At present, Orlando’s record stands at 5-7, fourth in their division and eleventh in the conference overall.  Their Basketball-Reference-calculated defensive rating of 101.4 is fourth-best in the league; their offensive rating of 97.8 is second-worst.

After opening the season with a surprising pair of semi-blowouts over the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns, the Magic endured a five-game losing streak, smack in the middle of which they erected a towering monument to ineptitude – a 107-68 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Fun fact: the Magic have scored 68 points or fewer 13 times in their two decades of operation.  Four of those games were played within the last year.  These included an 87-56 wipeout at the hands of the Boston Celtics, in which they set franchise records for fewest points and worst field goal percentage (.246), and a league record for fewest field goals made (16).  The Celtics’ defensive effort was keyed by Avery Bradley, who provided one of our favorite defensive highlights from last season.

The Magic played the whole of their losing streak without starting point guard Jameer Nelson, whose various strains had kept him out of action since the second game of the season.  Since his return, Orlando has gone 3-2, beating the woeful Detroit Pistons twice and the equally subpar Cleveland Cavaliers once.  In the three wins, Nelson averaged 15.0 points, with percentages of .444 from the field and .412 from downtown, along with 7.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds.  In the two losses he made it 8.0 points (.286/.182) with 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds.

Some will say that correlation does not imply causation; others will tell you that as goes the point guard, so goes the team.  That second statement is especially true when the team in question is built like the Magic, whose lightly-regarded youngsters (four rookies, three sophomores, one third-year man) outnumber their adequate-at-best vets (Jameer, Aaron Afflalo, Big Baby Davis, J.J. Redick, Hedo Turkoglu, Josh McRob-Job) eight to six.  When your experience lacks talent and your other guys lack both, the very least one might ask for is a steady hand to control the chaos.

The Celtics have already caught a beating from one bad team this season, taking a 103-83 loss from the 3-10 Pistons one week ago.  The Celtics were playing the second game of a home-road back-to-back and their fifth in seven days.  The toll that the heavy workload had taken on their legs was evident in the 20-4 advantage on fast break points that they surrendered.

Beyond merely catching them at an inopportune time, Detroit was not an ideal matchup for the C’s.  The Pistons make their offensive living on the interior, getting up an average of 31 shots per game at the rim, the most that they shoot from any distance on the floor.[1]  The Celtics, meanwhile, have been especially vulnerable on the inside, allowing opponents to connect on 69.6 percent of their shot attempts from up close.  We can’t say where this ranks until Hoopdata updates their G.D. shot location database, but we can say that a week ago this would have been the third-worst mark in the league.

Predictably, the Celtics gave up a 44-30 edge on points in the paint, as the Pistons connected on 20 of their 27 rim attempts.  Overall, Detroit made 54.2 percent of their shots, the third-largest percentage the Celtics have allowed this season.

Orlando may not be as equipped to take advantage of the Celtics’ weaknesses.  They prefer the short- to mid-range game, averaging 11.8 shots from 3-9 feet (third-most in the league), 8.3 from 10-15 (most in the league), and 23.1 from 16-23 (seventh-most).  While the Celtics have allowed opponents to connect on 40.8 percent of their shots from 3-9 (ninth-worst a week ago), the 37.4 percent they’ve allowed from 10-15 and 34.3 from 16-23 rate as passable (eleventh in the league) and pretty good (fifth) respectively.

More importantly, the Magic will (probably) struggle to mitigate Boston’s biggest offensive strength.  The Celtics do the bulk of their work from the 16-23 foot range, connecting on a scorching 45.6 percent of their 23.6 attempts from that distance.  Orlando has allowed opponents to put up an average of 20.8 attempts (eighth-most) from 16-23, which go down at a rate of .440 per (second-highest).  Be on the lookout for sharp shooting from Kevin Garnett, Brandon Bass, Jason Terry, and Courtney Lee, who have all favored that range this year.

On a personal note, it will be nice to visit with old friends Glen Davis and E’Twaun Moore again.  As you’ll recall, E’Twaun appeared in 38 of the Celtics’ games last season, showing a little bit of a three-point stroke (37.8 percent) in less than 10 minutes of action per game.  His best game came in a 91-83 Celtics win over the Magic, in which his 16 points (12 of which came off a 4-4 night from downtown) helped drive a remarkable 27-point comeback, resulting in an absolute world-beater of a postgame interview with Kevin Garnett.

E’Twaun has been getting some serious burn with the Magic, starting six of 12 games and averaging 11.1 points (.432 from the field, .439 from downtown), 3.8 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in nearly 30 minutes of action per.

