job for the first time playing against another opponent,” Brown said after the game. “But we've got to continue to build on it. We've got to continue to hang our hat on defense, and things like that. ... So it's not bad, but I think we can be even better.”

In the end, it’s kind of a perfect scenario for Boston. They came out in the first preseason game, got a few things right, identified what they did wrong, and had some fun along the way. 

Now let’s see what they do on Saturday after a few days to correct these mistakes.