10 takeaways from Celtics’ hard-fought battle in Orlando

Boston faced a grueling defensive battle in Orlando, with Jaylen Brown stepping up early but the team struggling without Jayson Tatum. Despite a strong paint presence and adapting to Orlando’s defensive schemes, turnovers and a lack of ball movement kept Boston from fully executing their game plan.

#1 – Iso ball vs. ball movement

Before digging into the film, the box score from this game has a lot to say. Regardless of individual stats, the collective numbers tell the story of a hard-fought defensive game where the two teams were very close.

The Celtics, like the Magic, scored 37 baskets with a 44% field goal rate. Both teams made a little over 20 free throws, and both lost the ball around 20 times during the game. Funny enough, they also had similar rebound performances, with the Celtics grabbing 33 defensive and 8 offensive rebounds, while the Magic recorded 35 defensive boards and 7 offensive ones.

Yet, there is a clear difference in how the buckets were made. While the Celtics only had 13 assists, the Magic doubled that number with 26 assists—remember, both teams scored the same number of buckets. Watching the game, you could feel this difference.

The Magic had no choice but to move the ball; one man couldn’t beat the Celtics’ defense, but their aggressive approach and excellent offensive design gave them a shot at the king—and they didn’t miss.

On the other end, the ball didn’t move much for the Celtics. The numbers in the tweet below sum up how the Celtics couldn’t set up their usual offense. The drive-and-kick game didn’t work well, Jayson Tatum’s playmaking was missing, and the Orlando defense adapted well to the Celtics’ game plan.

#2 – Jaylen Brown dominated the first

The game started well with total domination from Jaylen Brown, who created half of the Celtics’ points during the first 12 minutes. He was aggressive toward the rim and made six out of his eight attempts in the paint.

Jaylen Brown can power over players like KCP or Jalen Suggs, using his speed against taller defenders. The Celtics set him up in the post-up—and as we’ve discussed in previous articles—he’s getting better and better at scoring and drawing from this position. His passing was also on display in the first quarter. We saw a great flash, like the alley-oop to Al Horford below.

However, there were signs of limits in his game that show progress he still needs to make. Two passes to Luke Kornet for alley-oops weren’t converted. Of course, Kornet isn’t the easiest alley-oop target, but it’s nice to see Jaylen Brown willing to make these passes on the move.

#3 – Orlando defensive rotation took away Boston’s usual three-point shots

For the first time this season, the Celtics took fewer than 40% of their shot attempts from three. The second-lowest three-point rate came just two days earlier against the Bulls—could it be a trend?

Well, time will tell, but in the last game against Orlando, this was largely due to the Magic’s defense. Usually, the Celtics create gaps in the defense by forcing a late help or a double team following a mismatch.

Last night, the Magic decided to avoid double teams as much as possible and stayed close enough to each other to avoid over-helping. On Celtics drives, the defensive player on the weak side or the low man always stayed close to the paint and only rotated to the corner at the very last minute, if needed.

Another example came from the post-up, where the Magic opted not to double team, even when there was a mismatch. Instead, they either fouled before the shot when possible or defended as hard and as high as they could.

Again, this came in a game without Jayson Tatum, but it’s nice to see teams adjusting to the Celtics, forcing them to be better and adapt. This game will certainly serve as a great learning experience in preparation for the postseason.

#4 – Payton Pritchard’s connection with Luke Kornet is blooming

There was only one assist between these two last night, but it sums up how much they’ve learned to play together. The screen placement, the quick roll, and the timing of the pass were perfect, giving the Celtics two easy points against a ferocious defense.

Over the season, per pbpstats.com, Payton Pritchard has assisted Luke Kornet 8 times, and Luke has assisted Payton 9 times—it’s slowly becoming one of the best assist combos on the Celtics, giving life to their bench. Both can be the passer or the finisher, and it’s great to see the synergy between the bench players grow as the season progresses.

