2024-2025 NBA Playoffs Round 1, Game 1: (7) Orlando Magic at (2) Boston Celtics - 3:30pm ET

[eyriq]

This was a bad defensive game even with the low score. The only reason our defense failed was because of White (+6.0 oNet) and Pritchard (+7.1 oNet). The worst defenders for Orlando? CoJo (-4.4 dNet) and Cole (-2.7 dNet).

KCP needs to be better on defense as well (-0.9 dNet), but he's a plus defender overall.

I would 100% scale up AB and Harris and scale down CoJo and Cole.

Completely disagree that this was a bad defensive game. White and Prichard making shots wasn't bad defense really. It was just role players stepping up when the ball was swung to them. I personally don't see much issue with the rotation. Cole only played 10 minutes. I would like to see AB and Cole on the floor together more in this series. If they start targeting Cole/CoJo it at least makes their offense a bit more predictable, and we can bring different kinds of help schemes. Defense takes a hit but we can't keep scoring under 90 points and expect this to go more then 4 games.

We had a defensive rating of 117.9 per B-R. Boston's offensive rating in the regular season was 120.6. So we held them a bit below their season average.

Our defensive rating for the regular season is 109.6. This game was way below our average performance.

[Bensational]

I’m saying this as an outsider, I get the sentiment of wanting to get other players more shots.

But the fact is, there is no one else on this roster right now that is healthy that defenses are worried about.

No offense. But if you’re saying after a playoff game that Caleb Houstan didn’t get enough shots, you’re in massive trouble.

Boston wants guys like Houstan, Black, Anthony, Harris putting up lots of shots. Switch Paolo with Jokic and you’re still not beating this Boston team with this offensive supporting cast.

Paolo and Franz are kind of in nowhere man land. They either have to do things themselves at a ridiculous rate. Or they have to rely on guys like Black, Houstan, Cole and so on to beat the Celtics in the playoffs. It’s kind of lose lose.

It’s the same issue as last year, but even worse because of no Suggs. There is just zero offensive firepower outside of those two guys.

I think it's the opposite, to be honest. Boston have forced Paolo and Franz to try to do everything whilst predominantly single-covering them on defense and being able to stay home on those other guys or fill the passing lanes. That was Boston's major advantage yesterday, in not having to commit double teams to those guys without giving up a bunch of wide open looks to other guys.

The Magic need 3 things to overcome Boston, IMO:

1) Paolo and Franz to figure out how to get to the line and draw more fouls. Getting Boston into foul trouble and keeping pressure on the rim, hopefully forcing some defensive rotations sooner than they'd usually come and creating some new passing lanes.

2) Above average shooting nights from our role-players combined with increased effort and ability to get them shots. When the Magic beat Boston in December it was when all the team had was Suggs + role players. Surely with a guy like Pritchard you can appreciate how much of an X factor hot shooting from role players can be for any team. The guy scored 8 unanswered points to start the 2nd quarter for Boston which the Magic's role players had no answer for. As unlikely as it is, we need Cole, Houstan, AB and others to play like Pritchard, Ty Jerome, Strus, Beasley, Duncan Robinson, Joe Harris, etc.

3) Find a way to continue containing Tatum, Brown and KP as well as they did yesterday whilst also finding a way to stop White and Pritchard going off. This might be the toughest ask. Boston is just so damn stacked and deep with bonafide scoring threats.

[KillMonger]

24 points off turnovers, that's the game right there..... When our defense is set we're OK we can defend these guys..... Just not in transition, we got to limit the turnovers that's where they killed us

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[IllMagic04]

This was a bad defensive game even with the low score. The only reason our defense failed was because of White (+6.0 oNet) and Pritchard (+7.1 oNet). The worst defenders for Orlando? CoJo (-4.4 dNet) and Cole (-2.7 dNet).

KCP needs to be better on defense as well (-0.9 dNet), but he's a plus defender overall.

I would 100% scale up AB and Harris and scale down CoJo and Cole.

Completely disagree that this was a bad defensive game. White and Prichard making shots wasn't bad defense really. It was just role players stepping up when the ball was swung to them. I personally don't see much issue with the rotation. Cole only played 10 minutes. I would like to see AB and Cole on the floor together more in this series. If they start targeting Cole/CoJo it at least makes their offense a bit more predictable, and we can bring different kinds of help schemes. Defense takes a hit but we can't keep scoring under 90 points and expect this to go more then 4 games.

