Post Game - Celtics vs. Magic - Friday, December 15 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401584957

Celtics-Magic takeaways: Pritchard lights out as C's finally beat Magic

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-magic-takeaways-pritchard-lights-034108833.html

Jordan Daly
Fri, Dec 15, 2023, 10:41 PM EST·5 min read



Celtics-Magic takeaways: Pritchard lights out as C's finally beat Magic originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Three Key Storylines

Pritchard lights out from deep
Bench steps up with Porzingis and Horford absent
C's win turnover battle in big way with season-high 14 steals

The Boston Celtics, who have lost the last four of their matchups against the Orlando Magic, finally got their win.

In the second night of a back-to-back, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, the Celtics were without key players in Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford against a team that they just haven't been able to beat recently. Luke Kornet and Dalano Banton were also absent.

Going down early, the Celtics brought a 9-2 deficit down to a 15-9 deficit, and then never looked back.

Friday night's win makes Boston 13-0 at home this season, making it the second most consecutive home wins to start the season, now only behind the 17-0 home streak the 1957-58 Celtics went on to start their season.

Jayson Tatum, who logged some minutes playing center, once again led the Celtics in scoring with 30 points, with five other Celtics players logging double digits, including three players off the bench.

Magic guard Jalen Suggs battled a hand/wrist injury suffered in the first quarter, causing him to miss time during the game. He had an x-ray that came back negative during the halftime break.

The Celtics will take on the Magic again this Sunday night, once again at home, and cannot risk taking it lightly.

Pritchard lights out from deep

Coming off the bench, Pritchard led the way in terms of perimeter scoring. While the rest of the team struggled from deep, Pritchard ended the night with 21 points on 6-of-7 shooting from deep.

Coming in as a sub in the first quarter, Pritchard immediately made a difference by sinking 3-of-4 of his deep shots for 9 points, while the rest of the team combined for 1-of-11 from deep.



Jrue Holiday and Derrick White struggled in the first half, combining for five points on a combined 2-of-12 shooting.

After a slow first half, the rest of Boston's roster slowly started heating up from deep. From deep, Sam Hauser and Holiday finished 3-of-6 and 2-3, respectively. The star duo of Jaylen Brown and Tatum had a rough night from downtown, shooting 2-of-9 and 0-5, respectively.

As a team, Boston ended the night converting on 18-of-42 perimeter shots, compared to the Magic's 14-of-35.

Bench steps up with Horford and Porzingis absent

With Horford always resting on the second night of back-to-backs and Porzingis out with his nagging calf injury, Boston's bench stepped up in a big way.

While Lamar Stevens took the starting role, it was Pritchard, Hauser, and Oshae Brissett who stepped up for the Celtics.

In 14 minutes, Stevens found ways to contribute outside of scoring. Along with his eight points and three rebounds, Stevens was a menace on the defensive end with two steals and a block.

In what was arguably his most well-rounded night, Hauser made a difference in all aspects of the game. Outside of his 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, Hauser also tallied seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals. He also logged the second most minutes, only behind Tatum, with 31.



Brissett finished the night on a perfect 100 percent from the field on 4-of-4 shooting, including a deep ball. He also logged a rebound and an assist in his 18 minutes on the floor.

Aside from Pritchard's 21 points, the guard also contributed five assists, three rebounds, and a steal -- he also ended the night winning a Tommy Award.

Neemias Queta also received meaningful minutes in Friday's win. First entering the game early in the first quarter, Queta played 18 minutes logging four points on 2-of-3 shooting, with three rebounds, two blocks, an assist, and a steal. What won't show up in the stat sheet, however, is Queta's ability to play drop-back defense, always offering help defense in the paint.

C's win turnover battle

The Celtics played efficient basketball Friday night. With 31 assists, Boston was moving the ball around freely and never forcing anything, which greatly reduced the number of turnovers.

Boston played great defense, forcing the Magic to turn the ball over 21 times, compared to Boston's 10.

White and Hauser led the way on defense with four steals a piece, with Stevens and Holiday both getting two each. It was a season-high 14 steals combined.



