Celtics
Jaylen Brown scored 35 points on Monday, however the Jayson-Tatum-less Celtics suffered a surprising loss to an undermanned but tough Magic team, falling 108-104.
Here are the snack bars.
A chaotic ending.
Where can we even begin to clarify how the sport ended?
With 1:43 left and the Celtics trailing by six, Jaylen Brown grabbed a key rebound within the corner. He was immediately swarmed, and Jalen Suggs knocked the ball out of his hands and dove to recuperate it. Brown also jumped to the bottom and threw him forward, after which a rugby scrum ensued. When the smoke cleared, Derrick White and Magic forward Tristan Da Silva had a jump ball.
White won the tip (albeit in a roundabout way) and Jrue Holiday hit a 3 to shut the gap.
The Celtics got a stop and Brown sent Suggs to the basket to shut the ball even further.
The Celtics, now trailing, got one other stop and created a very good search for Al Horford within the corner, however the veteran big man clinked the three-pointer.
On the opposite hand, the Magic created a very good search for Da Silva, who hit what looked like a dagger.
Joe Mazzulla didn't call a timeout and the Celtics charged forward with the ball, however the referees called a timeout anyway because they thought Mazzulla had asked for it. That gave the Magic a probability to shore up their defense despite the Celtics' futile protests, and Brown's final 3-point attempt wasn't particularly close because the Celtics lost two from three for the primary time this season.
What do we expect of magic?
So far this season, we haven't seen much that appears particularly compelling as a challenger to the Celtics, particularly within the Eastern Conference.
However, the Magic are a potentially interesting exception.
On one hand, they’re the worst 3-point shooting team within the NBA, which seems ill-suited to coping with the Celtics' math problem.
On the opposite hand, Monday's game suggested that the Magic may need the dogs to unravel the Celtics' math problem.
The Magic are, in fact, very short-handed – they don't have Paolo Banchero or Franz Wagner straight away, they usually won't have Mo Wagner for the remainder of the 12 months. What they’ve is a bunch of role players who play defense like a mosh pit and accept the undeniable fact that they get whistled for fouls as the value for enjoying a bit of more physical than most teams are used to.
Jayson Tatum will make life so much easier for the Celtics, and it's not clear how well a few of Orlando's lead wins (which we'll get to in a moment) would delay over the course of a series. But it's not just like the Celtics were with no superstar on Monday – Brown (who we'll get to in a moment) scored 35 points.
The biggest difference was that the Magic stopped the remainder of the Celtics from playing their game.
The Celtics missed numerous 3-point shots.
The Magic needed a number of things to go right, they usually got an enormous one: The Celtics went 8 of 32 from behind the 3-point arc. The Celtics may not have shot as poorly again, nevertheless it was telling that Orlando limited the Celtics to nine fewer 3-point attempts than their previous season low. The Magic also made and attempted more triples (13 of 33), which doesn't occur often (and when it does, it's not a very good sign for Boston).
After the Celtics beat the Bulls on Saturday, we mentioned that their 3-point numbers have been declining recently, and Monday's Brickfest brought their overall percentage over the past 10 games all the way down to 33.6 percent. That's not an enormous difference from the season average (36.3 percent), nevertheless it's statistically significant, especially given the quantity.
The Celtics also turned the ball over a ton.
Again, if you should beat the Celtics, a number of things should be right, and this was one other one: The Celtics often take excellent care of the ball, but they turned it over 18 times, including five each from Brown and Derrick White and Jrue Holiday. They also only recorded 13 assists.
At the danger of overstating the Magic's performance on Monday, they deserve numerous credit for that – a player's big night may be attributed to a foul night. Three of the team's key ballplayers struggled tremendously, suggesting the defense had something to do with it, especially considering how the Magic limited 3-point attempts.
Moe Wagner may be mad on the Celtics
Wagner, as mentioned above, is out for the season, and his extremely excited teammates praised him after Monday's win.
“That was for Mo Wagner,” said a really serious Cole Anthony, looking into the camera.
Wagner was traded to the Celtics in a three-team deal in March 2021 and appeared in nine games before being released, clearing the best way for his arrival in Orlando.
Fair enough – nobody likes it when something is omitted. But if Wagner had stayed in Boston (for some reason), he can be playing the role of Luke Kornet and wouldn't be on the identical team as his brother.
Maybe all the things will likely be okay in the long run.
A confusing battle.
The highly competitive game resulted in surprisingly few technical problems, but there was some contention, albeit a confusing one.
Here's what happened, so far as we will tell.
When Derrick White launched a 3-pointer, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was whistled for a foul. The Magic protested and while they did so, Kristaps Porzingis attempted to maneuver the sport to the free throw line in order that the referees wouldn’t give the Magic time to review. While he was doing that, he and Suggs began talking nonsense (which actually didn't even seem particularly unkind), and Magic center Goga Bitadze decided to call it quits. He by accident grabbed Porzingis by the neck, causing a riot.
The final decision: No foul on Caldwell-Pope, appropriate technical errors for Suggs and Porzingis and a sending off for Bitadze.
That led to this moment, which we consider was misinterpreted by fans on social media.
It's possible that Bitadze thought Porzingis had been kicked out and was taunting him, but our greatest guess is that Bitadze didn't mean to grab Porzingis by the throat, but as a substitute apologized to Porzingis by waving, pondering he just had got a technical error for the move. He was then surprised to learn he was ejected, which is the shocked response captured by the cameras.
In any case, your entire sequence took quite some time to change into clear, and it added numerous oomph to an already choppy game.
Big game from Jaylen Brown
The Celtics couldn't capitalize on the impressive performance of Brown, who scored in many various ways – organising smaller Magic players, pushing his way upfield and getting past defenders with dribbles like this one.
Brown is a star who can carry the scoring load thoroughly, and he has shown numerous potential in his increasing role as a facilitator. As a passer, he doesn't appear to bend the defense quite so far as Tatum, which was significant against a Magic team that treated Monday's contest like a Game 7 but probably wouldn't against most other teams if he did would rating 35 points. Brown also shot 1-for-7 from deep, meaning all of his baskets needed to be of high difficulty (impressively, he shot 14-for-22 from contained in the arc).
We don't consider some statistics can delay.
It will likely be difficult for the Celtics to beat the Magic if, along with missed threes and turnovers, Orlando can:
- Kristaps Porzingis left the sphere at 2:10
- Al Horford left the sphere at 3:10
- Payton Pritchard went 1-for-5 from three
- Sam Hauser remained with no shot in 16 minutes (0-0).
The assumption here is that a few of these stats will normalize the following time these teams meet. Still, the Magic have proven to be a formidable opponent, and while the Celtics can be the favourite in a playoff series, there is probably not a team within the Eastern Conference that the Celtics can be joyful to avoid within the postseason in the event that they make it .
A showdown on Christmas Day.
Don't look now, however the Twelfth-ranked 76ers have won seven of their last 10 games, including an exciting victory led by Tyrese Maxey and old friend Guerschon Yabusele on Monday. The Sixers visit TD Garden on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Christmas Day.
image credit : www.boston.com