#5 – Boston’s paint scoring is better than you might think

If the Celtics couldn’t play their usual game, there were still some great indicators of adaptation. As mentioned, the Magic decided not to over-help and left everyone alone in one-on-one situations. This took away the drive-and-kick game and the usual catch-and-shoot looks—but the Celtics were able to score more freely in the paint.

While the Magic closed out on the three-point line, they became exposed in the paint. The Celtics did well to exploit this strategy. They created more paint touches than usual (28, compared to a 23-season average) and scored 1 point per paint touch! This is a huge efficiency, as the Cavaliers lead the league in points per paint touch with 0.79.

Yet, this wasn’t enough to derail the Magic’s game plan, but it’s encouraging for the Celtics’ offense, which adapted despite playing against its nature without its best player.

#6 – Orlando attacks Boston’s double big with movement

With Jayson Tatum out, Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff decided to go big. Well, the Magic seemed ready for that. The double-big lineup can provide great rim protection, especially against Orlando’s poor spacing. Yet, Jamahl Mosley was able to draw up a game plan that made the Celtics pay for their size.

Size often comes with a lack of mobility, so the Magic used that to force the Celtics to collapse defensively. In the example above, the Celtics are in a zone defense with Porzingis and Kornet on the back line. To exploit the lack of mobility, the Magic empties one side of the court and uses KCP on a “Danny Green Cut.” The former Nugget cuts from one side to the other from the baseline, creating an overload of players to cover for Porzingis. The closest help comes from Kornet, but they are both too slow. Porzingis gets stuck behind the exit screen, leaving an open three.

Another example shows the Magic setting up the offense so that both Kornet and Porzingis end up on the same side. The Magic then execute a drive-and-kick to force more help on that side and open up the other side of the court. This well-designed offense creates an open three, capitalizing on an organic weakness based on size and lack of mobility.

#7 – Porzingis post-up struggle and free-throws feast

As mentioned earlier, the Magic decided not to double-team Porzingis in the post. This could have been very dangerous for the Magic… if they weren’t so big! Normally, KP finds himself posting up smaller guards, but the Magic rarely have small guards on the floor. They’re strong and long, which made it difficult for Porzingis.

However, Porzingis didn’t let the team down, finding a way to generate easy points. Because the Magic didn’t double-team in the post, KP was able to punish the not-so-small guards with foul baiting and fighting for position. Yes, he made only 2 of his 10 shots, but the big man was able to generate 14 free-throws and converted 13 of them.

#8 – Jaylen Brown’s heliocentric game impacted his defense

With a 43% usage rate last night, Jaylen Brown had one of the most heliocentric games of his career. The last time he had such a high usage rate, per cleaningtheglass.com, was against the Cavaliers in January 2021, where he scored 33 points in 19 minutes.

Such a high usage rate takes a lot of energy, even for the best athletes. Jaylen Brown is no different, and we saw signs of fatigue late in the game. Twice in a row, Jaylen Brown couldn’t contain the young Anthony Black.

Even on the final play, he was late to rotate, leaving the corner open. It’s hard to blame him, knowing how much he had to carry on offense. It’s a reminder that they are all human after all.

#9 – Orlando found the key that opens the corners

Speaking of the last play, the Magic showed once again that they are one of the best teams at finding shots in the corners. They have the 7th highest corner three-point volume in the NBA this season, and they used it against the Celtics when it mattered most.

For the game-winner, they forced the Celtics to crowd one side of the floor, then forced Al Horford to be the first to help on the pick-and-roll. This created a drive-and-kick situation that generated more help from the Celtics, and the Magic found the open man in the corner.

In the Finals against the Mavericks, the Celtics did a great job of limiting corner threes; last night, they couldn’t. The absence of Jayson Tatum was a factor. With Tatum out, the Celtics couldn’t play their usual defense and got exposed in the corners.

#10 – More turnovers than assists

Finally, here’s a stat we don’t see often from the Celtics: they had more turnovers than assists last night. It shouldn’t happen again, as the Celtics are one of the best teams at taking care of the ball and one of the most unselfish offenses.

Side note: The Celtics lost the two games in which they had an above 18% turnover rate.