Meet the Opponent: Celtics Offer No Relief for Wounded Magic; Keys to Game

 It's been more than a calendar year since the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics squared off on a basketball court.

Since their last meeting on Dec. 17, 2023, Orlando returned to the playoffs for the first time in five seasons and Boston lifted an 18th NBA championship banner — the most in NBA history.

The Celtics, 22-6 and second in the Eastern Conference, are healthy with a lineup of All-Stars. The Magic are playing without their two leading scorers (Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner) and their top bench scorer (Moe Wagner). Starting guard and all-NBA defender Jalen Suggs and backup Gary Harris are questionable.

The Magic found the production to overcome the Miami Heat in a historic comeback Saturday night, but the numbers below suggest another David vs. Goliath mismatch.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. Monday at the Kia Center.

Leading Scorers

Injury News

Notable Numbers

Manipulate the three-point line

Regardless of the discourse surrounding the NBA's current relationship with the three-point line, Boston's offense unashamedly keeps firing from distance.

Nobody in the NBA attempts more shots from beyond the arc. Nobody makes more of them. Their overall percentage is the NBA's median, but the league-average conversion rate is covered by an outlier's worth of attempt volume.

Boston will continue taking their threes despite any concern for the aesthetic of the game. But Magic opponents attempt a league-low 31.8 threes a game against Orlando's top-three defense. The average number of made threes (11.5) allows the Magic to remain competitive.

Against the Celtics, can the Magic shave off some of those 51 attempted threes or 18.7 makes per game that account for nearly half of Boston's offense.

That's the thing about playing with identity: It stays constant when personnel doesn't. Guys fluctuate in and out of lineups because of injury, foul trouble, etc., but the Magic maintain a standard of defensive pressure that alters contests. They are the immovable object Monday night against the champions' irresistible force.

Stay out of foul trouble, find scoring

The Magic butted heads with Saturday night's officiating crew early and often. They received five technicals, including an ejection for Wendell Carter Jr., in the second quarter, and Anthony Black had five fouls less than a minute out of halftime.

Orlando's defense is less reliant on the bodies on the floor because they trust their instilled defensive vision. Would it help to have the three injured 6-foot-10 players in their defensive rotations? Sure.

But the Magic closed out the Heat with three reserve guards, one 6-foot-5 three-and-D veteran, and two backup centers for the fourth quarter, which they won 37-8. The defense is solid, assuming the Magic can avoid foul trouble.

Offensive production is where the shrinkage of options becomes most apparent. Banchero, Franz and Moe are three of Orlando's top four scorers. Suggs, whose status Monday night is up in the air, is third.

If Suggs can't go, each player in the Magic's starting five is averaging fewer than 10 points a game.