BSJ Game Report: Celtics 121, Magic 94 - Good response to a bad loss

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

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics carved out a seven-point lead with a little bit of everything that's been missing lately in the first quarter, especially their 5-5 start from 3. Jayson Tatum dropped 15 in the second quarter to extend the lead to 12 at the half. It got up to 21 in the third quarter behind a big Jaylen Brown performance, and that's where it stayed through the fourth as the C’s cruised to a much-needed easy win. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Just what the doctor ordered: I’ll get more into this separately, but the Celtics got so many things they needed in this game. I’m not going to pretend this was a masterpiece, but they got shots to fall and the opponent to miss. They fought for rebounds, protected the ball, and generally worked hard. It was wonderful. 

- Shooting is back: When Tatum buried a 3 to score his 30th point and trigger garbage time, Boston sat at 16-34 shooting from 3, a cool 47% for a team that has been mired in a weeks-long slump. I don’t know how much longer this will last for them, but this kind of shooting night was like a thirsty man in the desert finding water. 

- Star power: Tatum dropped 30, Brown had 20 with most of them helping Boston pull away in the third, and Kristaps Porzingis found a really nice offensive groove with 23 of his own. 

TURNING POINT 

The Celtics went on a 14-2 run to turn a seven-point game into a 19-point game with 7:34 to go in the third. The lead pretty much hung steady around there for the rest of the game.

THINGS I LIKED

Effort! They actually tried to do things in this game. They played with good effort and decent execution. It wasn’t perfect, but it was nice to see guy cutting and passing on offense while working hard on defense and chasing down rebounds. 

Shots falling: Not just them going in, though. 

“Al (Horford) got some great kick-out threes from just penetration from both Jaylen and Jayson,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “Jrue (Holiday) got two catch-and-shoot looks in the corner. He got two off-the-dribble threes in pick-and-roll going to his left hand. So I more just like the types of shots that they're getting.”

That's what effort brings. Work to get the right shots and you will generally be rewarded with them falling. I’m especially happy to see Holiday get some to fall. 

Kristaps Porzingis: 23 points on 7-10 shooting, 3-5 from 3. He was getting a lot of work done in the post early on to take advantage of a decimated Magic’s matchup issues. Also, his defense was pretty good. 

“I thought KP’s rim protection was very, very good,” Horford said. “I think tonight there was, like, an effort from his end to really protect the paint for us. And we all did it at times when we needed to, but he set a tone there for sure.” 

Jayson Tatum: He had a dominant stretch in the second quarter to add to Boston’s early lead. He needed some shots to fall pretty badly too, so his 4-9 night from 3 is pretty welcome. Overall, 30 points on 21 shots will do just fine. He also had six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. 

Jaylen Brown: Decidedly better defense than the Toronto game, in that he played some in this one as opposed to none. He was much more active in this game, coming away with three steals. He finished the game with 20 points on 5-12 shooting and a perfect 9-9 from the line. Eight of those came in his dominant third quarter when he put the game away. 

“I liked just how he was thoroughly intense, and I think it's important for us,” Mazzulla said. “His ability to just impact the game in different ways and bring a high level of intensity is important for us to just continue to get better.”

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

You know what? These guys have gone through a lot lately, and there's no guarantee they're going to replicate tonight’s effort on the back-to-back tomorrow. So I’m going to cut them some slack here. The only thing I’ll say is they fouled too much. Giving up 31 free throws is too much. But given how little effort they gave in Toronto, I’d rather see some overcompensation and too much aggressiveness than not enough … or none at all. 

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- It’s all just part of the process

The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles … it’s all part of this team figuring out how to win this season. And while it’s easy to sit here and say “you won a title, just do the same stuff all over again,” that's not how it works. 

“Every year you kind of start new, and you have to learn how to win, and learn how things are going and work things out,” Horford said after the game. “The game continues to change, and teams are playing us different. There's a lot of factors, so I do think that for us, now that we're finally healthy, we're able to have KP out there, and we're all getting reps together, I feel like the more and more that happens, the better we're going to be.”

This was the first time in a while their starting unit was a positive this year. This is the same starting group that dominated last season. But last year they all started together and dealt with Porzingis’ absences as they came, as opposed to working him back in. 

There's a ton at play here, which makes what they're going through both infuriating and okay. What we saw in Toronto sucked. It was bad. I thought it was disrespectful to the game of basketball and to the fans to play with such little effort. 

Also, games like that happen from time to time. 

“Losing is unacceptable. We talk about it all the time,” Mazzulla said. “It doesn't matter whether it's to the nine-win team or to the number one team, the loss was a loss, and you get just as pissed off after every single loss … How do we respond to that? That, to me, is more kind of how I look at it.” 

Their response was good against Orlando. It was not perfect, but it didn’t need to be. It just needed to be a lot better than that loss in Toronto, which it was. 

Now the process continues. I don’t know if this is a turnaround or anything yet because it’s just one game. They have to do it again against Atlanta tomorrow night. And then again at Golden State on Monday. And again, and again. That's the 82-game process.

Next up: The Celtics face the Hawks here at TD Garden on the back-to-back Saturday night