That’s right, the Celtics have accounted for 16% of the Magic’s wins this season.
You make sense of that shit.
Especially considering the Magic took back to back games at the Garden.
We literally lived through it earlier this season before the 121-107 loss on the road to the Bulls.
Shit, they could win tonight vs MIA and nobody will care about this game.
But that doesn’t excuse what we saw.
Everything you hoped the Celts wouldn’t do while being shorthanded on the road, they did.
You add all that up and that’s how you get a score like this.
The Celts have failed to break 100 points only 3 times this season (48 games).
Two have come on the road, and two of those three times have come against the Magic.
Their size and speed give the Celts trouble, there’s no denying that at this point.
The sample is large enough to say that this is a team the Celts struggle with matchup-wise.
This was not a game where their best player no-showed or anything like that.
Unfortunately for the Celts, they were dogshit without Tatum on the floor.
A +6 with him on the floor and a -21 in the 11 minutes he was off the floor.
In the final 6 minutes of that 3rd quarter, the Magic closed 20-11.
Quick math there tells you the Magic went on that 20-5 run while Tatum was in the locker room.
- It was nice to see Sam Hauser finally make some shots again.
I can’t remember the last time we saw him make 3 3PM in a single game.
In fact hold on, let me look it up.
Before last night, the last time we saw Hauser do that was 11/28.
Nearly 2 months ago.
With any shooter, it’s all confidence.
- That’s it really.
We can move on.
Let’s start with the perimeter defense.
There was no excuse for the lack of resistance we saw the Celts put up defensively.
This wasn’t a game where the Magic got prayers from deep.
They only made 11 3PM on the night.
Yet somehow they made 7 more FGM, and that’s because they were aggressive.
A total of 54-32 points in the paint difference, and that all starts at the top.
Make them shoot jumpers for crying out loud.
It couldn’t just be a 2021 remix where Tatum and Brown do everything and hope it’s enough.
Just like back then, it wasn’t!
The killer one is Grant though.
This is tough because Grant 10000% was getting boned.
Of his 5 fouls, I’d say 3 were brutal.
The thing is, the more he complains, the worse it becomes.
There was one stretch where this stood out and sort of shows what I mean.
In this play, you’re able to see Grant probably was fouled.
Watch what he does
Is he sprinting his ass back on defense?
He’s yelling at the official.
Paolo now has a head of steam, and let’s see what happens next
Is that a foul?
They are tired of hearing from Grant, it’s that simple.
Yes, some of the calls in this game were bad, no shit.
Play through the adversity and have the mental toughness to still make a positive impact.
Instead, Grant kind of imploded.
You lose that battle 24-6, and I’m not sure what you’re expecting to happen.
- I don’t know how many games I’ve seen where the foul difference was 23-12.
That feels a little imbalanced to me.
A 24-11 FTA difference, those are the things that add up when you’re on the road.
That’s not normal.
By comparison, the Magic bench unit had 11 FTA themselves.
The Ugly
- The formula for the Celts is pretty simple.
Move the ball, play defense, rebound, and don’t turn it over.
Well, the Celts didn’t really do any of those things.
They lost the rebounding battle, and the turnovers, what the fuck.
Honestly, what the hell.
That’s nearly all TOs.
With this team what makes it frustrating is they are ALL live ball turnovers.
Plays that just make no sense.
- Jayson Tatum made a 3 to bring the Celtics within 2 with 6:20 left.
Especially when both Tatum and Brown are on the floor.
They just failed to execute in the biggest moments.
Both are equally as pathetic, but they are different.
Last night wasn’t really an effort thing, it was an execution thing.
They are going to pressure the ball, they’re going to be physical.
If the Celts want to bounce back, they need to be much more prepared.
