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ORLANDO — It took six plays for Jayson Tatum and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to meet in the former’s return.
Tatum fell to floor after the Celtics knocked the ball away from Cory Joseph and ripped it from Caldwell-Pope, rising to from the floor quickly. He drew another hard foul early from the Magic forward who injured him on Sunday and knocked him out for Game 2 with a hard foul. It was the first of countless times both teams crashed to the floor in a game that featured over 40 fouls and 32 turnovers. The final one, with Jaylen Brown out of the game in foul trouble and Payton Pritchard dribbling into the paint down by four points — where Gary Harris stripped him.
Tatum returned on Sunday and started 7-of-12 in the first half, hit 3-of-7 from three and showed few visible limitations stemming from his right wrist bone bruise. His eight straight points late in the second quarter flipped Boston from down by two to ahead by six. But the Celtics’ offense tailed off dramatically into the second half, bogged down by turnovers, hurt by continued physicality from the Magic and falling 95-93 in the grittiest game in recent memory that until 10 p.m. following a tip-off just after seven. Boston
Jaylen Brown also played despite returning to the injury report on Friday afternoon with his nagging knee ailment. Jrue Holiday did not play, arriving late and never warming up after suffering a right hamstring strain. Joe Mazzulla did not clarify before the game whether Holiday suffered it in Game 2, when he closed the final 12 minutes appearing fine in a strong performance.
In Game 3, the hits continued. Cole Anthony threw down Brown in the second, who landed awkwardly on his left hand and stayed down for several minutes. Anthony drew a flagrant one, the third such call on the Magic in three games. Orlando fouled liberally, 11 times in the first half after committing 17 in Game 1 and 23 on Wednesday. Boston went ahead by seven points in the first quarter following Brown’s steal on Caldwell-Pope and breakout dunk, but the Celtics matched the Magic’s first six turnovers to keep the game close. Orlando’s switching again limited Boston’s three-point chances. The Magic shot more through halftime.
The Magic wanted their own replay when Luke Kornet hit Anthony Black hard one play after Anthony’s flagrant, but the officials gave them none. Black appeared to knocked the ball off Brown and out-of-bounds, which prompted a Magic challenge. Like early in Game 2, it backfired as officials saw Black slap Brown’s arm and hit him with a third foul while Boston kept possession. Black helped give the Magic a lead after the first quarter with back-to-back steals pressuring Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard in the back court. Then, after a last-second full court charge by Anthony, Black snuck under the rim on the ensuing in-bounds to score two more points before the buzzer.
Brown attacked mismatches to start the new frame, but turned the ball over twice with misplaced passes. He and Tatum both had five giveaways halfway through the game, and it prevented the Celtics from getting up their usual number of shots. Tatum’s shooting barrage gave them a 10-point edge at the half, but Boston’s faded completely into the third, where they scored 11 points — their fewest in a quarter under Joe Mazzulla and least since 2021.
The turnovers kept flowing. Brown committed an offensive foul inside early. Tatum traveled minutes later. Caldwell-Pope tried to knock the ball away from him after the call, Tatum holding onto it and staring back at him. Buckets by Wendell Carter Jr., a pair from Paolo Banchero and a Franz Wagner three flipped the lead while Boston went scoreless on 11 of its first 13 possessions in the frame.
Wagner’s free throws later in the third gave the Magic the lead that Carter built on with a pair of finishes, the second bodying Kornet out of the way for a put-back. Tatum soon committed his seventh turnover, and while Anthony’s potential pull-away three at the end of the quarter after back-to-back offensive rebounds became a turnover, instead, when he stepped out of bounds, the Magic stayed ahead by three into the fourth.
There, Boston unraveled. Porzingis traveled. Brown drove into traffic and a shot clock violation allowed Banchero to extend the Magic’s lead to 11 with six straight points attacking the basket. Brown, Al Horford and Tatum generated consecutive three-point plays to slash that advantage to three in 52 seconds. But a pair of Horford fouls put the Magic in the bonus with five minutes left before Brown picked up a fifth, giving Orlando five points back and putting Brown on the bench.
The Magic used eight straight free throws to stay ahead until Wagner scored their first field goals in nearly six minutes with back-to-back plays attacking Porzingis downhill. Boston lost a challenge on an out of bounds call then an inadvertent eight second call while the Celtics pressured Banchero at front court stole a last second chance for them. They got it after Wagner missed a three with one second left, but only 0.3 remained and Orlando tipped away Derrick White’s in-bound tip attempt.