We had a defensive rating of 117.9 per B-R. Boston's offensive rating in the regular season was 120.6. So we held them a bit below their season average.

Our defensive rating for the regular season is 109.6. This game was way below our average performance.

.

You don't believe defense was the problem though, right?

[eyriq]

Completely disagree that this was a bad defensive game. White and Prichard making shots wasn't bad defense really. It was just role players stepping up when the ball was swung to them. I personally don't see much issue with the rotation. Cole only played 10 minutes. I would like to see AB and Cole on the floor together more in this series. If they start targeting Cole/CoJo it at least makes their offense a bit more predictable, and we can bring different kinds of help schemes. Defense takes a hit but we can't keep scoring under 90 points and expect this to go more then 4 games.

We had a defensive rating of 117.9 per B-R. Boston's offensive rating in the regular season was 120.6. So we held them a bit below their season average.

Our defensive rating for the regular season is 109.6. This game was way below our average performance.

.

You don't believe defense was the problem though, right?

I do, can't get burned by White and Pritchard

[Cammo101]

Not sure what anyone expected from a team starting Cory freaking Joseph. We are an unserious franchise.

He’s starting because Suggs is hurt, Cole is inconsistent, AB isn’t ready, and Weltman did not make any trades this season.

I don't care if AB is ready or not, him starting gives us a better chance to beat Boston than Cory Joseph. We all know what Cory Joseph is and is not.

All those things you listed were true in the offseason and now burning us in the post-season, as predicted by pretty much any Magic fan with eyes.

[KillMonger]

I'd start AB simply to not give Boston such an easy target to hunt..... Whenever cojo or Cole is in the game Boston matchup hunts and since we're always switching everything we give them exactly the matchup they want... That's how you end up with Cole guarding porzingis and cojo guarding Tatum

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[Bensational]

AB is better suited to a bench role, and if he can get himself into a rhythm then Mosley can choose to keep him out there or to sub him out. That's what he's done lately at least.

Last night's best performing lineups were:

Cole/Harris/Franz/Paolo/Wendell +6
CoJo/KCP/Houstan/Paolo/Wendell +6

The starters were -11 and the worst lineup we fielded. I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes, notably increased PT for Harris and Cole.

[Skybox]

I still like Cojo for what he might do to get some semblance of ball movement and cut down the turnovers.

[Ducklett]

Magic would clap both the Knicks and the Pistons. This is embarrassing.

[J the Drafter]

This was a bad defensive game even with the low score. The only reason our defense failed was because of White (+6.0 oNet) and Pritchard (+7.1 oNet). The worst defenders for Orlando? CoJo (-4.4 dNet) and Cole (-2.7 dNet).

KCP needs to be better on defense as well (-0.9 dNet), but he's a plus defender overall.

I would 100% scale up AB and Harris and scale down CoJo and Cole.

I like the idea of a lineup that doesnt yield any easy mismatches, but do you think Black is up to the challenge of running the offense against Boston’s D?

[Bakomagic]

This was a bad defensive game even with the low score. The only reason our defense failed was because of White (+6.0 oNet) and Pritchard (+7.1 oNet). The worst defenders for Orlando? CoJo (-4.4 dNet) and Cole (-2.7 dNet).

KCP needs to be better on defense as well (-0.9 dNet), but he's a plus defender overall.

I would 100% scale up AB and Harris and scale down CoJo and Cole.

I like the idea of a lineup that doesnt yield any easy mismatches, but do you think Black is up to the challenge of running the offense against Boston’s D?

AB seemed really nervous in game 1, he literally bobbled the first two or three passes that came his way.

I’d like him to continue come off the bench and look to take the ball to the rim to score, draw fouls or open things up for his teammates.

He does not give us enough value on offense when he is only spotting up and Paolo/Franz needs someone to lighten the offensive load a little.

[eyriq]

This was a bad defensive game even with the low score. The only reason our defense failed was because of White (+6.0 oNet) and Pritchard (+7.1 oNet). The worst defenders for Orlando? CoJo (-4.4 dNet) and Cole (-2.7 dNet).

KCP needs to be better on defense as well (-0.9 dNet), but he's a plus defender overall.

I would 100% scale up AB and Harris and scale down CoJo and Cole.

I like the idea of a lineup that doesnt yield any easy mismatches, but do you think Black is up to the challenge of running the offense against Boston’s D?

