The Celtics dominated the second half against the Orlando Magic on Sunday afternoon and moved away for a comfortable 103-86 victory in match 1 at TD Garden.
Derrick White was the star of Boston’s surprise offensive, leading the team with a summit of 30 points in the opening of the playoffs. Payton Pritchard added 19 points on the Boston bench while Jayson Tatum (17 points, 14 rebounds) concluded a double-double in victory. Paolo Banchero led all the scorers with 36 points for magic in the reverse.
The hosts led by 11 points in the first half, before a very close to Orlando in the second quarter gave them an unexpected advance of two points at halftime.
However, the Celtics retaliated in the third quarter, with White and Jrue Holiday (nine points) helping to turn the trend with their defense and their creation of a transition. Boston regained control of the match with a 28-10 race and did not look back from there, slowing down a magic attack that had nowhere to exceed Banchero and Franz Wagner (23 points).
The Celtics are now two days to rest before welcoming match 2 at TD Garden on Wednesday evening.
Here are four points to remember from the Victory of Match 1 of the Celtics.
Magic crushes the offensive glass early: The Celtics were one of the best team rebounds in the League this season, but they had problems with the size of magic all over the ground in the match 1 early. Orlando missed much earlier (30% in the first quarter) but managed to stay in the match thanks to their offensive rebound. They caught eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter and hung offensive boards on 46% of their failures in the first half, which led to seven points of luck. Boston made a lot of defensively changes against the entire magic list, which left them exposed on the glass several times, which helped Orlando erase a deficit in first half in 12 points. However, Boston tightened in this area in the second half, because Orlando failed to have not harvested five offensive rebounds in the last three quarters despite a lower shooting evening.
Jaylen Brown moves well after launching: The All-Star saw its first action in two weeks in match 1 following a knee pain management injection at the end of the regular season. Physically, Brown was largely alike in match 1, making several efforts on the defensive while attacking the hoop as usual. He fought in the points with the size of Orlando inside, but it was largely a by-product of them exciting the paint rather than the knee limiting the brown. The veteran wing has also played its minutes in the usual playoff series in the first half, so it seems that there will be no limits of playing time on it as we saw at the end of the regular season. With the Celtics comfortably in front of the second quarter, he did not play much in the fourth quarter and finished with 30 minutes.
The Celtics Backcourt wear the offensive day: Boston’s beginners with mediocre outings in the first half (a single two-digit player), the Celtics have looked at a reliable couple to maintain their attack. Derrick White broke out for 16 points in the first half with his 3-point shot bearing the day (4 out of 6 before the intermission) while Payton Pritchard did not miss the first half, marking 11 points in seven minutes. One of the second assumptions for Joe Mazzulla early was to give to Pritchard such a short race in the first half despite the fact that he was offensively. However, he caught up with this by turning to Pritchard at the start of the second half, which helped Boston maintain his strong start in the third quarter and put the match. Jrue Holiday also emerged with a third monster quarter which included nine points and several key defensive games. The trio helped counter a performance below Boston stars, which led to an easy victory.
The Celtics are headed for a large advance in the third quarter: The magic defense kept the Celtics firepower at a distance for a large part of the first half because they used their size and their competence to control the Boston stars in the half-habit. However, the Celtics regained control in the third quarter, using a 28-10 race to postpone their two-digit lead after wasting an 11-point lead in the first half. Boston began to push the ball much more in this sequence up to 12 luck points, taking advantage of magic errors and their propensity to crush offensive glass.
