ORLANDO — Kristaps Porziņģis nearly didn’t have a chance to avenge his Game 3 letdown that sent some Celtics fans after him. Foul trouble held him out to start the third and midway through the fourth quarter, but after a timeout with four minutes left, Joe Mazzulla corrected the mistake he made holding Jaylen Brown out for too long with five fouls.
“We managed it the way we managed it,” Mazzulla said. “He did a great job when he was in. Luke did a great job coming in, played Al and Luke together, played Al at the five, so we managed it the way we managed it, but I thought he helped us get off to a great start offensively with his screening and his ability to create two-on-ones on the offensive end.”
Porziņģis returned in a tie game, missed inside, recovered the ball and lifted his arm to dunk and 10-5 run that put the Celtics in control of the series going back to Boston, 107-98. In a game filled with physicality, fouls, runs by both teams and two more scuffles, Jayson Tatum, 37, and Jaylen Brown, 21, both scored 20 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and reached the free throw line 10 times to carry Porziņģis’ early efforts to the finish line. Porziņģis, who ended up on Wendell Carter Jr. in isolation, stopped him in a 96-92 game before Tatum closed with seven straight points. Porziņģis did not foul out, and Boston leads the series, 3-1.
Derrick White cut to the basket on the first play of the game, an immediate shift from the Celtics’ screen, lineup a mismatch and slow-paced play from Friday’s loss. For Porziņģis, his first two looks came in familiar places, missing from far behind the three-point line and pushed out to mid-range. White responded by putting him in the pick-and-roll for two finishes, sparking a bounce back game through a different approach on Sunday.
He found his third straight make sneaking in the dunker’s spot, an area he quietly succeeded in last game, and caught a pass from Al Horford on the roll for another make. The Celtics manipulated the Magic’s corner collapses and continued one-on-one defensive approach to make twos even when the threes weren’t there again early. Porziņģis and the team developed that game plan in film sessions.
“I kept playing a little bit more how I’m used to in the regular season, but I needed to make adjustments, just rolling more, honestly, and getting going with some easy ones early on,” Porziņģis said. “D.White found me, and just being a bit more toward the rim. Even though I haven’t shot the ball good in this series, they don’t really give up anything from the three. They’re closing out really hard.”
“I had some opportunities in the third game, which I popped out and we didn’t really getting anything and the spacing is not good … just looked at some opportunities there and a bit more movement. They already tried to make the game more muddy, is that a word? Muddy? We just need to combat that and I think I did a better job today.”
Jayson Tatum hit his first two mid-rangers from the right elbow and left baseline, along with a low-post turnaround to start 4-for-6 and lift Boston into a lead after the first quarter. He put back his own miss and held his wrist above his head, his new three-point celebration, after tying the game at 18 early after facing an early deficit. Sam Hauser hit his first three, his first points all series, seconds after checking in before Porziņģis broke an 0-for-11 slump in the second.
To start, Porziņģis drew a pair of fouls posting up deeper inside against smaller Magic. Brown found him on the roll again before his three put Boston ahead by nine points. Back-to-back Paolo Banchero scores and a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope three cut that down around Porziņģis’ third foul, which knocked him out of the game for the final five minutes of the second quarter.
“The and-ones and little ticky-tack fouls. I don’t want to foul and it’s still a foul,” he said. “It stings, but most importantly, we had guys step up, guys played big minutes and we got the win.”
Wendell Carter Jr. ripped a defensive rebound from Brown, sending him to the floor and setting off three straight Orlando transition baskets that tied the game on a 9-0 run before Banchero gave the Magic a lead with another breakout score. Carter Jr. nearly added another, but White rushed back to meet him at the rim and Brown scored the other way to retake the lead. A potential four-point Magic lead became a 7-0 Celtics run into halftime.
Luke Kornet started the second half for a stretch that the Magic stole, 10-9, while Porziņģis got a chance to avoid another quick foul. Brown, Tatum and White held the line offensively, White crashing to the floor after another hard Magic foul from Carter Jr. Horford confronted Carter Jr. as the two teams piled up again, Jamahl Mosley in the middle trying to break it up and talk down the referees.
The play stood as a common foul in the fourth straight game with a flagrant foul review. Porziņģis returned soon after, answering Banchero’s punch to within 69-68 from down five with three straight scoring plays with his own three, before Banchero hit him with a fourth foul to end a four-minute stint. Kornet and company held the line, 7-5, to close the quarter when Tatum’s buzzer-beater rolled out.
Porziņģis picked up a fifth foul early in the fourth after jumpers by White and Tatum created some separation at 84-77. Wagner finished back-to-back layups, the second a three-point play that landed Porziņģis on the bench with eight minutes to play and slashed Boston’s lead to two.
Plays later, Anthony Black pulled Tatum to the ground and aggravated his wrist. Tatum popped up, in visible pain, and drained his free throws, then hit a three, holding his wrist above his head for the third time ahead by five. The Magic made one last statement, tying the game on a physical put back by Carter Jr. that sent White and Payton Pritchard crashing to the floor.
Brown hit free throws after Porziņģis dunk, which Brown labeled the play of the game, and Tatum lined up Banchero for what became the put-away basket. Tatum hit three free throws on the following possession, knocked down by the aspiring star who’s looked up to him and banged up again, managing 10-of-25 with 37 points to beat out Banchero’s 12-for-32 with 31.
“Poise is a great word. They want to speed you up, they want you to take ill-advised shots and they try to bait you into that,” Brown said. “We just gotta be patient … slow things down … if you got a matchup, get to your spot and make a play … J.T. was great at that in the second half, down the stretch, in the fourth quarter especially. It’s gonna be a long playoff run. We gotta close out … we’re gonna need more of that down the line.”
“Tonight was a big win.”
