The Boston Celtics’ UNEXPECTED challenge from the Orlando Magic | Will the series end in Game 5?

The Boston Celtics’ UNEXPECTED challenge from the Orlando Magic | Will the series end in Game 5?

The Orlando Magic face elimination in game five on Tuesday. So, how did we get here? What has happened that we expected? What we didn’t expect? And what will we learn from the series today on Locked On Magic? You are Locked on Magic, your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is April 29th, 2025. My name is Philip Rosenberg. I’m the senior writer over at Orlandomogicaily.com. Credential member of the Orlando Magic Media since 20 the 2010 season. It’s been that long. You can, of course, check out my work at Orlandomogicaily.com. Follow me on Twitter, philipr_momd, and on blue sky, phiprr. On today’s episode of Locked On Magic, we are joined once again by Locked on Celtics John Carales to break down what we’ve learned from the series so far, what we expected to happen, what actually has happened, what we’ve learned about each other’s teams, and what to expect in game five and beyond. We’ll also uh bury the hatchet on a few things. Be nice in the comments, everybody. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. First, we want to thank you again for making Lockdown Magic your first listen of the day. Every day we’re part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. We truly appreciate our everyday listeners and appreciate you all for making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. Again, Locked On Podcast Network is here for you every day, your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked On Magic is brought to you by the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. Turn any TV into your Xbox. No console needed. Head to amazon.comfiretvlocked to learn more. Game five is almost here. If you make it to 8:30, congratulations. Um, the Orlando Magic will take on the Boston Celtics here in Boston. If you can tell, uh, if you’re watching on YouTube, I am in the hotel. Um, in Boston getting ready for game five. Uh, and obviously it is do or die time for the Orlando Magic is obviously this is it. There is no more after this. You either win or you’re done. And obviously, it’s going to be a very difficult challenge. This series has been a difficult challenge for the Orlando Magic from the very beginning. So, it is no surprise that this series is going to come down to that. It’s no surprise that this series is going to come down to a very difficult finish. The Celtics are a very good team. But still, there’s a lot that we’ve learned and we’re going to go over more of the things that we’ve learned from the series later on in the week and certainly once the series is over, we will talk about that. But, uh, as we did last year, as we hit game game five of the series, I kind of wanted to get a check-in on how we’re feeling, uh, and how this series has gone for both teams. So, we’re going to be joined once again by John Carales of Locked on Celtics to break down the Orlando Magic Boston Celtics series. What we’ve learned, what we haven’t learned, reasons for optimism, reasons for pessimism, what we expected to happen, and what has actually happened. And we’re going to get to that coming up here in just a moment. And we’re back in the 617. So we’re we’re ready to rock and roll here. Uh so so Philip Rosman Reich, what’s your what’s your feeling here as the Celtics? Look, it’s a 3-1 Celtics lead. It’s been a hardfought 3-1 Celtics lead. I know my reasons for optimism and pes pessimism are at the bottom of the uh list here on the YouTube rundown, but I got to think that coming out of this so far I know I know Orlando Magic fans you you want to win obviously, but you got to feel good about how hard you’re pushing the Celtics. Yeah, I I I agree completely. Like looking at this series, you understand how difficult a challenge the Celtics are. I mean, Jamal Mosley has said on several occasions, this is a championship team and and and maybe that’s setting expectations the way they need to be set, just like kind of understating how difficult the challenge is facing this Celtics team and all the weapons that they have and and and just how the Magic have to even when they won, they they had to play perfect. They had to play really well. Boston like Boston Yeah, I think T the TNT guy said this. Boston had to make the mistakes to allow Orlando to win. Yeah. But but knowing how difficult this series was going to be because it is still a 27. It’s a you know 50 win 50 60 win team going up against a 41 and 41 team. The biggest thing I wanted to exit this series with if the Magic weren’t going to win was just knowing that Paulo Bane Carol and France Vagner can can play well in a playoff series against an elite defense like Boston’s. Um, for Paulo it was I wanted confirmation that last year, you know, averaging 27 points per game against the Cavs in a sevengame series wasn’t just he did it against the Cavs. It’s something he’s going to do every series of his career at this point. Now, that should be the expectation. This will be this he will be able to to pick apart, dissect elite defenses when everything is geared against him. Uh for France Vagner, it was a little bit about redemption and and and about saying, “Okay, he had an up and down playoff series last year against Cleveland. You know, we don’t need to get into the game seven stuff as much, but I wanted to see him be able to do what he’s doing now, just be able to consistently score and find his spots again against an elite defensive team.” I think we’ve focused so much on Orlando being an elite defensive team. We forget Boston’s also, yeah, a top five defense. Um and and honestly like the biggest turning point in the series has been Drew Holidayiday’s absence and in my opinion that’s that to me that is like the reason why the Magic have been able to be competitive in in games three and four besides coming home which always gives you a little bit of a boost too. Sure. Um it it feels like to me the Magic have are exiting this series