ORLANDO — With 11:05 to go in the second quarter on Friday night, Jaylen Brown drove to the basket on Cole Anthony. The Boston Celtics star got positioning and went up to score, but the Orlando Magic guard didn’t let it happen. Instead, he grabbed Brown’s arm, pulling him to the ground. “I dislocated my index finger, but I got nine more, so I’m alright,” Brown said post-game.
Brown wasn’t the only one who hit the hardwood on Friday. While diving out of bounds for a loose ball, Derrick White took an arm to the face and went crashing into the Boston bench. Early in the first quarter, Jayson Tatum got smacked in the side of the head by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on a drive, polishing off an and-one in the process.
On the final play of the night, down by two with 0.3 seconds remaining, Wendell Carter Jr. put Kristaps Porzingis in a chokehold as he attempted to fight for the inbounds pass.
And that’s just in Game 3.
Jaylen Brown calls out Magic physicality after ugly Game 3
“Definitely, it was a physical game,” Brown said. “They got away with a lot. When you get away with it, I would do it too. That definitely affected us, but we will be ready for Game 4.”
Orlando has laid the groundwork for themselves throughout this series to play a certain brand of basketball—their physicality pushing the limits of what is (and what can be) called a foul. “I give credit to them,” Brown said. “It was all their physicality. You can’t call every foul.”
Through three games, there have been three Flagrant fouls. On Friday, it was Anthony’s yank on Brown. In Game 2, it was Goga Bitadze elbowing Kristaps Porzingis in the head, causing him to get five stitches. And in Game 1, Caldwell-Pope’s yank-down on Tatum forced him to miss Game 2.
“There might be a fight break out or something because it is starting to feel like it is not even basketball, and the refs are not controlling the environment,” Brown said. “So, it is what it is. You want to fight it out? We can do that. Fight to see who goes to the second round."
In Game 3, Orlando pushing the boundaries of what the refs could call worked to perfection. The Celtics only got up 27 three-point attempts—their fewest in a game this season—and they forced 19 turnovers, including seven from Tatum and six from Brown. “My team needs me to take care of the basketball,” Brown said. “My team needs JT to take care of the basketball. We have to be better.”
The Magic defended full-court, denied drives and cuts out of the pick-and-roll, and completely shattered the flow of the Celtics’ offense. Boston’s 11-point third quarter was its lowest-scoring frame since November of 2021.
Through the first two games of the series, the Magic were physical. In Game 3, they went supernova.
“I think you have to give them credit,” said Joe Mazzulla. “I think it was a combination of both. I thought they obviously upped their ball pressure at the point of attack, full-court, and [in] the half-court. Made an exception, I would say, credit to them with their defensive physicality. We also had some ones that we have to – we have to be there.”
The Celtics were up by 10 at halftime. With 11:25 left in the third quarter, Tatum made a three. From that point on, the Celtics only scored eight more points in the period and only made two more shots.
Meanwhile, the Magic found a spark. They turned stops into buckets on the other end, set up their defense, and did it all over again. Time after time, they shut down the Celtics and translated defense to offense.
By the time the fourth quarter was set to begin, the Magic boasted a three-point lead.
“I just think they went on a couple runs offensively, and it just builds confidence,” Tatum said. “We were playing against a set defense, and our offense really just made it tough on our defense, and they had it going in that third quarter.”
Every game has controllables. Hustle, game plan execution, intensity. Then, there are the uncontrollables. Shots falling, injuries, the bounce of a rebound. But the ultimate uncontrollable came into play on Friday night: Officiating.
The Magic found something. On the brink of a 3-0 deficit—historically, certain defeat in the NBA—they poured everything they had into physicality. They bullied the Celtics any chance they got, forcing the referees to make impossible decision after impossible decision. And in the aggregate, it worked.
Now, the question is, what’s next? Do the Celtics match that energy? Do they double down on their own, no-foul principles? (Boston ranked last in the NBA in fouls per game this season.) Do they simply hope the math works out in their favor next game?
Only time will tell.
“I don’t have a problem with the game being physical, but it seems like when I use my physicality, I get called in the opposite direction,” Brown said. “That’s where my frustration was tonight. Maybe next game will be better.
“When you start the third quarter with those two offensive fouls, when I feel like the physicality you are allowing guys to hand check, then let it go on both sides, then. Other than that, it was a tough whistle for me tonight. We just have to be ready for Game 4.”