The Celtics bounced back from an ugly week on Friday night with a commanding 121-94 win over the Orlando Magic at TD Garden.
Jayson Tatum led the way for the hosts with a team-high 30 points, 15 of which came in the second quarter. Kristaps Porzingis also added 23 points in one of his best outings of the year while Jaylen Brown chipped in with 20 points, including going 9-of-9 from the free throw line.
Boston took advantage of a undermanned Magic squad, missing four rotation players with a dominant offensive effort from all areas of the floor. The Celtics shot a red-hot 61 percent from the field before intermission, helping them build a 12-point halftime lead.
From there, they were able to break the game open in the third quarter by tightening up their defense, pushing the lead to as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter. Cole Anthony (23 points) led the way for Orlando who are now 1-4 in their last five games.
There will be little rest for the Celtics now as they will be back in action at TD Garden Saturday night facing off against a Hawks squad that already won at TD Garden once this year.
Here are four Celtics takeaways from Friday’s win:
Celtics look for Kristaps Porzingis inside early: The seven-footer has found his groove offensively over the past week and Boston made a concerted effort to get him the ball early and often down low. The effort paid off as Porzingis was red-hot in the first half, making all five of his shots. He punished smaller Magic defenders in the post and that led for easier looks for him as the game progressed in the pick-and-pop. Jayson Tatum joined Porzingis in trying to find easy offense down low and the strategy paid off well against a undermanned Magic defense that didn’t have the personnel to hang with Boston’s size in the frontcourt. Porzingis delivered his most efficient outing of the year, going 7-of-10 from the field in just 23 minutes.
Celtics starting five finally builds some momentum together: Boston entered the game with one of the worst starting five-man units in the NBA this season (-11 net rating over 143 minutes). Those struggles had led to countless slow starts and ugly stretches over the past month but the unit may have turned a corner against Orlando. The Celtics started the game looking sharp offensively with committed attacking and ball movement, outscoring the Magic by six points in their first stint. Joe Mazzulla gave them another seven minutes of run in the second quarter where they pushed the team’s lead to double digits before ultimately breaking the game open in the third quarter. With Orlando down two starters, the Celtics starting five should be having their way with this grouping but it’s been a rarity to see the group put together multiple good stints together in a game this year. Friday was a good start on that front.
Celtics scale back the 3s while snapping out of slump: Boston had been dismal from 3-point range during January thus far but they caught fire early in this one, making their first five 3s of the game and knocking down 60 percent of their attempts in the first half (9-of-15). In a an interesting twist, the Celtics also scaled back their 3-point shooting, posting one of their lowest volume halves from 3-point range of the season. Boston’s offensive efficiency still remained elite without the attempts thanks to some domination in the post by Porzingis and Tatum but it was interesting to see Boston shift their strategy for at least one night.
A much needed blowout for Boston: The Celtics started their toughest stretch of the season on Friday night with five games in seven nights stretched across the entire country. Blowout wins have been few and far between of late for this group so starting this week with a “get right” game could go a long way towards a successful road trip. They didn’t solve all their problems in one night but Joe Mazzulla was able to keep minutes down among the regulars and the team played with much more purpose than we’ve seen in their last three games. Just how much it carries over to Saturday night remains to be seen but it was a start for a team looking to find some sort of rhythm amid an uneven stretch.
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