Queta led the way in blocks with two, with four other Celtic players each logging a block, putting them above their 6.1 blocks per game average this season.

Six of the team's 10 turnover came from Brown, Tatum, and Brissett, who each logged two. Magic's Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero combined for 11 of the team's 21 turnovers.

The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter has gone mad across many platforms. It doesn't play nicely with others anymore.

Copy-and-paste into the "Embed content" box (and insert) leaves us with what you see above. It is happening in other websites as well.

Hopefully it is a temporary thing.

What a pleasing game to watch! When players are reading, reacting, moving the ball, attacking and the super stars assert themselves in that context, it makes for great basketball. Especially when it is your team doing that.

I am loving the new and improved Jaylen Brown. Whatever has clicked on should stay on.

This had 'loss' written all over it.  No bigs except for a two-way, a SEGABAGA and it's against a team that has had our number for a while.  We love to talk about "signature wins" when we beat high quality teams but this could qualify too.  This took more than just going through the motions.  We needed our much maligned bench to step up, and they did.

Boston Celtics @celtics
about 3 hours ago
Jaylen Brown was amped up after our shorthanded group beat up the Magic Friday night, declaring it our “biggest game of the year so far.”


Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
Oshae Brissett was asked about people thinking Celtics would struggle with their bigs out: "I’ve never heard that & anyone that’s saying that is out of their mind. Because I strongly believe our second unit is better than a lot of teams’ first unit & I can say that confidently."


Lamar got the start.  Joe likes the idea of using him in a smallball lineup (or, at least, he does this week).  A solid game by Lamar.

Derrick came alive in the 2nd half. He ended up with 8 assists and 1 turnover to go with his 19 points on 7-15, 4 steals and a block. He's not making the All-Star team but he is just a great all-round player, one of the best all-round players in the league in my opinion. He rarely makes mistakes (although he made several last game vs Cleveland) and does every other aspect of basketball above average. He's shooting 42.7% from 3 this season. He has gotten better every year he has been in the league. Pop has an eye for talent, no doubt about that. Why did they give him up for such a small haul? Their loss, our irrefutable gain.

Joe used the entire available squad.  Walsh is in Maine, he played 10 players, 3 were out (Z, Al and Luke), there's our 14 and they played well.  The only one who didn't stand out was Svi, and he only played 5 minutes so that's excusable.  It would appear, despite assertions to the contrary, we actually do have a bench, we're not just 6 players and zombies.

Everything gets easier and better when Pritchard is hitting.  Nobody matches up well with the Js but you can force them into help.  You cannot do that when Pritchard and Sam are hitting their shots.  Not only did Payton have 21 points on 7-10, 6'7 from 3, he also had 5 assists and zero turnovers.  Remember how icy cold he was from 3 starting the season after a smoking hot pre-season.  Last night's performance has brought his 3pt fg% up to 35.9%.  Still not good, far below his norm, but he's coming up from the pits.  As far as floor generalship goes his assist-to-turnover ratio is 5.83:1.  That's 3rd in the league. Only Tyus Jones of the Wiz (6.4:1) and future HOFer Chris Paul (6.0:!) are ahead of him and that's pretty good.  Brad might know his job.

Forgotten man Oshae Brissett with 4-4.

Queta with 3 blocks but otherwise a 'meh' performance.  He fouled out in 18 minutes.  Fouling may be his Achilles Heel, this isn't the first time he has rung up whistles in short order.





With the league's weird new scheduling philosophy of home-and-home games against the same teams we play Orlando again on Sunday. I can't make up my mind if I like this or not. It's a little like a mini-playoff series, where coaches have to adjust game-to-game against the same team but it feels weird. I need to embrace this because it makes sense and just get over the novelty.


Minny plays Indy at home tonight. We're 1/2 game up on Minny for best record in the league. It sure would be nice if Indy gave us that 1 game lead.


Bob


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We are now 13-0 at home to start the season.  Bird's 1985 Championship team only lost one home game all season, but they didn't start off 13-0, they lost that game early in the season and didn't lose another after that one.

