Speaking up after a two-point loss to the Orlando Magic on Friday, Celtics star Jaylen Brown opened up on the physicality in the series. According to Brown, patience is wearing thin for his team as they continue to face overwhelming physicality in the matchup, but coach Joe Mazzula says that it’s time for this team to adjust.
“I don’t know that he said it out of frustration, as he did from the perspective of doing whatever it takes to win. At the end of the day, that’s what the environment calls for is upping the physicality, and that’s what we have to do,” said Mazzulla in a chat with the media on Saturday. “That’s what the game calls for, the series calls for, and we have to be ready to do that.”
With size, strength, and overwhelming aggression under the rim, the Magic have made it a dogfight in the first round, and the Celtics are struggling to keep up. In Game 3, Boston was held to 93 points while the Magic committed 23 fouls, including a flagrant against Cole Anthony. Brown says it’s gone beyond the point of being acceptable.
“We’re supposed to be playing basketball,” Brown said. “That’s what it’s about, playing basketball, getting up and down. The flagrant fouls are piling up, you know what I mean? They got away with a lot. So if you get away with it, I would do it too.”
With a 2-1 lead in the series, the Celtics still carry all the momentum, but the Magic are not going down easily. Through the first three games, Orlando has been called for 63 fouls, up 11 compared to the Celtics. All three games have been relatively low-scoring, with Boston averaging 101.6 points per game in the series (down from 116.3 in the regular season).
Kristaps Porzingis doubled down on Brown’s statement and even provided a name for the Magic’s hyper-physical playstyle: “borderline fouling.”
“They’re just borderline fouling. That’s what it is. Borderline fouling – and fouling. And some of it they call it, of course, and some of it they don’t,” said Kristaps, via Jay King. “And that’s how it’s going to be. We have to accept the reality and also we can use that. It’s not that there’s only one way, it’s both ways. So we also have to, for sure, we get away with some stuff that they’re catching, they’re scratching their heads. So it’s just how the game is right now. It is a pretty big difference from (the) regular season. You have to make that adjustment as a player and not expect anything. You just go out there and play through contact, play through it.”
The Magic have totaled three flagrant fouls in just the first round alone, more than doubling the total of all other teams combined. With Paolo Banchero leading the way, Orlando has a very clear strategy that involves trying to bully the Celtics out of the series.
So far, the Celtics still hold the advantage, up 2-1 with at least two more games back at the TD Garden. If they can adjust to the physicality and continue to pressure the officials into calling more fouls, the Celtics will likely cruise through the rest of this series.
Still, the Orlando Magic are going to fight hard until the bitter end, and they will do whatever it takes to maximize their chances for an upset, even if it means blurring the lines between playing physical defense and outright fouling the shooter.
