Celtics (22-6) at Magic (18-12) Game #28 12/23/24

[Atzar]

Rough loss.  Pretty fluky too, if I'm being honest - some of the junk that went in for Orlando was just silly.  But nobody wants to hear that right now I'm sure. 

I love Jaylen but this is a good indicator of what he'd look like as a #1, I feel.  He's very capable of getting his own.  He doesn't orchestrate offense for the team nearly as well as Tatum does though.  And when the rest of our guys don't get to work off of Tatum's gravity, they're significantly diminished. 

[bello_man09]

Good Lord, JB. How do you lose your man that bad in that situation for an open corner three?

And why is Horford shooting that quick three there when down one? Just dumb, dumb basketball to end this game, along with awful, biased officiating.

This team is so much less enjoyable than last year. Much more entitled now that they won the title and don?t feel like they need to play hard or smart ball the entire game.

Absolutely no reason to lose to this team with their injuries.

I was wondering what AL was doing, and Jb leaves his man, shades of him leaving james Harden open.

[Phantom255x]

I know people want the 1 seed for HCA, but to me the reason we really need it is because the path in the playoffs is likely to project a lot easier than if you are in that 2-3 seed bracket.

You could play a team like DET/CHI, then MIL/ATL, then CLE/NY/ORL in the ECF with the 1 seed. But the other bracket is likely a tough team like MIA/IND, then you face 2 of CLE/NY/ORL the following 2 rounds.

This team is gonna need to take these games seriously soon or they could slip up and be the 3 seed. I'm still not picking the Celtics to lose any series right now to anyone assuming they stay healthy but they need to figure it out soon. January's schedule is pretty tough too

[celticinorlando]

JB scored a lot but he was not good. Turned it over a ton. Lost on defense. Played hero play and didn't move the ball at all.

[radiohead]

I know people want the 1 seed for HCA, but to me the reason we really need it is because the path in the playoffs is likely to project a lot easier than if you are in that 2-3 seed bracket.

You could play a team like DET/CHI, then MIL/ATL, then CLE/NY/ORL in the ECF with the 1 seed. But the other bracket is likely a tough team like MIA/IND, then you face 2 of CLE/NY/ORL the following 2 rounds.

This team is gonna need to take these games seriously soon or they could slip up and be the 3 seed. I'm still not picking the Celtics to lose any series right now to anyone assuming they stay healthy but they need to figure it out soon. January's schedule is pretty tough too

January will be a nice test for this team, but i?m more curious to see how they perform on Christmas Day vs Philly. Embiid is back and Philly is slowly figuring things out.

[jpotter33]

Rough loss.  Pretty fluky too, if I'm being honest - some of the junk that went in for Orlando was just silly.  But nobody wants to hear that right now I'm sure. 

I love Jaylen but this is a good indicator of what he'd look like as a #1, I feel.  He's very capable of getting his own.  He doesn't orchestrate offense for the team nearly as well as Tatum does though.  And when the rest of our guys don't get to work off of Tatum's gravity, they're significantly diminished.

Absolutely how I feel. TP.

The funny thing is you?re still hearing people like Windhorst make this argument that JT is not the ?clear cut best player? on the C?s.

Any rational basketball fan that watches them both play can clearly tell that JT is hands down just a better all around basketball player than JB, who is an excellent #2.

[celticinorlando]

They will lose Christmas day because their effort is putrid

[CelticSooner]

I see the panic has started lol

C?s can?t shoot right now and the refs sucked. West coast trip will show of things. Much too soon to worry about anything.

[Roy H.]

This definitely felt like a game from the 2023 season, rather than last year.

[SparzWizard]

I know people want the 1 seed for HCA, but to me the reason we really need it is because the path in the playoffs is likely to project a lot easier than if you are in that 2-3 seed bracket.

You could play a team like DET/CHI, then MIL/ATL, then CLE/NY/ORL in the ECF with the 1 seed. But the other bracket is likely a tough team like MIA/IND, then you face 2 of CLE/NY/ORL the following 2 rounds.

This team is gonna need to take these games seriously soon or they could slip up and be the 3 seed. I'm still not picking the Celtics to lose any series right now to anyone assuming they stay healthy but they need to figure it out soon. January's schedule is pretty tough too

If they can't beat two or three of ORL/MIL/NYK/CLE in a 7-game series then the Celtics were never there to be hanging around with them.

Either they lock up the 1 seed or tank to the 4 seed if they wanna play the pathway game. Otherwise better step it up like every game is a playoff game for the rest of the szn.

[scaryjerry]

Orlando living up to the magic name. Beat the heat after being down 22 to start the 4th a few days ago and now this, without their 2 best players.
Putrid loss. Celtics not playing well.

[tenn_smoothie]

Celts build a solid lead at halftime and I'm guessing come out unfocused for the 3d quarter where we gave it all back. Lots of turnovers there.
These modern players seem to get bored easily or at least our Celtics do. Past Celtic championship groups may have hit minor slumps once during the schedule, but they played to win most of the time and were more consistent competitors than this bunch.

One interesting stat tonight, Orlando doubled us up in assists 26 - 13.
We didn't jack 50+ 3's as usual, but ball movement was poor. Just 13 assists is awful.

[Phantom255x]

I know people want the 1 seed for HCA, but to me the reason we really need it is because the path in the playoffs is likely to project a lot easier than if you are in that 2-3 seed bracket.

You could play a team like DET/CHI, then MIL/ATL, then CLE/NY/ORL in the ECF with the 1 seed. But the other bracket is likely a tough team like MIA/IND, then you face 2 of CLE/NY/ORL the following 2 rounds.

This team is gonna need to take these games seriously soon or they could slip up and be the 3 seed. I'm still not picking the Celtics to lose any series right now to anyone assuming they stay healthy but they need to figure it out soon. January's schedule is pretty tough too

If they can't beat two or three of ORL/MIL/NYK/CLE in a 7-game series then the Celtics were never there to be hanging around with them.

Either they lock up the 1 seed or tank to the 4 seed if they wanna play the pathway game. Otherwise better step it up like every game is a playoff game for the rest of the szn.

If it comes down to that you're better off tanking for the 4 seed

[keevsnick]

Rough loss.  Pretty fluky too, if I'm being honest - some of the junk that went in for Orlando was just silly.  But nobody wants to hear that right now I'm sure. 

I love Jaylen but this is a good indicator of what he'd look like as a #1, I feel.  He's very capable of getting his own.  He doesn't orchestrate offense for the team nearly as well as Tatum does though.  And when the rest of our guys don't get to work off of Tatum's gravity, they're significantly diminished.

I think Tatum is better than Jaylen, mostly just because he is. But I don' know that this one game says anything about how Jaylen would look as a number one option. White and Holiday had combined 10 turnovers, they average a combined 3. Not sure that's a gravity issue. Porzingis was at one point 1-9 from the field. Don't think that says anything about Jaylen's playmaking.

They had a bad game, Tatum happened to be out, they lost. I think it's just sort of silly to make overarching conclusions based off one game.

But more to the point: It doesn't matter. They are on the same team, the C's will need both players to win the title this year.

[Phantom255x]

Dang so there's also ZERO sports on today. Wow