The last – and only other – Celtics team to start a season 13-0 at home was in 1957-58 when a sophomore Bill Russell got them off to an 18-0 start at Boston Garden.

So this team is already in our Celtic history books.  5 more consecutive home wins to tie a Bill Russell team, and even Russ only did it once.  I'm struggling to wrap my mind around this.  All those Championships, 11 in 13 years, and they started off 13-0 or better only once.  Like Red said "it's not who starts, it's who finishes".  Let's hope this team finishes like KG/Pierce/Allen's 2008 team and 11 of Russ' 13 teams.

Our next 6 home games, which is what we would need to OWN the record, not just tie it, are against (current record):

12/17.....Orlando (16-8 )
12/28.....Detroit (2-23)
12/29.....Toronto (10-15)
1/5.........Utah (9-16)
1/10.......Minny (18-5)
1/13.......Houston (13-9)

We just proved we can beat Orlando.  The next 3 games after that are against teams with losing records, but the game to tie the Russell Celtics is against Minny and that will be a war.  The game to own the record is against Ime Udoka's Houston Rockets.  We play 15 games between today and vs Houston on 1/13/24.  That means 9 away games, 6 home.  There are four (4!) b2bs in those 15 games.  That means 8 games out of 15 are b2bs.  This will be a grueling stretch for our guys.  If we break this record we are going to have to earn it bigly.


Bob


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Here's something else not being mentioned but is a really pleasant and comforting thing to see. I'm guessing this has to be coming from a combination of Jrue and Derrick in that they see the whole 1/2 court on offense. And the camera people are either zeroing in on it more or we're just flat out doing it more and more...

Communication, but after the shot or play is made. Jrue and Derrick must be saying things to the rest of the team on the floor during their time on the court regarding tendencies they are seeing for their defenders and subtly passing that on to them before the play starts. Something like, "Remember what we discussed in the time out? Get open."

What we see is the after effects when the camera zooms in on Pritchard after an assist from Jrue or Derrick of KP eyeballin' Jure after a perfect pass for an assist. Sometimes it's just a nod, other times like with Pritchard, he likes to talk a little more, either saying a prolonged thank you or "Oh, NOW I see what you were talking about. Got it.

We did not have this last season. Subtle but dangerous. While I'm sure it's a pretty even shared combination and responsibility of both DW and Jrue, if I had to lay down a bet, I would point the finger toward Jrue.

Here's what I can't wait for. I can't wait for the end of G4 of the ECF vs. MIL where MIL is finally hit by the ton of bricks that they made a horrible mistake cutting Jrue out of the picture that resulted in their playoff lives being un-mercilessly snuffed out in MIA fashion yet again. I am beside in anticipation for this event.

Amazing game. They stopped the ORL bleeding in stellar fashion.

Great bench play last night. I think we won 47-32 there. I think the mystery of P-Squared should stay that way for now. Yeah, it'd be great if both he and Doogie can come in for 15-18 each a night, but Pritchard is just fun to watch in all that he does. He fights through picks, plays in your face defense far more than is expected, makes you dizzy watching him (and it must make whoever is guarding him even more dizzy trying to catch him!)

We should look at these times when KP is out as good things in that the end of our bench gets time to develop more. Brissett and Stevens both with solid outings. Keeping the TO's down early played a huge role and us flummoxing ORL for all their TO's while not winning the POTO category still shows where we're going. Steals we won solidly 14-5. Lost the rebound battle which should have been expected. Our mix of 2's to 3's was enough that fouling didn't result like it normally does on drives to the basket. Oh well.

On to Sunday. Hopefully all the usuals will be back and we can fulfill dboss's prediction!

db

Bob,

We get the other end of the stick when we have two consecutive away games against Indy in January (Sat-Mon, one day off between) and against Atlanta in March (Mon-Thurs, two days off between).

One way to look at it is that going into the two game sets is like starting a playoff series, with the first two games being in the same location. It allows for a scenario where they can focus on one team and then make adjustments after the first game.

It may allow us to better focus early on in a playoff series and not get behind with early series losses, requiring must-win 6th or 7th games. Practice makes perfect, so we will get four tries at this; two H-H and two A-A.

