Celtics-Magic Game 1 Breakdown: How Boston Found Its Offense and Threes

BOSTON — The Magic held a brief practice on Monday afternoon after a second half meltdown against the Celtics. Players were quiet, but Cory Joseph echoed head coach Jamahl Mosley’s comments about needing to pick up the pace against Boston. Orlando flatlined offensively and scored fewer than 20 points in the third and fourth quarters through a 55-37 Celtics run.

“(We got) a better understanding of how we want to execute,” Joseph said. “I think it’s very important for us. Obviously, very important for me, being the PG and being that pace-setter, so next game, looking to try to do an even better job at that.”

Mosley stressed playing faster after the game as well, an interesting emphasis by a Magic that played at the slowest pace in the NBA this year. Keeping the game in the mud would seemingly play to their benefit, especially following a sloppy effort that saw them turn the ball over 15 times. Orlando and Bosto

Two steals each by Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis sent the Celtics running for game-changing transition threes that built a double-digit Boston lead midway through the third after they trailed at halftime and only attempted 16 threes. The Celtics turned up the heat, as expected on Paolo Banchero and forced him into tough shots and bad decisions despite him still reaching 36 points in the Magic loss.

A faster game allowed the Celtics to find more cracks in the Magic defense. Derrick White began beating switches. Payton Pritchard’s isolation drives created some gravity that drew defenders off the three-point line. Boston’s 37 three-point attempts still finished in a tie for the fourth-fewest they shot in a game this year, but the Celtics created timely ones to match their 9.0 wide open threes made per game from the regular season.

Derrick White’s corner threes opened up his game on the way to 30 points, as the Magic sent their sparse help away from there and Boston hit him repeatedly. White finished the win 7-for-12 from three after shooting only 41% against Orlando in his previous two games.

“(We had) bad rotations that we didn’t make, or turnovers,” Joseph said. “Payton shooting those transition 3s that he was making. Then Derrick White, bad switches where we didn’t get into his body enough, or too much in the gap where he was able to get a shot off … just making sure we’re cutting hard, moving off the ball and things of that nature … it’s no secret. Obviously, they’re good in the half court, just as us, so even in the half court, still play fast in the sense of making quick decisions.”

Payton Pritchard fared better than expected…

After late season struggles against better teams, and shooting 44.4% from the field and 16.7% from three against Orlando in the regular season, Pritchard played 24 minutes and shot 6-for-8 from the field and 3-for-3 at the free throw line with four threes in six tries. He scored or assisted on 13 straight Celtics points on a 13-4 run to go ahead, 32-20, into the second quarter. The Magic only shot 3-for-7 against his defense.

More importantly, he provided pace for a Celtics team that can benefit from getting ahead of Orlando’s set defense. He also made quick movements and decisions in the half court, freeing himself for threes in ways that resembled Steph Curry.

In the debate over whether this year’s Celtics are better than they were in 2024, a full postseason effort from Pritchard that’s comparable to his likely Sixth Man of the Year regular season would become a significant separating factor from the field in the championship pushes. His step-through move on Cole Anthony was a show-stopping moment.

With Jaylen Brown unable to get out on the break the way he normally does while playing through pain, finishing with only 31 minutes on Sunday, Pritchard’s ability to push and score the ball will play an important part in this matchup. His activity prevented the Magic’s switching defense from devastating Boston’s offense. It also allowed the Celtics to dominate the bench scoring battle, 26-17, that Orlando won during the regular season.

“When Payton’s out there, he likes to get out and play faster,” Al Horford said last month. “We enjoy that. We want to get out there and do that, and then there are other times we have to be more methodical. I think that’s one of the strengths of our team.”

Jrue Holiday returned to his versatile defensive role…

Calling out zones. Deciding to freelance. Playing up in position to guard Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Bam Adebayo. We saw all those things less often from Jrue Holiday this season as he managed injuries, rest and recovery from the long postseason run that flowed into significant Olympic minutes for him.

A Holiday effort resembling the one he provided on the way to the 2024 title returned on Sunday, supporting the notion that he could flip a switch for the playoffs like Al Horford has done across recent seasons. Holiday is four years younger than Horford, and showed he has plenty left in his tank, beginning the game with a stop on Banchero, forcing him into a tough baseline jumper.

Banchero finished 0-for-3 while guarded by Holiday for more than five minutes, according to NBA tracking data. Franz Wagner went 1-for-3 against Holiday later in the game.

That’s while splitting touches with Brown, running more possessions than he did for most of the season and shooting 3-for-4 from three. Holiday shot 39% from deep following his return from suffering a mallet finger, and kept his run going while wearing the splint. The Magic didn’t go to aggressively playing off Holiday, or stashing Wendell Carter Jr. on him. If that comes later in the series, Holiday looks more prepared to exploit that than he was in December.

“Didn’t really want him to see too much of anything,” Holiday said of his strategy guarding Banchero. “Just a bigger body, so in the post, knowing tendencies, what he likes to do and if he ever has the ball above the 3PT line and he’s squared up to me, just try to hound the ball.”

The Magic shut down Kristaps Porziņģis…

The Magic pre-switched an early screening action by Porziņģis, taking Joseph out of the mismatch and pulling Banchero onto Porziņģis, forcing a long two that he hit, but came far away from his sweet spots near the rim and behind the three-point line. Porziņģis shot only two threes in the loss.

While Porziņģis wasn’t efficient during the regular season against Orlando, he mostly tortured Tristan Da Silva, Anthony Black and other switches onto smaller defenders during the year. He shot 1-for-8 on Sunday, and became a non-factor offensively later in the game. The Magic got away with stashing wings on him all game.

While still effective defensively, generating four steals and blocking a shot, the surprising letdown took away one of the decisive advantages the Celtics seemed to have in the series. Orlando collapsed when Boston sent Porziņģis toward the basket on the roll, and his pick-and-pop game became the casualty of Magic switching.

Jayson Tatum, Brown and Porziņģis hit 0 threes until Tatum knocked down a spot-up look late in the fourth.

Experimenting in the 2Q also hit-or-miss for the Celtics…

With Porziņģis struggling, the Celtics turned toward Luke Kornet alongside Horford midway through the second quarter with Boston’s starters. Banchero challenged him, shooting only 2-for-5 against Kornet, who held his own defensively and threw down a put-back dunk through minutes that the Celtics lost by seven. On offense, however, the spacing became jammed at times during those minutes.

On defense, the problem came in the zone look that Boston tried through that stretch, which allowed a quick basket to Banchero behind the back line before he and Caleb Houstan beat the right side of the defense from three.

That experimenting and lineup wrinkle didn’t burn the Celtics, but it did speak to the limitations of things that might’ve worked during the regular season. Kornet only played 1:39 in the second half with Boston leaning more into speed and Pritchard’s effectiveness.

Mazzulla downplayed Brown being limited as a reason for the adjustments.

“I wouldn’t look into minutes,” he said. “The best gift that we’ve gotten as a team is our flexibility and our versatility to be able to go to a bunch of different things, and the open-mindedness that our guys have. You saw that tonight, where Payton didn’t come in until the two-minute mark of the first quarter, then he came in at the seven-minute mark of the third quarter. So I wouldn’t look into minutes for anybody, at the end of the day, we’re playing against a very physical, versatile team and we’re gonna use our entire roster and the versatility of that and do what gives us the best chance to win each and every night.”