Orlando Magic Grades: Orlando Magic 93, Boston Celtics 90
The Orlando Magic’s defense looked strong and held serve to defeat the Boston Celtics and score a strong road victory early in the season.
18. Final. 93. 38. 90
The Boston Celtics had the Orlando Magic scrambling. Kyrie Irving was driving and trying to get to the basket, Al Horford was popping out to space the floor and they had their bevy of shooters to space the floor. But Orlando was not daunted.
Nikola Vucevic met Kyrie Irving and forced the pass to Al Horford. The next man stepped up to defend him and force the pass out to the perimeter. Orlando flew around to run those players off the 3-point line and force a mid-range jumper with the next man ready to contest.
There were times the Celtics made those shots. There were times the Magic deflected the pass and forced the Celtics to reset or hurry into a bad shot. There were times Orlando got the rebound and broke out.
In the fourth quarter, every stop mattered. And the Magic relied heavily on their defense.
With the Magic leading by three points and seven seconds left, they inbounded the ball to Irving who drifted toward the corner. Jerian Grant was following him every step of the way, crowding his space and contesting the three. Al Horford dug out the rebound and Aaron Gordon peeled out to the 3-point line to contest Gordon Hayward‘s last gasp attempt.
He got there in time and it fell no good. The Magic may have survived or they may have dominated — they never trailed in the game. But ultimately what matters is the Magic won 93-90 at TD Garden on Monday scoring a big road victory.
They won with their defense and they found a way to extend the lead every time the Celtics made their run.
Orlando made the plays and did the little things — and the big things like Jonathan Isaac‘s smart play to pump fake and drive in for a big jumper to put the Magic up five late or Evan Fournier draining two free throws calmly to keep Orlando up three — to win.
If the Magic have a blueprint to win, it will be with efforts like this with strong defense and gritty determination to overcome some of their offensive shortcomings and droughts.
A-. <a href=. F. Orlando Magic. JONATHAN ISAAC
Orlando Magic. NIKOLA VUCEVIC. A. <a href=. C
<a href=. PG. Orlando Magic. D.J. AUGUSTIN. B-
C+. The Orlando Magic’s point guard situation is looking as bad as everyone seemed to fear right now. The team is just struggling to get everything to work consistently and point guard play is a big reason why. After the bench came in and played well for the first two games, it has struggled to sustain momentum the last two.<p><a href=. PG. Orlando Magic. JERIAN GRANT
Coach Brad Stevens claimed after the game that the Boston Celtics executed the best it had all season in this game. Al Horford’s response to that comment was an appropriate, “Um . . . no.” And the numbers back that up as the Celtics scored only 90 points and shot 40.7 percent from the floor. Boston made just 9 of its 40 3-pointers.<p>Outside of Kyrie Irving forcing offense and hitting a few tough shots, the Celtics found everything difficult offensively. There were plenty of missed open 3-pointers the Celtics left on the board. The Magic got lucky in some respects. Boston had nine offensive rebounds and they all seemed to come at critical points. The Celtics just could not convert.</p><p>Defensively, Boston was as good as ever. The Magic struggled on offense themselves, not shooting much better than 40 percent too. Orlando had control of the game but could never run away because of Boston’s commitment on defense. The Celtics though have to feel like they let this one get away and allowed the Magic to dictate too much defensively.</p>. 2-2. 7th East. BOSTON CELTICS. C+
Next. Steve Clifford already raising Orlando Magic's standards. dark
The Orlando Magic head home next to take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.