Big Baby, meanwhile, has been a critical part of Orlando’s post-Dwight landscape, putting up career highs in points (14.9), rebounds (8.9), and assists (2.1) in his second season with the team.  He’s also continued to prove himself as one of the most reliable quotes in the game, emerging with this gem on teammate Nikola Vucevic after Friday’s 104-100 win over the Cavaliers:

You’ve got to feed him nails and hot sauce.  That’s how you’ve got to do it with guys like that; big upside, but never really had to bite anybody.  You’ve got to get him to bite somebody.

As always, best of luck to you, Glen!

Last night the Boston Celtics suffered another embarrassing defeat in Detroit against the Pistons. If the loss in itself wasn’t enough to make Celtics fans shake their head, Glen Davis took it upon himself to make sure Celtics fans everywhere would be shaking their heads in disappointment today. During the first half of last night’s game the guy we continue to call Big Baby did something that directly attributes to why he continues to have the word “baby” in his nickname.

According to reports, a Pistons fan behind the Celtics bench heckled Glen for most of the first half by calling him a “fat boy” whenever he got the opportunity. Being the immature “baby” that we have come to expect, Glen was not man enough nor professional enough to keep his mouth shut and replied to the heckler with an expletive.

Apparently I am not the only one ticked off by this, Celtics coach Doc Rivers had this to say about his young forward.:

Via Boston Globe:

“[If he said something back], then shame on Glen, To the victors go the spoils. I tell our guys all the time, you lose a game they have every right to yell, say whatever they want and you’ve got to be strong enough to walk away. So that’s not the fan’s fault, no matter what he said. We know about it. We’ve got to walk off the floor. So if that happened, then shame on Glen Davis.’’

Shame on Glen Davis is right Doc, and if you remember correctly this isn’t the first time this season we have questioned Glen’s maturity. Earlier this year Davis missed a large amount of games because of a hand injury he was diagnosed with following an off court altercation with a former teammate. At that time Doc, along with owner Wyc Grousbeck, voiced frustrations about Glen Davis’ immaturity.

It is assumed that Big Baby will be fined for this one, as it was heard by anyone watching the game on television. At this point in time I have to support Glen as a player, but as an individual he has a lot to work on and to be quite honest things aren’t looking up one bit. From what I can see so far in his career, Glen Davis will always be a big baby.

With the same type of injury (thumb) and the same length of time away from the game (6-8 weeks) it would only be appropriate for them to be staggered so we never have a complete lineup until February, which we will hopefully have. Well I guess that isn’t too bad of a deal. It sure would be hard to have both great bench players out of the lineup for almost 2 months. Therefore, for the first give or take, I would give up having them both out of the lineup for 6-8 weeks to have 1 out for 6-8 weeks followed by the next (aka the situation the Celtics are currently in). It would be hard for the Celtics to cover the backup position of a big and a guard. The bench would be very shaken up. The C’s think it is tough playing Shelden and Scal extensive minutes, just imagine Shelden and Scal, plus all of the combo’s there could be to fill Daniels time. With that, the bench we hoped to lift us, would instead likely bring us down.

GIve or Take- Big Baby being out for the 6-8 weeks he was out, or exchange them with the 6-8 Daniels will be out? This is a little unfair, as we have been able to see what the Celtics can do without Glen through this portion of the schedule. However, it is not as easy of a decision as it may seem. We have to look forward. Do we need bigs off the bench agaisnt these teams we are about to play, or guards / small forwards? I would have to say we need smaller players, instead of a power forward in Glen Davis. Therefore, I would give up Glen Davis’ early season injury, for him to instead, take the time off Daniels is about to. In these upcoming couple of months, the Celtics face a lot of teams that are quicker and play up tempo games. The Suns, Hawks, and Mavs are quicker teams that use their guards and perimeter game well. The Magic have big men, but we have the starting lineup, as well as backups (without Davis) who stay right with them perfectly. Orlando beats us with their jump shooting game. So for these games that Marquis is going to miss, I would rather he be in, and Baby out for this portion.

Obviously I would rather have neither of them out. I know the Celtics are 17-4 without Davis and with Daniels. The thing is, I think they could still be that if the players flip flopped the games they missed. With that, it is more crucial for THESE games in the next couple months, that the C’s to have a reliable back up guard-forward, than it is for a big player. Really though, I dont think it too much matters. The Celtics are so well rounded that they can put together a lineup on any night to compete with the different opponents who are good at different things. I just think it would be easier if the players missed the games opposite to the ones they are actually missing. It is unfortunate either player has to miss any time.  

Glen Davis (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)

Marquis Daniels (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)