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<\/a><\/p>\nWendell Carter, Jr NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Amare Williams
Ron Harper, Jr
Delano Banton
John Tonje<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
None
Injuries\/Out
Derrick White (knee) out
Neemias Queta (toe) out
Sam Hauser (back) doubtful
Jaylen Brown (Achilles) out
Jayson Tatum (injury management) out
Payton Pritchard (plantar fasciitis) doubtful
Nikola Vucevic (finger) doubtful
Hugo Gonzalez (foot) questionable<\/p>\n
Magic Reserves
Goga Bitadze
Anthony Black
Jamal Cain
Jevon Carter
Tristan daSilva
Noah Penda
Jase Richardon
Moritz Wagner<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Colin Castleton
Alex Morales
Injuries\/Out
Jett Howard (ankle) questionable
Jonathan Isaac (knee) questionable<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Jordan Walsh vs Paolo Banchero
Banchero is averaging 22.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game. He is shooting 46.2% from the field and 31.1% from beyond the arc. In 2 games against the Celtics this season, he averaged 21.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 50% from the field and 12.5% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
Hugo Gonzalez vs Franz Wagner
Wagner is averaging 20.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. He is shooting 48.5% from the field and 34.8% from beyond the arc. In 3 games against the Celtics this season, he averaged 20.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game while shooting 42.2% from the field and 25.0% from beyond the arc. Since Hugo is now questionable, if he can\u2019t play I would guess that Ron Harper, Jr starts here.
Honorable Mention
Baylor Scheierman vs Desmond Bane
Bane is averaging 20.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He is shooting 48.5% from the field and 39.2% from beyond the arc. In 3 games against the Celtics this season he averaged 16.3 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists while shooting 48.6% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – Defense is always the key to winning games. The Celtics are now 4th in the league with a defensive rating of 111.8. The Magic are 14th with a defensive rating of 113.7 In their last loss, the Celtics allowed the Knicks to shoot 53.8% from the field and 42.9% from beyond the arc. They were lax on defense and that cost them the game. The Celtics are going to have to work harder on defense than the Magic and lock down the Magic\u2019s shooters.<\/p>\n
Rebound – Rebounding is also a big key to winning The Magic are 19th with 43.3 rebounds per game while the Celtics are 3rd with 46.4 rebounds per game. They simply have to fight harder to grab rebounds than the Magic. Every Celtic has got to crash the boards and fight for every rebound. The Celtics can\u2019t score without the ball and a good way to get the ball is to crash the boards.<\/p>\n
Effort and Energy for 48 Minutesc- The Celtics have to play with extra effort overall for all 4 quarters. The Celtics are missing a lot of firepower on the injury list and so the best way to make up for that is to play harder than the Magic. The Celtics need to make playing with more effort and energy their identity for the upcoming playoffs and it needs to start with this game.<\/p>\n
Move the Ball Carefully – The Celtics play best when they share the ball and keep it moving. They can\u2019t try to do too much individually or the offense gets bogged down. They need to move the ball to find the best shots instead of taking quick shots or over dribbling. They have to move the ball carefully, however, and not turn the ball over. The Magic score 18.6 points off turnovers per game. If the Celtics get sloppy again, the Magic will make them pay.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
Celtics Pride at Home – The Celtics will have the home crowd behind them and that should give them a boost. The Magic will have all the distractions of playing on the road such as travel, hotel stay, and playing on an unfamiliar court in front of a hostile crowd. The Celtics need to be ready for a team that plays very hard for 48 minutes. The Celtics need to match the Magic\u2019s effort especially on the defensive end. The Celtics have to show pride and play harder than the Magic to protect their home court and get a win against this motivated Magic team.<\/p>\n
Next Man Up – The Celtics will be missing at least 4 and possibly as many as 7 players for this game. The stay ready group will get a chance to show that they are ready for playoff minutes and need to take advantage of that opportunity. They need to hit their shots and defend at a high level in order to beat the motivated and healthy Magic.<\/p>\n
Officiating – The officiating is always an x-factor. Some referees call the game tight and others let them play. Some favor the home team and others call it evenly. Some refs just seem to have an agenda that doesn\u2019t fit the events on the court. At times they miss important calls that change the momentum of the game. The Celtics need to play well enough not to leave the game in the hands of the officials at the end and they can\u2019t let bad calls take away from their focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic (45-36) at Boston Celtics (55-26)Sunday, April 12, 20266:00 PM ETRegular Season Game #82 Home Game #41TV:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[26218,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-228894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-celtics-game-previews","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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