The Boston Celtics haven’t looked like a contender for the NBA championship lately, and they’ll try to regain their early-season form when they face the visiting Orlando Magic on Friday night.
Boston is coming off a 110-97 loss at Toronto on Wednesday, which dropped the Celtics’ record to 7-7 in their past 14 games. Boston was outscored 85-68 over the final three quarters and was held to fewer than 100 points for the third time this season — all coming in its past three losses.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said he delivered a simple message to his team following the loss.
“Just stick together,” Mazzulla said. “We’re not playing our best basketball. You can’t always expect things to be easy. You can’t have an expectation that it’s always supposed to go your way because it’s not. We just have to find a way to enjoy the challenge. We just gotta do it together.”
Kristaps Porzingis was one bright spot for Boston, tossing in 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. He made four of his five 3-point attempts, grabbed eight rebounds and had two blocked shots. Porzingis has made at least three 3-pointers in each of his last three games.
“I feel like the last few games, my shot has been feeling better,” Porzingis said. “Slowly I’m starting to play better basketball from my own point of view, and I think it’s showing.”
Boston has lost by double digits in three of its past five games. The Celtics didn’t have a double-digit loss in their first 35 games.
“Just knowing who these guys are – we have high-personality, high-character people,” Porzingis said. “Nobody’s points fingers and stuff, but I know we’ll get past this. I know it, we know it. But we have to start playing better. We just can’t keep cruising and expect to turn it up toward the end.”
The Magic aren’t playing their best basketball, either. Orlando has lost three of its past four games, including a 122-93 loss at Milwaukee on Wednesday.
Paolo Banchero scored 22 points against the Bucks but also turned the ball over seven times. It was his third game since returning from a torn right oblique that sidelined him for 34 contests.
“That wasn’t our standard,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “That wasn’t Orlando Magic basketball. Not even close. I will have to talk about it, figure out what it was that didn’t allow it to be that. But the great part about this group is that they always find a way to bounce back.”
Shooting from behind the arc has been an issue all season for Orlando, which enters Thursday as the NBA’s worst 3-point shooting team (30.7 percent).
The Magic were 12-of-46 (26.1 percent) on 3-point attempts on Wednesday, marking the 21st time Orlando has shot below 30 percent from 3-point range this season.
“It was very easy for (Milwaukee) on the offensive end,” Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. said. “And then for us, we didn’t apply any pressure. We settled for a lot of threes.”
Orlando allows the fewest points per game (103.7) among Eastern Conference teams but ranks last in the NBA in scoring offense (104.5 points per game). Boston is second in the East in both points per game (117.5) and points allowed per game (108.7).
The Friday matchup will be the second meeting between the Magic and Celtics this season. Orlando earned a 108-104 home win when the teams met on Dec. 23. The Magic rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit.
