POST GAME ORLANDO MAGIC - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Uses Third-Quarter Run To Snap Skid Vs. Magic

Boston outscored Orlando 31-10 in the third quarter

NESN by Sean T. McGuire

The Boston Celtics put together a dominant second half against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, claiming a 92-79 victory at Amway Center and snapping a three-game losing skid in the process.

Boston improves to 3-5 on the season while Orlando falls to 2-7.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics, even going against a team as down as the Magic, couldn’t put together a complete game Wednesday. Boston came out flat while allowing Orlando to shoot 50% from the field in the first quarter as the Magic took a 28-26 lead after 12 minutes. The Magic, arguably the league’s worst offense, continued that pace before taking a two-point lead into the half.

Fortunately, Boston did rebound for a monster third quarter on both ends, and it helped them pull away. They buckled down defensively as the Magic shot 2-for-17 from the field in the third quarter, and that helped their offense (and ball movement) come alive to the tune of 31 third-quarter points. Boston outscored Orlando 31-10 in the third. Essentially, the Celtics (again) did not put together a complete game, but did dominate a bad team through the second half — like good (or better?) teams are supposed to do.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown put together an extremely efficient night as he made 10 of his 17 shot attempts for a game-high 28 points. And while Boston didn’t shoot the ball well from long range — 27% on 10-of-37 — Brown did hit three of his eight attempts from beyond the arc. He also added three assists and five rebounds.

— Al Horford recorded his fifth double-double in six games this season. Horford finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds all while adding a team-high seven assists and two blocks.

— Robert Williams made his presence in the paint rather noticeable while finishing with 12 points on 75% (6-for- from the field. Williams finished with six rebounds and one block while finishing plus-15 for the Celtics.


WAGER WATCH
Jaylen Brown entered Wednesday’s game with his over/under propositional bet at a very modest 22.5 points, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. And while bettors would have had to wager $125 to win $100, it certainly was enticing given the fact Brown entered the contest averaging 26.7 points per game. Well, Brown made those willing to place a wager some money, and he didn’t even make it close as he hit the over with 18 minutes left in the contest.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will return to action Thursday against much stiffer competition. Boston, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, will face the Eastern Conference-leading Miami Heat.

112288

Forgot to set my alarm so I slept through this one too.

Some peanut gallery boxscore observations:

Tatum went 4-16, 1-6 from 3. He is now shooting 38.3% from the field season-to-date, 26.2% from 3. By comparison, Marcus Smart is shooting 30.3% from the field season-to-date and 28.8% from 3. Considering how many more fgas/game Tatum takes than Smart (24.6 vs 9.7) and how the overwhelming % of Smart's fgas are 3s, this doesn't make Tatum look very good. In fact, anytime anybody's shooting is compared to Marcus Smart's that's not a good look.

Jaylen Brown, on the other hand, is shooting 50.7% on the season, 37.7% from 3. He's averaging about 20fgas/gm, which is about right for an All-Star, and he's making the most of them. The Js have about the same mix of 2pt fgas and 3pt fgas, the difference is that Jaylen has been hitting them and Jayson has not. Jaylen has missed a game this season, due to illness. I think Ime should "rest" Tatum as soon as we have an easy game on the schedule. Let the bench get some minutes and let Tatum get past his Olympic workouts. I'm not saying "bench him", but give him a breather.

18 points total from our bench, Schroder with 8 of them. Terrible. Their bench scored 29. Thank God it was the Orlando Magic, if their starters were worth a shite this might have been another loss. Their starters shot 26.5%, 22.5% from 3.

Nesmith played 2 minutes. Pritchard played 10 minutes. Obviously these are significant decreases in minutes from last year. I cannot see Brad keeping these two on the bench for the entire year, especially when he knows Schroder won't be with us next year. Something's gotta give, I just don't know in which way. I don't know if Schroder and JRich are gone and the kids get their break or if the kids are gone. More likely mix-and-match, either Schroder or Richardson plus one of the two young'uns. A veteran, with the more expensive contract, and a young talent with 3+ years left on their rookie contract to bring in a bigger talent (with their bigger contract). Just speculation here on my part.

Mo Wagner had his revenge game for the season and turned back into a seasonal pumpkin.

Terrence Ross, who used to be a Celtic-killer, is having an off year overall and had an off game last night (it's 9am here in Canakkale, Turkey). He'll be 31 in February. Is he done, already, or is he just crisped on that team and its system?

Only 11 turnovers for us. Turnovers killed us in earlier games this season, so this is very good. We were averaging 14.4/game going into last night's game, good (or bad, depending upon how you want to look at it) for 12th place. This should bring that average down a bit. At 12th we're basically 'middlin'. If we can get into the top 10 that will improve our offense without needing better fg%, and we can definitely shoot better. If we can improve our shooting too...Our team 3pt fg% is 33.7%, 16th place. A lot of that will be Tatum taking almost 22% of all the Celtics' 3pt fgas but only shooting 26% on them. That has a large weighted impact on the team numbers.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401359934


Bob


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take the win and 3-5, it's on the heat....NBA is still a make or miss league

This raises a very interesting observation. It looks like against the NBA bottom feeders, we only need to play one quarter of lock down offense and defense to win the game, similar to the way GSW used to blow teams out in the 3rd quarter.

Now for consistency's sake, you keep that up and you're playing with a double-edged sword because any team can beat any other team on a given night. But I believe this team is a whole lot better than we are giving them credit for (myself included). I also think I'm developing a man-crush on AH. I could watch him play all the time! It is really like watching a renaissance. It's a real shot in the arm for old timers everywhere. You really can reinvent the wheel and show an old dog new tricks!! He is by far, no one else even close, the most consistent player on the team so far. That statement is kind of exhilarating and very sad at the same time! A far, far (ok, not too far) distant second has to be Menace, then maybe JB. Everyone else, not enough info to pass judgment on.

For the other Florida game tonight, I'm only looking for verification of one thing...Are we for real on back-to-back games? Will we go 4-0?! That's the pressing question!!

db