Celtics' Firepower Is Too Much for Magic in National TV Rout

The Boston Celtics drained 17 threes in a 27-point beatdown of the Orlando Magic, who lost both games on their road trip by a combined 56 points.

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) shoots over Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) during the first half at TD Garden. | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

BOSTON — The shorthanded Orlando Magic had a tall hill to climb Friday night against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics.

With a sold-out TD Garden atmosphere backing them, the full-strength Celtics bounced back from an uncharacteristic loss Wednesday at Toronto and routed the Magic in front of an ESPN audience, 121-94.

Orlando is now 0-5 in national TV games. The average margin in the losses is 12.8 points.

This year's Celtics are on pace to be the most willing and ready three-point shooters in NBA history, averaging nearly 50 attempts a game. On Friday night, they tried only 37 threes but made 17.

At the other end, the Magic are the league's worst three-point shooting team by nearly three percentage points (30.7%). They finished well under that low bar Friday, with five threes in 32 attempts.

How challenging is that difference to overcome? "It's almost impossible," Paolo Banchero said. "Just mathematically, it's really hard to win the game."

After Wednesday's loss at Milwaukee, Magic players pointed to an atypical lack of energy at the root of the rout. At Friday's shootaround, second-year guard Anthony Black said games like this one with the Celtics are the ones "hoopers get up for."

The Magic played with more energy, but Boston's firepower was too much for Orlando.

"That's a championship team right there," Cole Anthony said. "It's kind of self-explanatory what they have."

The Magic lost both games of this road trip by a combined 56 points. This season's series with the Celtics stands at one win apiece, with a third game remaining in April. The loss dropped Orlando to 23-20, sixth in the Eastern Conference.

"Whether you lose by 20 or you lose by two, it still goes in the same column," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. "I think you have to take from each one of them what you can. What did you give up, what did you take away, what are you willing to live with?"

"I want to take away as little as I can from these two games [and] really shake them off," Anthony said. "This is what the league is. You go up against two elite teams; sometimes you're gonna get your head cracked. I think it'll just be important for us to take what we can from it, watch the film. ... Then after that, not linger on this [and] let this bubble up and keep us on this bad spell like this."

But for now, where is the psyche of this Magic team? "I think we're beat up," Banchero said. "Just ready to get back home."

The Celtics' Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown combined for 73 points.

Anthony led the Magic with 23 points. Banchero scored 21 points in 29 minutes — his biggest workload since returning from a torn right oblique four games ago.

Banchero dealt with a right eye issue after taking an inadvertent hit to the face from Porzingis during the third quarter.

When asked how his eye felt postgame, the third-year pro said: "I'm not blind." But how much did it hamper him upon his eventual return to the game?

"It definitely had an impact, but I was able to be out there and, yeah, that wasn't really to blame," Banchero said. "I mean, it's hard to see, but it is what it is. It'll get better."

Up Next

The Magic return to Orlando for a one-off home game Sunday against the Denver Nuggets. Tipoff from the Kia Center is 6 p.m.

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