Celtics vs Magic Game 1 Preview
The Boston Celtics take on the Orlando Magic Sunday April 20th at 3:30 pm, beginning the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Magic were able to beat the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in game 120-95, swarming Trae Young and the Hawks offense. While the Magic finished 41-41 and were a play-in team, they can pose a threat to the Celtics — defensively that is. They finished 1st in points allowed per game at 105.5 and 2nd in defensive rating at 109.6. They are a big, physical team that won't allow the Celtics to sleepwalk their way through the first round.
However, the opposite can be said about the Magic's offense. The team finished 28th in points per game at 105.4, and 27th in offensive rating at 109.4. A big reason for this is their lack of shooting, as they finished dead last in percentage at an abysmal 31.8% on 35 attempts per game. This lack of shooting and spacing will be a matchup nightmare against a Celtics team loaded with All-NBA caliber defenders. The team's best players are clearly Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, but after that the scoring falls off a cliff. The third-highest scorer on the Magic is Jalen Suggs, who is averaging 16 PPG, but on 41/31 splits. After Suggs, the team had nobody else who finished the season healthy averaging double digits.
Simply put, the Celtics SHOULD be able to put the Magic away in a sweep — but this team has been known to play with their food many times. The entire 2023 run was littered with series that went far longer than they should have, and while the 2024 team was dominant, they still allowed the Miami Heat to have a franchise-history type of shooting night on their home floor, as well as the Cavaliers handily beating them at home. The Celtics have been a notoriously bad home playoff team, so it will be interesting to see how they handle beginning the playoffs against a tough defensive team at home after playing just one time in nearly two full weeks.
Jaylen Brown has been a big story for the team as he has been dealing with a bone bruise in his leg for a few months now. He was able to mostly maintain his play during this time, but has been in and out of the lineup, while having a terrible final regular season game against the Knicks before sitting out the last three games of the season. He will be on nearly two weeks of rest, so he will be important to watch for during this game.
As always with the current NBA, the 3-point shot will likely decide the series. While the Magic are a great defensive team in nearly every area, 3-point defense is their biggest weakness. While they give up the least amount of threes per game at just 31.4, they were 23rd in 3-point percentage allowed at 36.5%. The Celtics are the opposite — they take by far the most at 48.2 a game, but are only 10th in percentage at 36.8%, and can get very 3-ball happy at times.
For example, their recent game against the OKC Thunder, where they took 22 of 24 1st-quarter shots from three and 63 for the game. The Magic will likely implement the same game plan as the Thunder, where they force late shot clock threes while packing the paint, forcing the Celtics to take a high volume. It is a make-or-miss league — and should the Celtics make just their season average for the series, this should be an easy sweep. If not, these games could be a lot closer than Celtic fans would like.