BOSTON — Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said few words before Celtics-Magic, smiling when asked about the problems Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum present. A lot, he answered.
He acknowledged a daunting test, and environment, ahead of him to begin the first round. Paolo Banchero seized a chance to shock a Celtics team managing and resting for weeks leading up to the playoffs. They played-into the playoffs last Tuesday, already experiencing some postseason reps between that and their seven-game rock fight with the Cavs last spring. They did what they wanted to do early on Sunday in TD Garden. They dominated the offensive rebounding battle, took out Tatum, limited Brown and prevented first half threes. All it earned them was a one-point lead.
It didn’t account for Jrue Holiday, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White, who buoyed Boston’s offense on a slow day for its stars. They found cracks to create quality threes into the second half. They forced turnovers. And what looked like letdown potential for the Celtics early instead showed how big of an uphill battle they face to even win one game. Boston led by 18 in the fourth when Tatum hit the first three by himself, Brown or Kristaps Porziņģis in what became a 103-86 win.
Brown tested out his three on the first possession, missing in the corner. Then, he drove, getting stuck against the Magic’s collapse and tossing a turnover away to Frank Wagner looking for Jrue Holiday in the corner. He took a spill plays later crashing into Paolo Banchero, then attacked him again on the immediate possession, showing his burst to the rim with a pair of finishes in through traffic with threes as hard to come by as expected early for Boston. Carter stumbled into him at mid-court and committed an offensive foul, sending the crowd to its feet. Brown played the first seven minutes of the game, as expected, without apparent discomfort from his late season knee injury that required an injection earlier this month. Brown shook off the injury a day before Game 1 and refused to take questions about it.
The glaring difference emerged into the two second units, Orlando only able to muster a second-chance erratic Jonathan Isaac layup crashing through Luke Kornet, a Banchero baseline two and a Cole Anthony bucket over the final 4:49 of the first. They closed 3-for-14 over that stretch and only had an offensive rebounding edge coming out of the first quarter trailing 26-18.
That proved important when Boston flashed a 1-3-1 zone midway through the second. Payton Pritchard had just vaulted the Celtics ahead by 12 with a flurry of threes and a step-through past Anthony. Banchero and Wagner attacked it head-on and got Kentavious Caldwell-Pope involved with a three. Boston tried another wrinkle, sitting Porziņģis in favor of Kornet and AL Horford for five minutes later in the quarter. Caleb Houstan and Banchero drained threes on the first two shots they got at them, and Banchero drilled back-to-back jump shots to pull within one basket. Isaac further flexed Orlando’s offensive rebounding edge, Houstan stripped Tatum on the drive and knocked the ball out off him, then, after Brown narrowly missed a steal, Cory Joseph found Caldwell-Pope again for a lead Orlando carried into halftime. The Celtics stumbled offensively, closing 1-for-7 with a pair of turnovers while the Magic went on a 25-12 run to finish the quarter.
Holiday emerged into the third and put the Celtics back up by 10 with a pair of transition threes, part of how Boston got five threes up in less than five minutes to begin the second half after only shooting 16 in the first half. He turned up the heat on Joseph, nearly forcing a turnover alongside Brown, then grabbed one from Wagner, pulling-up on the break. He guarded Banchero, poked the ball away from Wagner to set up another Orlando giveaway moments later.
Banchero tossed the ball away twice more, one a mindless entry pass to Isaac that Porzingis tipped away to set up a Holiday lob to Brown, who finished just beneath the rim. A second-chance Holiday three and put-back dunks from Brown and Tatum closed the offensive rebounding gap, Orlando’s only advantage. Boston also led in threes and turnovers through three quarters, ahead by 13 after a 6-0 Magic close to the third.
In the fourth, White reached 30 points after hitting two more threes, Pritchard poured in three straight and Tatum, attacking the rim, took a hard spill that tweaked his right wrist. Caldwell-Pope received a flagrant foul for the hard hit, and while Tatum hit his first three shortly after, he received tape on the injury, one lingering concern from a win that cooled any concerns about Orlando’s ability to threaten Boston in the series. He walked down the tunnel with 10 seconds remaining alongside trainer Nick Sang one minutes after the Celtics emptied their bench.