knowing we’ve got not just two all-star level players but we got two guys that are going to show up for us in in the biggest moments in the biggest games. Yeah, losing Holiday is really not the best thing for for Boston. He was so impactful when you look at games one and two in in like he he made the difference uh in those first two games where whenever Boston was making their their runs and looking like the Celtics he was in the middle of that and and the Celtics haven’t been able to really bother Paulo Beno the same way uh since Holiday went down. He’s just so his ability to absorb contact, dish out contact, get, you know, quick hands, you know, disrupting dribbles, all of that stuff. It’s it’s a little bit different. And look, shout out to Payton Pritchard for actually holding his own in a lot of these situations, like better than I thought. It’s still not Drew Holiday. But when I look at more than more than that with Drew Holiday, just not to not to cut into the biggest the biggest difference for me is Orlando is trying to like control tempo and play faster. Drew Holl because Orlando just doesn’t have a natural point guard and certainly not an elite level one that can deal with Drew Holiday defense. When Holiday gets into the back court and picks up full court, it just it just gums everything up. Yeah. And and you know, obviously he’s out for game five now, too. they they ultimately may not need him, but that to me was the biggest difference between games one and two and games three and four is Orlando was able to get a little bit of a flow offensively because they were able to just bring the ball up the court more comfortably than than they did when when Drew was out there. For sure. For sure. And so I I look at what I expected and what’s actually happening. Um I expected the Boston offense to run a little bit more smoothly. I expected the the Orlando defense to be good, but I honestly, you know, I said this in my my last podcast, the postgame uh postgame four, the Magic are are executing their game plan about as well as any team. If you if you were just to take all of the playoff teams and say this is what your plan was, how closely are you sticking to the plan? I think Orlando might be the most closely like this is what we’ve wanted to do. We’re doing it and we’re doing it better than maybe even Orlando expected. Um I feel like I feel like if I’m on the Orlando side of things, I’m like, man, Jamal Mosley is the dude. like he’s he’s the guy and he’s getting these guys to do to to take these guys forward. And I don’t I don’t know whether there were ever any questions about that, but uh I think of, you know, I’m coming out of this series with a a strong level of respect for what Orlando is able to do without Jaylen Suggs, right? without Movagner, without without key guys that who knows how they would have impacted the series, but um I expected it to be a little easier. Let’s let’s let’s put it this way. If if Jaylen Suggs and Mo Vagger were healthy, this is a second round series. Like the the Magic are not Let’s Let’s leave that right there. Um, I I I would say like the I would say the Magic have really been very disciplined in how they defend the three-point line and not coming off the shooters. Like game one, they got a little they got loose with it. they they crash down on some they’re they’re finding the right moments to crash down and and leave shooters and and usually it’s kind of later in the game when maybe the the Celtics are a little bit out of rhythm and and the game’s gotten clunky enough that that they’re a little more confident that okay, the rhythm’s not there. But I I’m look, I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Like the biggest surprise to me is that Boston hasn’t shot as well. Certainly the last two games they did not shoot as well as as I think their looks would would dictate. Now they’re getting fewer looks and so that allows some variance. You know, like if Boston takes 47 threes and they make 33% 34% of them, that’s probably 12 13 14 and that’s probably too much for the Magic to to to catch up with and deal with because they’re only taking 33 32 27, you know, that’s nine. And that’s that’s a number that even the Magic can match. And so I think the the Magic being able to match that three-point number is what’s helped keep these games closer. Obviously like game one, it feels like the outlier and feels like the game where the Celtics played the most like the Celtics, but even that took them some time to to find their rhythm. Uh Orlando, I think, has been really really disciplined in how they defend the three-point line. And you know the MA the Magic players Paulo talked about this after after game four specifically about the late stage of that game how Boston kind of baited them into shots that they didn’t want to take. I feel like throughout this series Orlando’s done a very good job kind of forcing this, for lack of a better way to phrase it, forcing the Celtics to play like the Magic. This very ISO heavy offense. This like pick your matchup and go at him. We’re going to force you to mid-range jumpers. we’re gonna dare, you know, we’re gonna put a small on Christoph Forzingis and say go to the basket. And and honestly, like if not for foul trouble in game four, the Celtics probably win that game running away because Forzing was finally attacking the basket. Orlando had to shift how how they were defending because he was finally rolling to the rim and trying to play at the rim rather than kind of turning around doing hooks and and and you know, shots that he should make. I you know, I think Porzingius is probably not very happy with how he’s played overall in this. Oh yeah, sure. Um but but those are shots that he should be making and shots the Magic are just kind of like that that’s what you have to concede when you’re playing an offense like Boston. You got to pick what you’re going to give up. And I think Orlando has just been very happy to trade two to to give up twos instead of threes as long as those twos are contested mid-range shots as long as they’re