BOSTON — Kristaps Porziņģis sat confused by a Celtics performance in Toronto lacking spirit and personality. Jrue Holiday shook the defeat and recent stretch off two days later, glad Boston could play again in short order and unsure why they’ve had issues with the starting lineup and effort. He summed it up to January. It happens.
Joe Mazzulla, who admitted Boston didn’t play well at either end in the loss, returned to the podium two days loving it. He wouldn’t tell each player how to react, but entered Friday’s back-to-back sure that the team will turn it around following a 7-7 stretch. He even showed some urgency by playing Porziņģis and Al Horford in the first of the two nights.
“You don’t rush it. To me, this is the fun part,” he said. “(It’s) why you enter the arena and why you do what you do, and anyone who’s not in the arena, you don’t have skin in the game, it really doesn’t matter … this is why you go after something that’s extremely hard to do, is for the challenge of it. To have an expectation of it being anything other than challenging is the wrong way to attack.”
Mazzulla also alluded to his voice behind the scene, saying it’s on everyone to respond and they did with a team effort win over the hurting Magic, 121-94. Eight Celtics hit threes and five converted multiple. And as bad as Orlando’s injury report looked coming in, the Magic handed an ugly defeat to Boston in Florida last month with key starters missing.
The Celtics’ effort looked more serious from the open possession, defending into Magic player’s bodies until Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Jrue Holiday got the offense moving, finding Kristaps Porzingis inside for a pair of baskets while Jaylen Brown made an extra pass from the corner with time to shoot to get Derrick White going after the latter missed his first layup try. Several plays later, White stopped-and-started in the post — looking like himself.
The Magic didn’t stop though, punching out offensive rebounds, finding the open space against Boston’s defense and running to make up for Franz Wagner, Moe Wagner, Goga Bitadze, Jalen Suggs and Gary Harris’ absences. Paolo Banchero played on a minutes restriction. The Celtics started 8-for-10 and hit their first three from deep, Porzingis made all four of his shots in the opening quarter, plus a pair of free throws as the starters gave Boston a rare 19-13 cushion. The bench held the line until a poorly managed possession…
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