BSJ Game Report: Celtics 126, Magic 120 - Tatum, White combine for 67 to save sluggish C's

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over the Orlando Magic with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

This was a classic good team on a back-to-back against a young-but-talented team. Yes, Orlando was also on a back-to-back, but they have tons of heart and a lot of young (and tall) talented players. Jayson Tatum carried the team for three quarters, then Derrick White shut the door with one of his best games ever. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

Orlando is dangerous: I’ve been screaming this from the rooftops for a few weeks now, but the Magic are a team that cannot be taken lightly. The Celtics let some early 50/50 balls go Orlando’s way and it was a fight ever since then. They have talent. They shot way better than expected, but they have some talent that can make life hard on teams

Tatum no longer starting slow: Tatum has been notorious for his slow starts, but that's out the window this season. He passed Larry Bird for most points over his first three games of a season (a made-up stat for sure, but props for the point I'm making here). And again, it’s not that he’s putting up big point totals (104 over those 3 games), it’s how he’s doing it.  

Derrick White!: I’ll save the accolades for a separate piece, but he’s off to a hot start as well, shutting up a lot of people who looked at him as expendable after the Malcolm Brogdon signing. 

TURNING POINT

The game was tied at 111 with 4:23 to go, but the Celtics whipped off a 10-2 run behind Tatum and White, highlighted by a White drive and two-handed dunk followed by White drawing a charge. 

FOUR UP 

Jayson Tatum: Ho hum, another big game for Tatum. Actually, let me retract that ho hum because the notoriously slow-starting Tatum is now off to a blistering start. He carried the Celtics for most of the game, going for 15 in the first quarter and hitting some tough shots when White wasn’t killing Orlando in the fourth. He finished with 40 on 14-21 shooting, 4-10 from 3, and 8-9 free throws. 

Derrick White: He played well off Tatum’s gravity. There were a few plays where defenders were worried about Tatum and it opened White up to get to the rim. He shot 10-17 (5-9 3pt), on his way to a 27-point night. 

Malcolm Brogdon: There was a stretch in the third where he was huge, keeping the Celtics alive in a dogfight. He scored 13 as the Celtics bench outscored Orlando’s 39-21.

Grant Williams: 13 for him on perfect shooting. He was 3-3 from the field (all 3-pointers) and 4-4 from the line. He also had 6 rebounds and 2 blocks.

THREE DOWN

Marcus Smart: I was okay with the shots he got early in the game, even though they didn’t fall. I turned when the Celtics were putting a run together on the Magic, got up 7, and Smart took a quick 3-pointer rather than work the ball to find a super-hot Tatum or a heating-up Brown. That kept Orlando in the game for too long. 

Jaylen Brown: Off night for Jaylen. Just 4-16 from the field and 12 points. He did have a 10 point third quarter, though, so he woke up just long enough to help keep the C’s afloat. He also had 9 rebounds and 4 assists, so he did other things as well. 

Luke Kornet: He did not look good in his first minutes of the season. He played 5:51 in the first half and never got back in. He looked slow and lost. The ankle injury that cost him his preseason might have cost him his opportunity. 

TOP PLAYS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- The Celtics still need to find a way to play Kornet. 

I’ll put my hand up and take my L when it comes to Kornet. I thought this would work and it hasn’t yet. The ankle injury was very costly and now he might be too far behind to get some time.

BUT… the Celtics' frontcourt is too thin for that to be the case. Sure, we can say Noah Vonleh, Blake Griffin, and Grant Williams are fine behind Al Horford for a couple of months, but what happens if another guy steps on someone’s foot? 

The bottom line is the Celtics' frontcourt depth needs as many bodies up to speed as it can get, because anything can happen in an NBA game and if Vonleh tweaks a hammy or even jams a finger in the first quarter, they're going to need capable players to come in and get opportunities. 

They need to find a way to get Kornet to be the guy the front office had faith in this offseason. Whether it’s getting him into stints with the starters to help get him open looks or alongside Brogdon to maybe be more of a focal point, the Celtics can’t afford to have a guy they believed in to disappear. 

This was a small sample, but Kornet looked lost. They need to find a way to fix that. 

- We can't have embarrassing mistakes by the referees

Late in the fourth quarter, Smart and Williams did the smart thing on an inbounds after an Orlando make and let the clock run by rolling the ball slowly onto the court and not touching it. Because it wasn't touched, the shot clock and backcourt eight second count didn't start, even though the game clock was running. Orlando was oblivious to it and Smart just stood there letting the clock tick (the game clock stops after made baskets after the 2:00 mark). But the ref down at the end of the floor blew his whistle anyway, causing a lot of confusion and stopping play. 

It was no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the Celtics were employing some strategy and it was working until someone whose job is to know the rules, didn't know the rule. That's just an embarrassing mistake that has no place at this level.