JD Davison, Jordan Walsh, Torrey Craig, and Sam Hauser all checked into Sunday’s Recreation 1 with simply over a minute to play. After placing the opener out of attain, the Boston Celtics had been clearing their bench en path to a 1-0 sequence lead over the Orlando Magic.
The trail to that second wasn’t all the time a fairly one, although.
Boston really discovered themselves down one level to the Orlando Magic at halftime, after the guests erased a 12-point deficit.
How’d they do it?
Effectively, they turned up the physicality on the Celtics.
Orlando began crashing the offensive glass to create second possibilities for themselves, whereas making Boston work for each alternative on the offensive finish. The ultimate seven minutes of the primary half had been unkind to the Cs, who scored simply six factors because the Magic climbed forward.
In response to head coach Joe Mazzulla, Boston’s chilly spell began on the glass.
“I assumed as a result of we had been getting out-rebounded, we weren’t in a position to get out in transition there, and that type of slowed us down,” stated Mazzulla of his workforce’s powerful end to the primary half. “So, I assumed our poise for 1 / 4 and a half was nice. I assumed their physicality bothered us in the course of the second quarter, like within the six offensive possessions (the place we struggled).”
The workforce’s poise is a really “on the nostril” level from Mazzulla.
I’d be remiss to sit down right here and faux like there weren’t indicators proper from the leap, that the Magic had been going to attempt to play a bodily sport.
For instance, this “no simple buckets” sort of foul from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope despatched Jayson Tatum crashing to the ground early within the first quarter.
We additionally bought our first glimpse at the kind of hustle that the seventh seed was going to be enjoying with when Anthony Black checked into the sport and ripped down three fast offensive rebounds. He and different Magic gamers made a behavior of disrupting the rebounding course of for Boston, even when they didn’t fairly seize the board.
There have been a number of deflected and tipped rebound possibilities, like this, early on.
These performs didn’t make an enormous affect on the time as a result of Orlando struggled to attain. However as soon as the ball began to search out the underside of the online, issues modified.
Requested Jaylen Brown in regards to the shift on the half:
“They had been extra bodily than us. The second half, we type of shifted that.”
“There’s gonna be quite a lot of that this sequence. Cannot anticipate nothing much less. It is gonna be extra struggle than it’s ability. Our guys bought to be able to struggle.” pic.twitter.com/jvyAL0DAtX
— Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzell) April 20, 2025
Happily for Celtics followers, the workforce didn’t sit again and let the Magic proceed to manage every little thing. In truth, they had been in a position to flip the sport on its head by matching the Magic’s bodily type of play.
Veteran guard Jrue Vacation spearheaded that third-quarter resurgence for them.
“His particular person protection took on the problem of his matchup, and I assumed he did an important job on each ends,” Mazzulla defined. “His protection led to our offense.”
Vacation turned his defensive depth to the max and had Franz Wagner in a torture chamber. Wagner scored simply eight second-half factors, after pouring in 15 within the first.
The 2-time All-Star’s physicality created offensive alternatives for the workforce, as Mazzulla stated. Extra particularly, these alternatives got here his method.
Check out these clips.
Vacation makes Wagner look foolish on two separate events, then comes down and drills a pair of threes.
Boston’s Dr. Evil took over, scoring 9 factors, dishing 4 assists, and swiping a pair of steals within the interval.
It’s outstanding how upset Bradley Beal bought with the thought of getting to play an identical function for his Phoenix Suns this season.
Nonetheless, the remainder of the Celtics’ squad adopted go well with, dialed their protection up, and have become extra disruptive. They compelled six turnovers within the third alone and utterly modified the momentum.
Orlando’s passes had been getting deflected and/or stolen, Boston was working in transition, and the lead was rapidly as much as 13 heading into the fourth quarter.
Their championship-level response was a reminder of what it takes to compete for a title. Orlando did an important job of disrupting their mojo, and it didn’t sink them. This gained’t be the final time we see a workforce attempt to outwork the Celtics or push them round this spring. The true check can be in the event that they push again.
