POST GAME THREAD VS MAGIC

[cowens/oldschool]

Hate to say I called it, but I knew Magic had been playing really well recently and had an odd ball big heavy line up that gave us problems the last time we played them. We are obviously in an offensive slump since the Suns game. In the Suns game it was all our role players that were sizzling hot, now they are cold, ice cold and not making good decisions too which compounds problems. The most unaware, lackadaisical whatever you want to label it in this game was Jaylen, losing the ball, not protecting it; those kind of plays add up in a losing cause, they killed us. Shame because love what I saw from Rob Williams. Go look at the pathetic boxscore from 3, we couldn’t buy a 3 for the most part. Smart coming back down to Earth after a string of efficient games? His best games are piling up assists and only taking 5-6 shots a game. Jaylen had 3 games combined with only 1 turnover, then he pulls this Jekyll/Hyde crap. He actually showed some good handles on some plays, he is so talented, don’t know why he makes such stupid boneheaded mistakes/turnovers?

Interesting they have 2 starters Mo Wagner and Bol Bol that couldn’t even make our roster. When Wagner was here he couldn’t defend, why weren’t we attacking that match up? Cole Anthony killed us. White, GWill, Hauser gave us nothing on offense. Brogden after a strong first half disappeared in the 2nd. Tatum tried, but he was off and nobody could pick up the slack. We will see what this team is made of on Sunday. Bucks just lost by 40 in a game Middleton went 1-12, guess it happens to other good teams too.

[112288]

Celtics Wrap: Orlando Pulls Stunning Magic Trick To Defeat Boston
The Magic put a damper on Robert Williams' return

NESN by Greg Dudek

2 hours ago

Celtics Wrap

The Orlando Magic came into TD Garden as one of the worst teams in the NBA, but shocked the Celtics by taking down Boston, 117-109, on Friday night.

The Celtics now see their best record in the NBA slip to 22-8 while the Magic improved to 10-20.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The big storyline heading into the matchup was the season debut of Robert Williams and the Celtics seemed to get caught up in the return of their teammate. And Boston’s performance certainly put a damper on Williams coming back to the lineup.

Boston raced out to a quick 10-point lead, but then somewhat stopped playing to trail after one quarter of play and yet again at halftime. It was almost mind-numbing that the Celtics got down by as many as 19 points in the third quarter to the Magic, who entered the contest with a 1-11 record on the road — the worst mark in the entire NBA.

Orlando outworked the Celtics, especially in the rebounding department while Boston’s offense fell into the bad habit of hoisting up shots from beyond the arc. The Celtics finished shooting 23.9% (11-for-46) from 3-point range as they missed 14 of their final 15 attempts from deep in the first half.

The Celtics tried to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter, but never really got close. It really was an inexcusable position to be in against a lowly Magic squad.

It felt Boston focused too much on Williams coming back and thought they would coast past the Magic. That surely didn’t happen and the Celtics paid a price.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Moritz Wagner played well against his former team as he had a brief stint with the Celtics during the 2020-21 season. Wagner paced the Magic with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting and eight rebounds. He also was involved in Al Horford getting ejected.

— Jayson Tatum didn’t have his best outing, but still led the Celtics in scoring with 31 points. Aiding Tatum’s offense was his ability to get to the free-throw line where he made 11-of-12 attempts. He also added seven rebounds and three assists.

— Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 overall pick in this past draft, contributed to Orlando’s win by tallying 20 points, five rebounds and five assists.

WAGER WATCH
Marcus Smart had a dismal shooting night, but he contributed to Boston’s offense by dishing passes to his teammates. DraftKings Sportsbook set Smart’s assist over/under at 7.5 and he eclipsed that mark with eight helpers. With odds sets +115, a $100 wager would have netted out a total of $215.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will see the Magic for a second consecutive game when the two sides collide on Sunday. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.

112288

[prakash]

A focused Celtics team is an outstanding team. These last 5-6 games, I have not seen the focused team.

Every time we start the game with 4-5 straight 3s, I start worrying. Saw that before the Bulls beat the snot out of us in Chicago. Saw it again today.

We were a half step too slow and just going through the planned rotations instead of digging in on defense.

On the brighter side, it was good to see TimeLord back. It seems that GWill's minutes were to be cut down and he did seem a like he had something on his mind.

Now I want our guards to get their shot back. That will be the brightest side.

[gyso]

It seemed like the Celtics tried too hard to make ally oops and awesomeness when RobWill entered the game. They lost their focus and never got it back.

Also, the first game back home after a long road trip is like an extension of the long road trip. Most likely, we'll see the real Celtics in the next game.

[NYCelt]

It seemed like the Celtics tried too hard to make ally oops and awesomeness when RobWill entered the game.  They lost their focus and never got it back.

Also, the first game back home after a long road trip is like an extension of the long road trip.  Most likely, we'll see the real Celtics in the next game.

I agree with you and Prakash that focus did seem to be an issue. Those West Coast swings and their aftermath are always tough.

I would add poor shot selection and lack of bigs to the problem. The team continues to settle for too many shots beyond the arc early in the shot clock. Add to that the ongoing need for at least one more big man that can defend and score down low in the paint. RWIII, Horford, and MVP candidate Luke Kornet just aren’t enough to fill that need. Kudos to Blake though, for his contributions and effort to fill the void.

Overall, however, nothing much here to waste time ranting about. This team is having one of the best seasons of any team in the league, even without being on pace to win 82 games. Onward.

And, oh yeah, GO BILLS!!

[dboss]

I am not surprised that we lost this game.

They are a big team but unfortunately we did not play with Pace.  The poor 3 point shooting was a problem.  As NYCelt pointed out many of those 3 point attempts came early in the shot clock.  We saw a ton of one pass/shot offense.

We got beat on the glass because we missed a lot of shots which created more defensive rebounding opportunities for the Magic.  They were quicker to the ball on their misses.  We had way too many delayed reactions.  

We saw a few sequences late when the ball was popping and we made shots but most of the game we did not play with pace and we did not move the ball.

It appears that some of our rotation guys are struggling to make shots.  White in particular cannot buy a bucket as of late and they are getting him wide open looks.  White, G Will and Hauser went 1-10 from deep.  Smart and Brogdon each shot 1-7.  This is not rocket science.  The Celtics are a 3 point shooting team and when they shoot poorly and do not rebound the basketball they can be beat by any team in the NBA.

I see no reason to be too upset with this loss.  This team knows what they need to do to win.

On a positive note, Robert Williams looks good after not having played for 6 months.  When he is in the game we can switch everything because he can defend out to the perimeter.  He looked quick and his lateral movement was great.

The weirdest call was AH getting thrown out because he elbowed Wagner in the nuts.  Ouch!  I am pretty certain that he was not aiming for them.

Can someone tell me why the refs are so inconsistent in calling flagrant fouls when a defender comes into a shooter's landing zone and creates contact?  We saw that again last night with Tatum getting fouled and the play in GS was also missed when Klay caused Tatum to land on his foot.

The Celtics get a second bite of the apple tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM where they will have an opportunity to set things right.

Before tomorrow's  game, the Celtics should deploy a special degreasing team to assist Jaylen Brown in removing all remnants of Crisco shortening.

[dbrown4]

In/Out
Who's In/What's Out

Robert Williams III/The Scouting Report on How to Beat Us

That's it. Not going to cry over split milk. Get RWIII back in the swing. Good game by him. Sorry we blew your return.

db

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