Moritz Wagner scored 27 points and the Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics 113-96 for their sixth straight win Friday, throwing the Eastern Conference’s Group C up for grabs in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.
Paolo Banchero had 23 points and seven rebounds for Orlando. Franz Wagner finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Cole Anthony came off the bench with 16 points.
Jayson Tatum led Boston with 26 points. Jaylen Brown added 18, but made just 2 of 16 shots after scoring 12 points in the first 10 minutes.
Jalen Suggs hit two of the Magic’s four 3-pointers on a 17-0 run after Boston had taken a 62-50 lead early in the third quarter. The Celtics missed all eight shots during the game-changing run and went scoreless for 4:42.
The Magic finished 3-1 in group play. The loss dropped Boston to 2-1 with a game at home against Chicago coming up on Tuesday night. The Brooklyn Nets, who beat the Magic, are also 2-1 pending a game against Toronto on Tuesday night. Friday’s score left the Magic with a plus-17 point differential in group play and the Celtics are at zero.
If there is a three-way tie after group play, point differential will determine the group champion.
Despite also having lost Wendell Carter Jr. to a left hand injury in early November, the Orlando Magic have been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference this season. One reason why their play hasn’t dropped off, in addition to what the team’s healthy stars have done, has been the play of Carter’s replacements. Goga Bitadze has performed well as his replacement in the starting lineup, and Moritz Wagner shouldn’t be overlooked, either.
In the 11 games Orlando played since Carter’s injury, Wagner averaged 14.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.7 3-pointers in 20.6 minutes, shooting 62.1% from the field and 85.3% from the foul line. According to Basketball Monster, that production has been good for 11th-round per-game value in 8- and 9-cat formats. Due to his defensive production, Bitadze has been even more valuable during this 11-game run, ranking just outside the top 60 in 8- and 9-cat formats.
Moritz Wagner steals the show
It was Wagner who stole the show on Friday, as he scored a season-high 27 points with three rebounds and one 3-pointer in 24 minutes. As for Bitadze, he recorded a full stat line of six points, five rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one blocked shot in 19 minutes. Orlando’s given the Celtics trouble in recent meetings, and it didn’t help Boston that Jrue Holiday (ankle) didn’t play and Kristaps Porzingis (calf) had to exit prematurely. But this Magic team is one that’s on the rise, and the team’s backup bigs have helped sustain the early momentum in the aftermath of Carter’s injury.
Sam Hauser’s 3-pointer gave Boston an 11-point lead, the largest of the first half, after a first quarter in which Orlando shot 8 for 22 with eight turnovers.
“I think the Brooklyn game, it was kind of frustrating because it was like we didn’t realize it was a tournament game and we felt like we just handed them the game,” Banchero said. “These last three we’ve completely flipped it and took it a lot more seriously.”
With Boston and Brooklyn scheduled to complete pool play on Tuesday night, the Magic can qualify for the knockout rounds (final eight) either as the Group C winner or as a wild card, depending on game results and point differentials. Orlando finished with a plus-22 differential. The Nets are currently at plus-8 and the Celtics are at 0.
The Celtics, who came into the game with an NBA-best 12-3 record, made only 7 of 29 3-point shots and were outrebounded 48-31.
“You’re definitely frustrated when you’re not making shots, but at the end of the day it goes back to two things: transition (defense) and the offensive rebounds,” Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
Moritz Wagner, the older and bigger brother of Magic starter Franz Wagner, scored 10 straight Magic points while they were pulling away to a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a game, it’s not controllable. Sometimes it comes to you and then you just take advantage of it,” said Moritz Wagner, whose season-high point total came in 24 minutes. “There’s something really enjoyable about that process. You can get lost in that and just play, and it’s going to come back around.”
Boston center Kristaps Porzingis left the game in the third quarter with tightness in his left calf after scoring nine points and taking down four rebounds.The Celtics also played without Jrue Holiday, who missed his first game of the season with a sprained right ankle.
“Obviously we’re a much better team when everybody’s healthy. But throughout the course of the season there’s going to be nights where you know certain guys are out,” Tatum said. “We can’t use that as an excuse for why we didn’t win the game. We’ve still got to figure out a way to get the job done.”
Moritz Wagner and Cole Anthony (16 points, six assists) led the Magic bench to 57 points, one fewer than the bench had accumulated in Wednesday night’s win over Denver.