The Boston Celtics have a great opportunity to bounce back against the Orlando Magic
It has been a while since the Boston Celtics had to rebound after a loss, but the time was bound to come. The first winning streak of the season ended, and they will look to start the second one against an Orlando Magic team that has come back down to earth after a great start.
In the first couple weeks, the Magic were one of the surprise teams in the NBA. Aaron Gordon was playing out of his mind, and they were right at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Things did not hold up, and they are now two games under .500.
The Celtics are in an interesting position, because they know they should have no problem beating the Magic. That being said, they played down to their competition almost every game of the winning streak, and it no longer feels absolutely impossible to beat the Celtics in a close and clutch game.
The good news is that the Magic are one of the few teams that the Celtics handled easily this season, and they did that back when they were still one of the hottest teams. In fact, it may have been the most complete performance of the season, holding their opponent under 90, and scoring more than 100 themselves.
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The Celtics got their two way impact and balance, and if that happens again the Celtics should not have too much trouble getting back in the win column.
The Magic have some good young talent, but nothing the Celtics cannot handle. Gordon is one of the most special athletes we have ever seen, but Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart can defend any athlete in this world.
The Magic also play into Boston’s strengths. They are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, with a -4.3 differential. The Celtics should destroy the Magic on the boards, and that edge alone could be enough to get this Celtics team a win.
The Magic have actually been a strong shooting team this year, which causes some concern. Their overall percentage of 46.7 is the seventh best in the league, and noticeably better than the Celtics, who are all the way down at 28th in the league.
The only real chance the Magic have in this game is if they shoot the Celtics off the court, and that has been almost impossible against their defense. Shooting is a strength for the Magic so far this season, but the Celtics have shut down much better teams. If you take the shooting edge away from Orlando, then they quickly run out of options that can beat this Celtics team.
The Magic are also around the middle of the pack on defense. They have shown some resistance, but nothing the Celtics should fear. Of course, Boston has struggled against worse defenses, and they cannot take their shooting for granted. That being said, the Celtics are in a position where they can have faith that their defense will drag Orlando’s shooting down lower than what they do.
The Celtics should have no problem getting the interior edge, and if they get a shooting edge on top of that, this game could get ugly. The Celtics do not have many complete games this season, but after seeing their streak end, they may take less things for granted, and put together that complete performance on both ends against a team they are certainly capable of doing it against.
Next: Importance of the Interior
Then again, if the Celtics struggle on defense and in the interior like they did against Miami, all bets are off. The Celtics know that they will win with that edge, but there might be the smallest amount of doubt creeping in after the first disappointing result in over a month.