In what was a continuation of last season, the Magic continued to be a a thorn in the Celtics’ side, this time with a 113-96 Black Friday win over the Green down in Orlando.
Led by a second-half charge that at one point included a 17-0 run, the Magic wiped out Boston’s eight-point halftime lead (which eventually ballooned out to 12) behind some downright incredible shooting.
After finishing the first half shooting just under 40 percent, the Magic came out guns blazing in the second half, with makes on 26 of their 42 attempts (a 61.9 field goal percentage), and drained six of their 15 tries from beyond the arc over that span. Over that same stretch in the second half, the Celtics shot a meager 27.8 percent, and got just two of their 15 tries from deep to fall. That’s never the recipe for a strong finish.
Mo Wagner led the way for Orlando, with 27 points on a 9-for-13 shooting performance, while Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 26 points in just under 39 minutes of action.
The defeat was Boston’s largest of the season, and it was also their first loss of the NBA’s in-season tournament. But the real news of the afternoon came on the Kristaps Porzingis front, as the big man left the loss with a calf injury.