Derrick White made seven 3-point attempts and scored a team-high 30 points Sunday to lead the Boston Celtics to a 103-86 victory over the visiting Orlando Magic in Game 1 of their NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Jayson Tatum added 17 points and 14 rebounds for second-seeded Boston, which received 19 points off the bench from Payton Pritchard. Jaylen Brown, who missed the final three regular-season games with posterior impingement in his right knee, finished with 16 points in 30 minutes.
Boston trailed by one at halftime, but took control by outscoring seventh-seeded Orlando 30-18 in the third.
“This is the playoffs. Game of runs and we had a good response in the second half,” White said. “I just try to stay aggressive. Obviously (Tatum and Brown) get a lot of attention. Whenever I get an opportunity, I have to be ready to go. Stay ready. … My teammates do a good job of finding me and keeping me involved in the offense, so it’s a lot of fun when you got it going. We got a long way to go.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said that All-Star Tatum probably wasn’t as efficient as he would have liked — shooting 8-for-22 from the floor including 1 of 8 on 3-pointers — but showed poise and also contributed on defense and rebounding.
“That’s the most important thing. … You gotta answer the call defensively and physicality-wise,” Mazzulla said. “I thought (Tatum) did that, especially with the rebounding in the second half (nine boards).”
Orlando’s Paulo Banchero led all scorers with 36 points. He also had 11 rebounds.
Franz Wagner contributed 23 points and five assists, but no other Magic player scored more than Jonathan Isaac’s seven points. Orlando’s Wendell Carter Jr. grabbed 13 rebounds.
Boston led 26-18 after one quarter and extended its lead to 12 points — its largest lead of the first half — when Pritchard connected on a 3-pointer with 10:50 left in the second quarter.
A 9-0 Orlando run sliced Boston’s lead to two points, then Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s 3-pointer with 1:57 remaining gave the Magic a 45-44 edge. The Magic led 49-48 at halftime as Banchero scored 19 points.
The Celtics scored 28 of the first 38 points in the third quarter and held a 76-59 advantage following Brown’s dunk with 1:56 left in the quarter. Boston had a 78-67 lead entering the final 12 minutes.
“I think we got a little stagnant on offense,” Orlando’s Wagner said. “That’s when they’re a really good defensive team. Then they got a couple easy 3s in transition.”
The Celtics led 89-71 early in the fourth and extended the lead to 19 points as the Magic never threatened.
Boston was 16 of 37 (43.2 percent) from 3-point range. Orlando was 10 of 27 (37 percent) from behind the 3-point arc, but was held to three 3-pointers in the second half.
“I thought we did a great job of attacking the rim. … We gotta continue to go in there strong,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Didn’t like the 15 turnovers for 24 points. You gotta give yourself a chance there, so our ability to take care of the basketball is going to be very big for us against them.”
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played Wednesday in Boston.
–Field Level Media
