ORLANDO, Fla. — Watching film before Sunday night’s Game 4, Kristaps Porziņģis noticed some opportunities he left on the court earlier in the Celtics’ first-round series against the Magic. He kept popping to the arc, like he would normally do, but the Orlando defense didn’t allow him any free space. When he did get chances to shoot, he wasn’t making any of them. But he also recognized that the Magic’s defensive approach just didn’t leave him any room behind the arc. They were refusing to give up open looks.
“We kept playing — I kept playing — a little bit more how I’m used to in the regular season,” Porziņģis said. “But I needed to make some adjustments.”
The shift in Porziņģis’ approach showed up early in the Celtics’ 107-98 Game 4 win, which left them with a 3-1 series lead. Four minutes into the first quarter, he headed straight to the rim after setting a screen for Derrick White. Porziņģis caught White’s pass in stride for an easy dunk. Less than a minute later, Porziņģis rolled again after setting another pick for White. Another dunk resulted.
“Just rolling more, honestly, and getting going with some easy ones early on,” Porziņģis said. “D-White found me. And yeah, just being a bit more towards the rim because they weren’t really — even though I haven’t shot the ball good in this series, they don’t really give up anything from the 3. They’re closing out really hard, so, gotta make an adjustment.”
In the Magic, the Celtics have found one of the rare opponents capable of disrupting their usual style. Through four first-round games, Orlando has shut off the 3-point arc and limited the Boston supporting cast. Unlike most teams, who try and fail to slow down the Celtics offense, the Magic have the personnel and scheme to force Joe Mazzulla’s team away from Plan A. In this series, the Celtics have learned they won’t always be able to depend on their free-flowing, egalitarian offense.
Payton Pritchard predicted the style of Game 4 hours before tipoff. At the Celtics shootaround on Sunday, the Sixth Man of the Year award winner suggested his team would need big games from its stars against the Magic’s defensive strategy. He pointed out they were denying shooters off the ball, declining to send much help and defending on an island in isolation.
“That may be what they want,” Pritchard said. “But we also have two star players — and KP, too, we’ll try to get KP going tonight. But two star players that should dominate those matchups. And I think they will.”
Pritchard probably should have added White to that list but was right that the majority of the Celtics’ production would come from a small group of players. Outside of Al Horford, who joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only player at least 38 years old to block five shots in a playoff game, the other four Boston starters scored at least 18 points apiece. Pritchard went scoreless. The rest of the Celtics bench combined for six total points. Among Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet, the Boston second unit combined to take only five shots.
Defense = Winning Plays 💪 pic.twitter.com/FkG3cgDZuU
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 28, 2025
More than 94 percent of Boston’s scoring came from the starting five. It wasn’t necessarily the way the Celtics aim to play, but it was the way they needed to play against an Orlando defense that has presented problems.
“They’re just being physical,” Jaylen Brown said. “I think that’s what their emphasis has been. I think they’re staying at home a lot, so just forcing me and JT (Jayson Tatum) to make plays over their guys. And JT did great at that tonight. You know, I could be better. I will be better in my spots. I didn’t feel like I was aggressive as I needed to be, but they’re just forcing us to make plays one-on-one, trying to bait us into that. But if we got a great matchup, we just got to be able to make them pay. And JT made them pay tonight in his spots, he was able to get to the free-throw line, etc. But I think we can be, I can be even better. So I’m looking forward to Game 5.”
The Celtics needed to ride their starters on both ends of the court. They all delivered key plays. Late in the first half, with Orlando already on a 10-0 run, White hustled back to stop a four-on-one fast break. He first forced Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to throw a pass behind him, then stoned Wendell Carter Jr. at the rim. After Carter Jr. rebounded his own miss, White bothered him enough to help Tatum intercept the Magic big man’s pass.
“That play was huge,” said Mazzulla.
Instead of falling behind by four points, the Celtics scored in transition to tie the game. That basket started a 7-0 run that left them with a 53-48 halftime lead.
The Celtics still couldn’t pull away from the Magic, who have proved their toughness and relentlessness in this series. With about four minutes left, Orlando tied the score at 91 with a Carter Jr. layup. Following a timeout, Boston ran a great set for a Porziņģis alley-oop. Though he missed the layup attempt, he grabbed his own rebound and finished a put-back dunk with the foul. After shooting 28.1 percent over the first three games of the series, Porziņģis scored 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting despite significant foul trouble that limited him to 22 minutes.
Jayson Tatum shoots a 3-pointer against Wendell Carter Jr. in Game 4. (Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
On the next offensive possession after Porziņģis’ and-1, Brown drew a pair of free throws to push the Celtics’ lead to five. Tatum followed that up with a fadeaway jumper over Paolo Banchero to give Boston a 98-92 advantage. Over the final four minutes, the Celtics closed the game on a 16-7 run without attempting a single 3-pointer, though Tatum did draw a three-shot foul on one of his pull-up tries. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, prompting Porziņģis to say his teammate has developed even more of a killer instinct over the past two seasons.
“Just getting older, having more experience,” Tatum said. “Understanding the moment, being in these moments plenty of times. Enjoying being in those moments. Not necessarily (thinking) like take over the game, but being in a position to just make a play, I say it all the time, for myself or a teammate. You just want to be in a position where you’re involved and you’ve got a part of the action or whatever when the game’s on the line. It was 91-91 with four minutes left, a timeout, I was excited for that moment because I knew we were going to figure it out and make plays. It’s not just me. Everybody made plays. So we showed just our competitive spirit. That was fun.”
The Celtics played out of character during a 95-93 Game 3 loss. They turned the ball over constantly. They set a season low with 27 3-point attempts. They were beaten badly on the glass. They sent Orlando to the line 26 times. In Game 4, the Celtics fixed many of those mistakes, cutting down their turnovers from 21 to 10 while holding the Magic to seven offensive rebounds and 20 free-throw attempts.
“The game plan execution is very simple,” Mazzulla said. “You have to win the margins. You’ve got to win in the trenches, and you have to compete at a high level, and you’ve got to play physical. And our guys did that tonight throughout the game.”
The Celtics still weren’t able to shake free behind the arc. They attempted at least 33 3-pointers in each game during the regular season but have failed to reach that mark in either of the last two games. They attempted 31 3-pointers in Game 4.
“They’re just kind of not helping at all,” said White. “They just trust their one-on-one defenders. Like, Cory Joseph’s not leaving me at all, which is probably a little different than most teams. So that, and then they’re just doing a good job of closing out and forcing us inside the line. They’re just trying to make things difficult.”
Twice, Porziņģis said Orlando has made games “muddy.” With their greatest weapon holstered, the Celtics have needed to show their other ways to score.
Could other teams follow Orlando’s defensive blueprint? They can try — and likely will try — but not many teams can trot out a rotation without any obvious weak links on defense. The Magic have size to throw at Tatum and Brown. They have competitors eager to challenge the defending champions.
“Both teams are just testing each other, the ability to execute,” said Mazzulla. “And they do a great job of that.”
“Orlando’s a really good team,” echoed Brown. “They’re coached well, they’re physical. Defensively, they’ve been great in this series. So it’s not over. We got to close ’em out (in Game 5) because we don’t want to come back here.”
(Top photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)