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Celtics get defensive to begin road grind with win over Magic

Greg Dudek, Boston Herald on

Published in Basketball

It’s going to take a road warriors mentality for the Boston Celtics to get through November.

The Celtics play 12 of their 16 games this month away from TD Garden, and it started Sunday afternoon in what’s been a house of horrors for Boston of late with it paying a visit to the Orlando Magic.

The Celtics looked at home for the most part, though, offsetting poor shooting from deep with a terrific performance from star Jayson Tatum and a standout defensive showing against the offense-challenged Magic to leave Orlando with a 108-97 win. It was Boston’s fifth straight win — and first on the road — since losing its season opener in Detroit.

Tatum poured in a game-high 32 points, doing most of his damage at the charity stripe as he went 15 for 17 on free throws. It’s Tatum’s second-highest free throw total in a game this season as he went 18 for 22 in an overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets last week. Tatum, who also added seven assists, left the game briefly and went back to the locker room at the end of the first quarter when he bumped heads with Jamal Cain but returned in the second quarter.

“Getting fouled. See I got bit in my damn head. Bleeding and (expletive),” Tatum told NBC Sports Boston sideline reporter Abby Chin. “Just stay aggressive, staying in attack mode. You know, my pace, getting downhill. Early my shot wasn’t falling, especially in the third quarter the way I wanted to, but still finding ways to be effective and score.”

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla went with a different starting lineup for the first time this season as Mitchell Robinson sat out the first leg of a back-to-back to rest with the Celtics playing the 6-1 Houston Rockets on Monday night. Neemias Queta got the start in Robinson’s absence while Mazzulla also went with Hugo Gonzalez in the starting five over Jordan Walsh. Queta contributed with eight points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes while Gonzalez scored all seven of his points in the first quarter.

Boston caught Orlando at the right time as the Magic were without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero (high ankle sprain) and talented guard Jalen Suggs (bone bruise) for the game.

After Anthony Black converted a three-point play with less than a minute into the fourth quarter to tie the score, the Celtics responded with a decisive 18-6 run without Tatum on the floor. Payton Pritchard converted a layup while getting fouled to start the spurt and then Luka Garza, who stepped up off the bench with 12 points in 21 minutes, followed with a 3-pointer from the corner. Paul George also hit a tough, fadeaway triple from the corner that pushed the lead 80-73 before Baylor Scheierman got into the act as well with a 3-pointer.

“You want to get those guys back in, but at the same time, we’re playing really well so we were in that sweet spot and I just kind of wanted to ride those guys,” Mazzulla told reporters. “… It’s really just about knowing the guy’s have each other’s back and pick the guy up next to you. That non-Tatum lineup was tremendous.”

The Celtics finally found their groove from 3-point range in the fourth quarter, hitting 4 of 9 triples after going 8 for 35 from deep heading into the final frame. Boston also had outstanding ball movement, dishing out 29 assists on 37 made baskets.

 

Tatum checked back into the game with 4:22 remaining and immediately hit back-to-back jumpers before he assisted on a Queta bucket at the rim and found George for a dagger 3-pointer with 1:31 left. George finished with 17 points and eight assists.

Boston ratcheted up defensive intensity to start in the third quarter to build upon a 55-50 halftime lead. The Celtics forced a shot clock violation 42 seconds into the frame and George followed with a 3-pointer before lobbing an alley-oop to Queta to stretch the lead to 60-50, which prompted a timeout from first-year Magic coach Sean Sweeney.

Tatum then sank a pair of free throws and a short jumper to give the Celtics their largest lead of the game at 64-50 as Boston’s defense continued to flummox the Magic. Orlando didn’t hit its first shot from the floor in the third quarter until 4:42 had come off the clock.

But the Magic fought back in large part due to Tristan da Silva, who scored 23 points off the bench. da Silva knocked down three of his five 3-pointers in the frame and with under a minute left in the quarter, an offensive rebound by da Silva led to a trey from Black, who also tallied 23 points, to level the score at 72-72. Tatum was fouled twice shooting 3-pointers after that to give the Celtics a 77-74 lead after three.

The Celtics got off to a poor start, falling into a 10-2 hole but terrific playmaking from Tatum and seven points from Gonzalez helped Boston take a 24-23 lead following the opening 12 minutes. Boston’s rough 3-point shooting contributed to that slow start as it went 1 for 11 from beyond the arc in the first quarter and missed 14 of its first 15 3-point attempts.

The Celtics’ defense made up for it, though, coming away with nine steals and causing 18 Magic turnovers in the game.

“We can always bring our defense, right?” George said. “We can always bring the intensity. We can always challenge guys. We can always pressure. We can always be disruptive. That’s the part that should stick and we should always bring night in, night out.”

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©2026 The Boston Herald. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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