No, definitely not. Neither is CoJo or Cole though. This is the best defensive backcourt in the NBA after all.

[YosemiteSam]

What if we started Houstan and had Franz play point guard? Have to try something radical to have any chance. That adds shooting the SL and puts Franz’ length on the perimeter to disrupt threes. Bench CoJo, Harris, and Cole. Run an 8 man rotation with Isaac, AB and TDS or even TQ. Length and shooting. Give it a shot.

[J the Drafter]

This was a bad defensive game even with the low score. The only reason our defense failed was because of White (+6.0 oNet) and Pritchard (+7.1 oNet). The worst defenders for Orlando? CoJo (-4.4 dNet) and Cole (-2.7 dNet).

KCP needs to be better on defense as well (-0.9 dNet), but he's a plus defender overall.

I would 100% scale up AB and Harris and scale down CoJo and Cole.

I like the idea of a lineup that doesnt yield any easy mismatches, but do you think Black is up to the challenge of running the offense against Boston’s D?

No, definitely not. Neither is CoJo or Cole though. This is the best defensive backcourt in the NBA after all.

So, the plan is to sacrifice offense at the point guard position in order to increase our defense? Well we play through Franz and Paolo on offense already, right? And our biggest advantage in this series is probably our ability to defend the three-ball and avoid giving the Celtics juicy mismatches. I suppose going all-in on defense with Black and Harris is the right move unless Mosley has some brilliant solution to the Celtics defense and ball pressure.

[eyriq]

I like the idea of a lineup that doesnt yield any easy mismatches, but do you think Black is up to the challenge of running the offense against Boston’s D?

No, definitely not. Neither is CoJo or Cole though. This is the best defensive backcourt in the NBA after all.

So, the plan is to sacrifice offense at the point guard position in order to increase our defense? Well we play through Franz and Paolo on offense already, right? And our biggest advantage in this series is probably our ability to defend the three-ball and avoid giving the Celtics juicy mismatches. I suppose going all-in on defense with Black and Harris is the right move unless Mosley has some brilliant solution to the Celtics defense and ball pressure.

That's the idea. I am intrigued by the idea above to start Houstan. He's really impressed me lately.

[Fortune Teller]

The best argument for switching starters in the backcourt is that it can't get any worse so who cares.

KCP 35 minutes, 6 points, 2 assists
CoJo 26 minutes, 0 points, 2 assists
Cole 10 minutes, 4 points, 3 assists
garyharris 14 minutes, 0 points, 0 assists
AB 14 minutes, 3 points, 0 assists

Total 99 minutes, 13 points, 7 assists

Just...wow.

We could waive all 5 of these guys and replace them with G-Leaguers and probably get better results.

[tiderulz]

Franz and Paolo need to get the guards and Caleb more shots. Wendell shouldn't be shooting 3s. The rest of the team was 5-12 from 3.

No FA are going to want to come here and play with ballhogs.

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You probably shouldn't quote people if you're going to ignore the facts they throw in your face

The fact is, they shot fine. Franz made like 2-10 outside shots. Maybe he should pass it more.

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7-25 is not shooting fine

[Knightro]

The best argument for switching starters in the backcourt is that it can't get any worse so who cares.

KCP 35 minutes, 6 points, 2 assists
CoJo 26 minutes, 0 points, 2 assists
Cole 10 minutes, 4 points, 3 assists
garyharris 14 minutes, 0 points, 0 assists
AB 14 minutes, 3 points, 0 assists

Total 99 minutes, 13 points, 7 assists

Just...wow.

We could waive all 5 of these guys and replace them with G-Leaguers and probably get better results.

They got 15 shot attempts combined.

[Knightro]

Front Court Touches in Game 1
Franz 44 touches
Paolo 42 touches
Black 19 touches (14 min)
KCP 19 touches (35 min)
Cole 14 touches (10 min)
CoJo 13 touches (26 min)
Gary 5 touches (14 min)

Front Court Touches Per Game Post All-Star Break
Paolo 38 (+4)
Franz 38 (+6)
Black 21 (-2)
KCP 18 (+1)
CoJo 17 (-4)
Cole 17 (-3)
Harris 8 (-3)

Obviously some (a lot?) of credit on that has to go to the Celtics and how they chose to game plan the Magic defensively, but the ball was generally moving less than it did late in the year.