The Orlando Magic have been saying and preaching pace for most of the season's second half. The team has been near the bottom of the league in possessions per 48 minutes for most of the season, settling in as the team with the fewest possessions in the league.
That call for pace and increasing their tempo has fallen statistically on deaf ears—just 96.4 possessions per 48 minutes in the last 15 regular-season games. But the Magic have played quicker and noticeably faster since.
The focus is not on increasing possessions but on increasing the tempo and speed at which the Magic enter their sets. It is not important when the Magic get their shots up, but about getting into their offense sooner so they have more time to run through their sets and more attempts to attack the paint.
Anyone who watches a Magic game knows the offense is at its worst when it bogs down, moves slowly and takes time to initiate actions.
That was the clear difference for the Magic between the second quarter run that put the team in the lead at halftime in Game 1 against the Boston Celtics and the third quarter when everything unraveled for them.
While there are a lot of factors that will determine who wins and loses in this series, pace and who is able to control how fast or slow these games go could go a long way to determining who wins for both teams.
With far more fast-break points and control over the tempo in the third quarter, the Celtics were the clear winners of the pace battle as the Magic's offense expectedly fizzled out.
"We have to be more intentional when that ball goes through the hoop or we get a defensive rebound, we have to look to push early," coach Jamahl Mosley said after practice Monday. "Once we can put the pressure on the defense that way, then we have to look for the play after the play and not stall out and let their switching become an issue."
Two slow-paced teams
Pace is not something that anyone can easily calculate or measure statistically.
Nobody would confuse the Orlando Magic or Boston Celtics as teams who are eager to get out and run or run possession counts up. The Magic were the "slowest" team in the league this season with 96.5 possessions per 48 minutes. The Celtics were the second "slowest" team with 96.6 possessions per 48 minutes.
The Magic's game against the Celtics was the lowest possession game of the playoffs so far at 87 possessions. It was the Magic's lowest possession game of the season. It was the fourth lowest for the Celtics.
Anyone expecting either team to run up and down the floor is sorely mistaken. Because of how strong their defenses are, possession counts are naturally lower.
These are two of the top five defenses in the league and both played like it Sunday, with the Magic content with their defensive effort for the most part.
Where the Celtics turned the heat up on the Magic was with their ability to get on the break. Boston scored 26 fast-break points, including 12 in the tell-tale third quarter.
The 26 fast-break points were the most the Celtics had scored since Nov. 4 and just the third time this season the Celtics had scored 26 or more fast-break points in a game this season.
Those 26 fast-break points allowed were just the third time the Magic had given up that many fast-break points this season. And one of them was the regular season finale against the Atlanta Hawks.
That is one of the areas where this game felt like an outlier. The Magic turned it over 15 times for 24 points off turnovers. The Celtics controlled the tempo and attack in transition, catching the Magic on their back heels.
The best way to beat either defense is by running and scoring before they can get set. Nobody wants to face either defense when it can get set and prepare for what is coming.
It feels safe to say that the team that wins in transition may win the games in this series.
"That is a big portion of it," Mosley said after practice Monday. "Our ability to make sure that when we get the rebound or we do turn them over, we have to make sure we convert. You have to get easy baskets when you have a high-level defense as they are."
Pace is about more than that, though. That is the easy way to think about speed and playing fast. It is an area the Magic feel like they should be more proficient at but have not been able to be successful.
To be sure, the Magic are emphasizing getting up the floor quicker and trying to score in transition off their stops. That was an area the team needed to improve—Orlando had just four fast-break points on three attempts which does not count plays like the turnover from Franz Wagner on a 3-on-1 attempt that led to a fast-break three for the Celtics.
But it is more than that.
More than fast breaks
The Boston Celtics know the best way to bog down the Orlando Magic's offense is to slow them down and give them less time to operate. It is to gum up their initial actions and make them pause, think and reset.
Orlando's offense will not suddenly become a juggernaut after a season of frustration on that end, even with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner able to impact the game heavily with their scoring. But the Magic know they can still find pockets to score and execute.
"Just making sure we're cutting hard, moving off the ball, things of that nature," Cory Joseph said after practice Monday. "It's no secret. They are good in the half court just as us. Even in the half court we're trying to play fast in the sense of making good decisions."
Their offense improved in meaningful ways to close the season with this emphasis on pace—going from a season average of 108.9 points per 100 possessions to 114.1 in the final 15 games of the regular season. Part of it was how the team was able to play faster.
That remains a focus for this team.
That is a refrain that is echoing around the team and has echoed around the team for several weeks now. It starts with the guards, who struggled mightily on that front. Cory Joseph put responsibility on himself to be better at controlling the tempo.
"We just played pretty slow," Black said after practice Monday. "A big emphasis on playing faster and playing more freely. [We just need to be] running off their misses and makes. It starts with getting stops and finishing possessions with a rebound. Just running and picking them up and making it faster than they want to be."
For now, the Magic are focused and intent on playing faster. They are intent on trying to make the most of their group and getting the most out of their sets.
The Celtics will not make that easy, of course. Boston's defense had a lot to say about Orlando's slow pace and struggles offensively.