What an amazing coaching game by Joe, down so many bigs and we win with tenacious small ball led by the 2 J’s. Jaylen is absolutely playing the best ball of his career, he’s got to be the best dunker in traffic in the league. Blessed with an otherworldly burst, reminds me of prime time Lebron. Every game we are seeing out of this world raw athletic violent dunks that very few mere mortals, the other best players in the world, can come close to. Actually his partner in crime, JT is also a great dunker, more a smooth dunker along the lines of Dr J. Thank you Joe for putting together an offense that really unleashes the J’s AND gets everybody else involved too.

The highlight of the game was also the incorporation finally of Brissett and Stevens, both of whom ran the floor hard and played physical as this gives us even more depth and energy. We can further mess up teams game plans with a small ball line up and loved the way we shared the ball. Again further credit to Joe for having these new pieces ready to compliment the J’s and our sharpshooters Pritch, Sam, D White and Holiday. If we can add the physicalness of Stevens and Brissett to our already talented core, keeping everyone fresh, we will really be further steam rolling teams.

Really like the way Joe has done alot of things. Getting Sam and Pritch acclimated to playing with the starters, establishing their games. Behind the scenes I’m sure the coaches were staying on top of Stevens and Brissett, they just contributed their games seamlessly. Have to give credit where credit is due.

Tremendous effort by everyone. PP is finally nailing his threes the way we all knew he would. He is playing at a high level. His speed, ball handling and passing have been great all year, and now his shot is there. His is a solid dependable rotation player. The same can be said for Sam. Sam's defense and rebounding are underrated. He plays solid D. He may not be quickest defender, but he moves his feet well and stays in front of his man pretty well. I also loved the way Stevens, Brissett, and Queta played. They played hard, solid on D and hit the boards.

I think we see the Zinger rested when the game load is heavy. His health is the one worry I have. Let's face it, he's a little fragile. By giving the bench guys minutes it will be easier to sit the Zinger here and there.

I just have to compliment D White again. He just is playing great. It's such a shame he won't get any all star consideration because he's just a s good as the Brunson's and Maxey's. He just contributes differently.

Jaylen said he thought that this was the Celtics best game of the season.  This one has to go on the signature column for best wins of the season.

Theses b2b home and home games started to be scheduled last season.

CJ had no choice but to go deep, deep into his bench.  It worked to perfection.   This game may have fused this team into a singular force.  Now they are one.  I subscribe to the notion that guys need to play.  The reason why Sam and PP are getting after it is because they are going to get minutes every night.  This season, it is no longer a case of miss and sit.  

Stevens and Brissett are both NBA quality players.  There are  probably not enough quality rotation minutes for them game to game but CJ simply has to get them fully integrated into the formula.  Anytime one of our regular rotation guys are missing, CJ needs to play one of them at the very least.  

We should not have to be down 3 centers for those guys to get minutes.  I think Queta is a valuable piece.  If you have 6 more fouls to use in a physically demanding game, he can do that for you and add a few boards and block shots.  

The top 8 or 9 guys on this team have reached a level of continuity where you can now expand the dynamics of playing an expanded rotation.

Consider that 3 of our starters Jaylen, Jrue and Derrick actually played less minutes in this B2B game than they average overall.  There should be plenty of gas left in the tank to reach the destination without stopping for a fill up.

JB 33.9 MPG (30 last night), DW 32.6 MPG (28 last night) and DH 34.5  MPG (28 last night)  There is no good reason to wear down your top guys if you have rotation players that can carry more of the load.

Not a fan of these b2b games. I am not sure what the league is aiming for..less flying time? At the end of the year, they should look long and hard at results from all teams and try to decifer if it really is with it or even a good thing for all teams. Last night it was obvious that the Celtics were not going to let Orlando run all over them and try to make them look foolish. They worked hard all night. The bench deserves the game ball, they really came thru. I am puzzled by the lack of minutes, except in cases like last night, for Queda I know he fouls alot, but that kid is a gamer. He needs time on the floor to develop. He could be a real factor late in the season if developed right. Of course, he will not be eligible for playoffs since he is two way am I right?