Jayson Tatum and the Celtics bounce back with blowout win over Magic: 9 takeaways
Coming off one of their worst losses of the season, Boston really needed this win.
Jayson Tatum and the Celtics needed a big win in a big way, and they got one against the Magic on Friday, claiming a 121-94 victory.
Here are the takeaways.
Jayson Tatum propelled the Celtics into control.
Tatum has had more dominant games and far more noteworthy scorelines, but his 30-point, six-rebound, four-assist evening on Friday undersells the impact he had on the game, particularly in the second quarter when the Celtics seemed to be hinting at a blowout.
Tatum scored back-to-back layups with just under nine minutes remaining in the second quarter, which pushed him up to nine points. The layups themselves were relatively unremarkable, other than that they helped Tatum grow his status as perhaps the league’s best isolation player this season (1.15 points per possession).
But the back-to-back layups felt like something of a statement from the Celtics star, and they sparked him the rest of the way to halftime – Tatum finished the second quarter with 15 of his 30 points. His offense seemed to come to him almost casually and perfectly within the flow of the game, which was helpful on an evening when the Celtics needed everyone to get on track.
Perhaps notably, Tatum’s big night started with a 3-pointer, but he caught a rhythm when he started by going to the basket. After he got to the rim several times, he started building his shot out to the 3-point line again, which seemed to work nicely – he finished 4-for-9 from behind the arc.
The Celtics really needed that one.
The Magic did not look good on Friday. Their defense was porous, their offense was uninspired, their 3-point performance was the eighth-worst by any team this season (5-for-32, 15.6 percent) and the high-energy short-handed group that beat the Celtics improbably a couple of weeks ago looked like it expected Paolo Banchero to do everything for them.
But the Celtics won’t care. Coming off one of their worst losses of the season – which was immediately preceded by one of their worst wins of the year, which was immediately preceded by one of their other worst losses of the season – they really needed a win like this.
They needed to see shots go down (45.9 percent from 3-point range). They needed their star players to find their rhythm (Tatum scored 30 while Jaylen Brown added 20 and went 9-for-9 at the free-throw line), and they needed their star-in-their-role players to look like stars in their roles. They needed to see the ball whip around the perimeter a few times like it did early in the year, even if they didn’t make the shot every time as a result.
“I think it was healthy for us to get an ugly loss,” Kristaps Porzingis said. “It’s a little bit like a wakeup call. We’ve been kind of up and down lately and getting a loss like that I think really, really stung – the way it needs to sting. And tonight we were a different team.”
The Celtics have a lot of games coming up, which means they have a lot of opportunities to prove that Friday’s result wasn’t an oasis in the middle of the desert. It’s certainly possible they revert and struggle again.
But bouncing back from a loss to the Raptors in dominant fashion with a win over a playoff team that contained hints of their early-season success was a great place to start.
“It definitely felt good to hit some shots, but I just liked how physical we were from the beginning,” Tatum said. “Starters haven’t necessarily started the game as well as we’d like recently. But I think tonight, we matched their intensity from the beginning, and the guys that came off the bench did an excellent job of pushing it forward.”
Kristaps Porzingis was incredibly efficient.
Porzingis was the lone Celtic who represented himself fairly well against the Raptors, and he continued to knock down shots on Friday, going 7-for-10 from the field and 3-for-5 from deep. When the Celtics were able to get the ball inside, Porzingis dominated in the post. He’s been as good in the post this year as Tatum has been in isolation (1.15 points per possession, 81st percentile), and when he starts scoring both pick-and-pops and in the paint, the Celtics as a whole become really hard to stop.
“I think today was for sure a step in the right direction,” Porzingis said. “We played some good basketball.”
Porzingis did give everyone at TD Garden a heart attack on this fast break when he landed awkwardly.
He also inadvertently swiped Banchero’s eye in the third quarter, which prompted a lengthy delay as Banchero tried to shake off the injury and get to the free-throw line to avoid having to sit out (he did).
Porzingis said that the Celtics’ franchise and fans are a little spoiled (not in a negative way) by success.