kind of the the shots they want them to take. And you know, again, the Celtics are good enough that they’re going to make some of those shots like that that Jason Tatum fadeaway um that made it a six-point game in game four. That’s a shot the Magic are happy with him taking. He’s going to make that. He’s going to make that and make those in big spots. Yeah, I I think I think the the Magic defense is making the Celtics see ghosts a little bit on the floor. Um, and that plays into some of the misses and some of why um I think makes you doubt yourself. It it does. It does. I think I think it’s bothering the Celtics. I’ll get into that. Let let me get in explain why I think especially Porzingis has been bothered by that ultimately probably a good thing. Uh, but what Orlando’s defense is doing to Boston and why I completely misread the third quarter watching it live. I’ll talk about all that when I come back. Today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. 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Stay on the same page without all that stress. Take control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use the code lockdown at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code lockdown NBA for half off your first year. Thank you for making Locked On Celtics your first listen or Locked On uh Magic your first listen. Uh really happy to have you on board both shows. Make sure that you are uh checking out locked on NBA game night every night until end the uh champion crowns which uh I hope to be covering live at some point still in play. Uh, you can get local analysis on a national scale. F find NBA game night and I’m there on Fridays with Jake Madison of Lockdown Pelicans. Uh, find it wherever you find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Uh, so when I looked at the third quarter when I was watching it live, I’m like, man, the Celtics are just going iso iso iso. But it wasn’t really I think I I think it was a it was more of a make miss quarter than I gave Boston credit for. I think they were actually trying to find certain things. I was I was really really impressed with some of the the things that Orlando was doing defensively. Um, there was one play where we talk about the Celtics need to run more offball action and they did and it got it set up a perfect Jason Tatum uh Kristoff Porzingis Alup. You had Derek White on the top left running what looked like a pick and roll with Jaylen Brown. That was a diversion. on the right wing. Jason and and KP were doing their thing and Jason gets the ball. It looks like two are going to the ball, but it ends up being a ve a late switch. Uh I forget who it was that went over to to Porzingis and then all of a sudden there’s Jason Tatum with the ball and time running off the clock and now he’s in the middle of the paint going away because he was expecting to throw the lob. He was trying to draw the defense to throw the lob and now he’s going away from the rim and now everybody’s covered. And I think at first blush we can look at a game and be like a situation like that was Jason just being ISO. And really that was the Celtics working very hard and the Magic going, “Nope, we’re not giving you anything. We’re once Jason gets the ball, we’re okay. We are just gonna be okay with he’s gonna have to create. And it sounds insane to say we’re okay with Jason Tatum creating, but what ends up happening is you you’ve given yourselves a chance. The Magic offense isn’t good enough. No, not to take advantage of that. But as I said before, the game plan is actually working. You’re giving yourselves a chance. It’s just there’s no way to capitalize on those chances because KCP isn’t hitting a thing. uh you know, you’re you’re getting anyone anyone outside of Palo or Fron is just you just you don’t know what you’re going to get and you can’t create because Boston’s defense is so good and they don’t have to worry about the shooting as much. Paulo and Fron are in a situation where they don’t always trust their teammates to make those shots. And and again, this is the difference between Boston and Orlando. And what Orlando has to kind of try and and and has successfully in many in many cases done is make Tatum and Brown not trust or not see their teammates who are open or or make that the window to make that pass to get them in rotation is just so small and so quick. It takes Wendell Carter tripping on a screen to get that Porzingis lob that that on that huge play. It takes like a slip up. And look, it is it is really hard to play this kind of defense for 48 minutes. Yeah. And in the moments when the Magic are slipping, like the beginning of the third quarter, game one, beginning of the third quarter, game two, um the fourth part of the fourth quarter and game three, um that the Magic the Magic, and this has been the story all year for the Magic, the offense just doesn’t sustain enough and the defense kind of buckles and collapses. It it it it braces a little bit. Some water gets through the dam, whatever you want to use. It it it’s it’s a slow trickle, but but it can be enough because especially in this kind of a game, the offense just isn’t there. Like, you know, Paulo took what 32 shots, FS took 22, no one else had more than eight, it the the shot profile in game four was very similar to game one. And when you become that one-dimensional, when the ball doesn’t move that much, uh it it just becomes difficult. And some of it is like they’re right. How can I trust Contavius Colop who shot 34% from three, has made what, three, four three-pointers, five three-pointers the entire series so far. How can I trust him to make that shot? How can I trust to move the ball? And on top of that, Boston’s also very good about playing passing lanes and being disciplined and staying staying in areas where they can wall off the paint, but also get back to shooters. It’s it’s again, a lot of credit Orlando’s offense is bad, but we also have to give a lot of credit to Boston’s defense. They have they have played a very strong defensive series as well. KCP is four of 16. