ORLANDO, Fla. — At first glance, the current versions of the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic appear to have little in common. The more experienced Celtics are the reigning NBA champs, and Sunday night, they took another step forward in their title defense, winning Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Magic, 107-98.
But take a closer look at the teams and you’ll see a crucial similarity. Both franchises have constructed their rosters around a pair of cornerstone forwards: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for Boston, and Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner for Orlando. Tatum and Brown take on outsized roles as offensive initiators and shot creators. On offense, the Magic rely on Banchero and Wagner to an even greater extent than the Celtics rely on Brown and Tatum.
It’s the supporting casts on offense that differentiate the teams — a difference that was obvious before this postseason and that has come into even clearer focus now that Boston has taken a 3-1 series lead.
As great as Brown and Tatum are, they also benefit from having players around them who complement their skill sets and accentuate their positives. The regular starting backcourt of Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, starting center Kristaps Porziņģis and reserves Payton Pritchard, Al Horford and Sam Hauser space the floor, helping to make the Celtics offense a 3-point-shooting juggernaut and giving Brown and Tatum more room to operate.
Banchero and Wagner do not have much of a supporting cast on offense, as Game 4 made clear yet again. They combined to score 55 of Orlando’s points — 31 for Banchero and 24 for Wagner — and received only a modicum of offensive help from their teammates, either in terms of floor spacing or simple production. To put in perspective how reliant the Magic are on their two young stars, consider that Banchero and Wagner totaled 54 of the Magic’s 88 shot attempts.
After Orlando tied the score at 91 with 4:18 remaining, the Magic struggled to generate quality shots against Boston’s switching defense, with Banchero going 2-for-5, Wagner going 1-for-2 and Wendell Carter Jr. missing his lone attempt. Asked to evaluate those looks, Banchero answered: “They weren’t very good, for the most part, and that’s part of it, you know? They kind of baited us into what they wanted us to do on offense, and then on defense, they got what they wanted.”
When Tatum or Brown drive into the teeth of a defense, they’re confident they can kick the ball out to the perimeter and have a strong chance of their teammates taking a good shot and making it.
Banchero and Wagner don’t have that same confidence, and why would they? Orlando finished the regular season with the league’s worst 3-point accuracy rate (31.8 percent), the worst accuracy rate on open 3-point attempts (29.8 percent) and the worst accuracy rate on wide-open 3-point attempts (35.1 percent).
Last offseason, the Magic signed wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a three-year, $66 million contract to be the 3-and-D threat the team so desperately needed. Caldwell-Pope entered this season as a 36.9 percent career 3-point shooter and was expected to help space the floor. But that signing has not paid dividends on the offensive end, with Caldwell-Pope enduring his worst long-range shooting year since the 2015-16 season. He had 8 points Sunday and has been a nonfactor offensively in this playoff series.
In Game 4 on Sunday, Franz Wagner scored 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
Jonathan Isaac, arguably the most talented defender on a team stacked with strong defenders, has never made the strides on offense that the team had projected for him when it selected him with the No. 6 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Significant injuries have stunted his development. Now, in the half court, he’s more of a hindrance on offense than a help.
Cole Anthony can light up a scoreboard at times, but he’s been inconsistent offensively and is nowhere close to the defender second-year guard Anthony Black is. Anthony’s defensive shortcomings have made him difficult to play in this series against a Celtics team that relentlessly hunts size mismatches.
It’s a testament to the quality of Orlando’s defense that this series has been as closely contested as it has been.
Celtics fans will note, correctly, that Holiday missed Game 3 and Game 4 because of a hamstring injury, and his absence no doubt takes a toll on both ends.
At the same time, though, the Magic are missing their most disruptive perimeter defender, Jalen Suggs, and their high-scoring sixth man, center Moe Wagner. The series almost certainly would be closer if Suggs and Wagner weren’t out with season-ending knee injuries.
But Suggs and Wagner appeared in last spring’s first-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and even though the Magic extended that series to seven games, poor shooting was a reality then, too. Orlando made only 30.9 percent of its 3s and 77.3 percent of its free throws during that matchup against Cleveland.
The series isn’t over yet — with Tuesday’s Game 5 at TD Garden a potential elimination game for Orlando — but it’s clear the Magic need offensive upgrades.
Boston added White in a deal with the San Antonio Spurs at the 2021-22 NBA trade deadline and added Holiday in a trade shortly before the 2023-24 season. Those moves were masterstrokes that elevated the Celtics.
The addition of Caldwell-Pope was supposed to be a similar move for Orlando, but it hasn’t worked out, at least not yet.
The upcoming offseason will be a critical one for Jeff Weltman, the Magic’s president of basketball operations. Weltman doesn’t have a whole lot of maneuvering room because Wagner is about to begin a maximum-salary extension, Suggs is due an average annual salary of $30.1 million over the next five years and Banchero is certain to sign a maximum-salary extension this offseason.
As disappointed as Magic fans have been about how this injury-ravaged season has turned out, the franchise does have a leg up in one critical aspect. It has two young stars to build around.
The next step is giving those two stars more help.
The pressure’s on.
(Top photo of Paolo Banchero and Al Horford: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)