Orlando Magic survive Boston Celtics three point barrage

The Boston Celtics attempted 46 threes and knocked down 16, but that was not enough to take down the Orlando Magic on Sunday night.

Teams cannot shoot well indefinitely — or at least not at the pace the Boston Celtics did, as the team hit 8 of its first 11 3-pointers in building a 14-point lead. It was a lead the Orlando Magic would erase as the Celtics came back down to earth.

“They cannot keep hitting like this, no way, no way…”

That became a mantra coursing through our minds as the Boston Celtics unloaded every three-point shot possible in the Orlando Magic’s 119-114 victory Sunday night at Amway Center.

Evan Fournier (ORL) — 24 pts.; Aaron Gordon (ORL) — 19 pts., 14 rebs.
Marcus Smart (BOS) — 26 pts.; Isaiah Thomas (BOS) — 23 pts.

For the first half, at least, Boston could do little wrong. It would take a change, not in Xs and Os, but in effort to right the ship.

In a third quarter timeout with the Magic trailing by 13 points and by as much as 14, Skiles went after his team in the huddle.

“He basically challenged us to rise to the occasion,” Aaron Gordon said. “There wasn’t anything that he could say Xs and Os, and that’s really what it came down to. There was nothing he could write on the whiteboard, we just had to pick it up.”

Nikola Vucevic said one of the challenges included perhaps a threat to yank players from the game without an improved effort. It had to come for the Magic to give themselves a chance.

Orlando came out of that timeout and went on a 18-5 run to tie the game. And the struggling team would never leave the game against the one that was succeeding so much entering Sunday’s game.

For much of the rest of the game, the sloppy play that gave up all those 3-pointers — and opens ones — in the first half.

Marcus Smart is seeming to relish playing against Orlando as the Celtics led 26-22 after a quarter. Smart hit three triples in the first quarter and would go on to finish with five made threes and 26 points.

But Mario Hezonja and Evan Fournier had not yet started to cook.

Hezonja had five points in the first quarter, but he went on to finish with a career-high 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Hezonja hit a couple threes that were out of the 407 area code and ignited the Magic to stay in the game and eventually overtake the lead.

“I knew and they knew I was settling down in the plays,” Hezonja said of his breakout game. “It’s coming to me naturally everything. I’m happy for that. But if it takes a dirty job on the floor to help the team, I’ve got to do it. And I want to do it. Just have to do it.”

Evan Fournier was impressive in his own right, scoring 24 points in 23 minutes as the Magic snapped their eight-game losing streak.

This game just had a different feel to it, and perhaps a lot of that is due to the fact the Magic mostly played without a point guard on the court. Elfrid Payton had four fouls in 15 minutes of action, and he sat the majority of the second half. He was largely a non-factor, though the Magic may have been in need of his services as the Celtics did force 15 turnovers.

Orlando was trying to move the ball and break down Boston’s stellar defense but had difficulty for much of the night, especially without a true point guard on the floor. The Magic though kept at it and found a way.

“We were except for a handful of times, we were definitely moving the ball,” Scott Skiles said. “[Marcus] Smart and [Avery] Bradley can just blow up plays. You try to run your offense and those guys are very physical. We were at least able to move them around enough to get good looks at the basket.”

Payton picked up his fourth foul at the 8:07 mark of the third quarter with the Boston Celtics up 67-56. Following Payton’s exit, the Magic reeled off a 25-14 run to close the third quarter and enter the final period tied up with the Celtics.

Hezonja would start the fourth quarter off right, hitting a very tough two-point field goal before Evan Fournier came back to answer with a three-point play. The Celtics still led 95-93 at the mid-period timeout, but Fournier and Hezonja still had yet more tricks in the bag.

That is not to even mentioning the hustle and brilliance of Aaron Gordon, who led Orlando in rebounding with 14 boards while also scoring 19 points and dishing five assists. Gordon played one of his finest games as a pro, and the Magic are a better team when he is playing smart and within himself.

This game was unorthodox, and the Celtics attempted a season-high 46 threes by the end of it, but not even Marcus Smart’s late four-point play could bail the Celtics out as the Magic had yet another shaky close.

The Magic closed the game by hitting just 7 of 12 from the free-throw line as the Celtics fouled throughout the final two minutes. Boston nearly snuck back in it, but Nikola Vucevic iced it with two free throws to put Orlando up by the final margin.

“[Skiles] talked about paying a price to win and that’s about winning all the little things all game long,” Gordon said. “We bought in tonight.”

That buy in has been questioned throughout this horrid 2-12 January stretch. Sunday night, the Magic had it all and found a way to scratch out a much-needed victory.

The Magic improve to 21-25 with the victory and now trail No. 8 Detroit by three games in the standings.

Next: Mario Hezonja understands the Orlando Magic's project

Philip Rossman-Reich contributed to this report.