“You don’t know how it is to be on an under-.500 team or really struggling, not being able to get wins,” he said. “And of course the expectations are not the same, but still, as a player you just bite your teeth and you go to work the next day.
“But here in a way it’s an unbelievable privilege that we’re supposed to win every game. We go into every game almost as a favorite, if not every game. So of course it’s a weight that we have to carry or a little bit of pressure that we have to carry, but that’s expected with this.”
The starters were good.
The struggles of the starting lineup have been well documented, but that group was +15 on Friday, and Mazzulla went back to them together in the second quarter in a move that felt a little bit like an opportunity for them to continue to cook up some chemistry, even if Mazzulla denied it.
“That was just kind of how the pattern went tonight,” he said. “I thought they got off to a good start. They had their great rhythm, and that was kind of the pattern that went there, and I thought they did a good job really getting off to a good start and playing consistently throughout.”
Tatum noted that “results can vary” with plus/minus stats.
“I think [I liked] just how connected we were on both ends of the floor, especially on defense,” he said. “Everybody was on the same page, we were connected, helping each other out.
“So regardless of the plus/minus, the way we went about it was a lot better today.”
Jrue Holiday and Al Horford knocked down threes.
It was encouraging for the Celtics as a whole to see 3-pointers go down, but Jrue Holiday going 3-for-6 might have been one of the more intriguing stat lines of the evening. Holiday’s precipitous fall from 42.9 percent from three to 33.7 this year has been a little mystifying, and the Celtics would benefit greatly if he starts ticking upward.
Horford, meanwhile, went 2-for-3. He has been less off over the last few weeks than of his teammates, but his presence provides a crucial outlet for the Celtics’ drive-and-kick offense, and when he’s making shots, the defense is forced to close out harder, which helps the ball swing around the perimeter much more smoothly.
Everything is significantly easier for the Celtics when they are shooting well.
“I more liked the way they got their shots,” Mazzulla said. “Al got some great kick-out threes from just penetration from both Jaylen and Jayson. Jrue got two catch-and-shoot looks in the corner. He got two off the dribble threes in pick-and-roll going to his left hand.
“So I more just like the types of shots that they’re getting. And to me, when we can get those guys good looks within our offense because of the way we’re executing, that just makes us better.”
The Celtics have some hot takes.
And, as is sort of the point with hot takes, you probably won’t like them.
For instance, Jrue Holiday thinks coffee is overrated. Payton Pritchard doesn’t like cannolis (and whoever produces the Celtics’ in-house entertainment … might not know how to spell “cannoli”?).
Sam Hauser drew the biggest reaction for once again professing his support for Aaron Rodgers as a top-three NFL quarterback of all time (he didn’t even diss Tom Brady this time).
Luke Kornet, however, suggested that every NBA game starts at 11 a.m. Fans, of course, would hate that, but Kornet is guaranteed to curry favor with sportswriters with that particular hot take.
Jaylen Brown was more focused on defense.
Brown took just five shots in the first half, and he finished with just 12 shots overall (5-for-12).
But Brown was far from disengaged – he recorded three steals, and at one point, he drew enthusiastic applause from Mazzulla for his defensive hustle.
“I liked how he was thoroughly intense, and I think it’s important for us,” Mazzulla said. “He brings a different level of a mentality to us at times, and I thought tonight, he brought a great level of intensity. He had 20 points on 12 shots, and he has the ability to impact the game without shooting. I thought he just impacted it in many different ways.”
Jaylen Brown’s shoe popped off Jordan Walsh’s foot.
Celtics players who wear Brown’s 741 Performance Rover shoe swear by it, but in the interest of journalistic integrity, we should note that it did come right off Jordan Walsh’s foot when Cole Anthony stepped on him in the fourth quarter. Walsh grabbed the shoe and stamped it back on, so we should also note that it goes back on just as easily as it comes off.
The road ahead.
The Celtics will take on the Hawks on Saturday at 7 p.m. before they hit the road again, traveling to the West Coast to take on the Warriors on Monday.
We will have more takeaways later this evening.
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