BOSTON — Al Horford left the floor in disbelief after his first ejection since 2015, appearing to call the decision to hit him with a flagrant two terrible. The replay revealed a swinging elbow into Moe Wagner’s midsection area just after halftime after getting fouled himself. The crowd roared in anger, Jayson Tatum picked up a technical foul two possessions later, and the Celtics handed the Magic seven points at the free throw line to go down by seven.
“I was surprised,” Wagner told CLNS Media after reacting to Horford’s ejection.
Markelle Fultz, who missed a shot on the play in-between, stole the ball right back from Jaylen Brown to get Moe the ball against Tatum inside. Marcus Smart tried to rally the team at half court as Franz Wagner shot the technical.
The short speech only worked briefly, as Orlando spoiled Robert Williams III’s return, 117-109, despite numerous runs and a third quarter energy boost by the big man off the bench. Williams III hit foul trouble, committing three in four minutes after entering the game to standing ovation and catching an alley-oop from Smart on his third possession back.
Rob appeared fatigued after playing 17 minutes, shooting 4-for-4 with nine points, five rebounds, a steal and a block. He didn’t always look in-sync with the team’s screening concepts and made up for it as his confidence grew into the second half. A few of his mistakes might’ve contributed to the loss. The regular contributors set the poor tone though, trying to attack a steady deficit through individual play and shooting as the team attempted over 60% of its attempts from three. Smart, Tatum and Malcolm Brogdon finished 4-for-22 from three.
Tatum and Brown played over 36 minutes each again as fatigue may be starting to set in for the starters after another short-handed game where Orlando blasted Boston on the boards, 61-47.
Horford hit back-to-back threes to mark his return from COVID protocol and a personal leave over five games. The Celtics shot ahead 14-4, hitting 3-of-5 from three, but the offense quickly cooled off and got sloppy. Smart sent Paolo Banchero out in transition after losing the ball. Tatum threw a pass behind his back to nobody that Grant Williams barely saved from going into the back court, one of numerous near turnovers on a night where the team actually committed 14. The Celtics finished the game 8-for-41 from deep, continuing a cold spell.
“We started well, but after that first 7-8 minutes, I feel like we kind of let missed shots and turnovers affect our play,” Tatum said. “We didn’t have much energy, and that was everybody. We had a few good plays, but we didn’t put three, four, five of them together.”
Boston ranks 30th in offense over its last four games as it slips from the historic heights it reached through November. Tatum is shooting 33.3% from deep this month, Smart 28.3%, Derrick White 25.8% and Sam Hauser fell into a 25.8% hole after all four broke out to scorching offensive starts. Brown turned the ball over seven times in Friday’s loss.
Williams III fired up the crowd when he stepped off the bench and scored on his third possession catching a Smart lob, but he fouled three on both ends and quickly exited the game. Fultz and Wagner attacked the Celtics’ defense and led a 28-14 run to take a lead they’d hold for the rest of the game.
Tatum scored six straight points to begin the second quarter, but Cole Anthony and Mo Bamba answered each play as the Magic would throughout the second half. Brogdon scored 12 points in the first half to pull the Celtics within 54-52 and Smart served seven assists to just one turnover. Bol Bol, Kevon Harris and Banchero scored on four of the final five Magic possessions before halftime and maintained an eight-point lead.
Horford’s ejection and Tatum’s technical foul early in the third doubled Boston’s deficit, as Smart grabbed the ball and tried to rush the Celtics up the floor to instill some pace. White and Smart shared misses from deep and Luke Kornet tipped the latter’s in to end a 13-1 Magic run.
Boston flexed its emerging top-10 defense blocking or stealing the ball from Orlando on five out of seven possessions midway through the third as Rob returned and sent the crowd into a frenzy with a put-back slam following Brown’s driving dunk as part of an 11-2 run.
“(Rob’s) presence, I think he had 1-2 blocked shots, and as he gets in shape and more rhythm, he’ll have even that much more impact on the game, especially on the defensive end, because we know the level that he’s capable of playing at,” Tatum said. “It felt good to have him back out there, that lob threat presence that he brings to our team, transition, even in the half court when you get in trouble. It’s like an outlet, you just kind of throw it up there and trust that he’ll go get it.”
Rob caught another alley-oop from Tatum to reach within 79-70, as TD Garden played a pump-up video touting Williams III’s return. Moments later, the energy slipped away from both Rob and the building. Blake Griffin needed to check into the game and the Magic went on the attack.
Anthony and Franz scored on the opening possessions of the fourth quarter to reestablish a double-digit lead. Anthony scored twice more before Fultz drained a pair of mid-range shots to hold off a late comeback try by Brogdon and Brown.
Fans intermediately spilled toward the exits and when the buzzer sounded, the Celtics heard boos for the first time all year. Moe Wagner twice raced to the rim for uncontested slams in the final frame.
“I was tired as hell the first four minutes I was out there, but I calmed down, felt good, felt great actually. We fucking lost, but we need to bounce back from that,” Williams III said. “I think I just needed to catch a lob and dunk, to be honest, it’s kind of like a sense of confidence … everything followed after that. Intensity, effort, (but) obviously not enough.”
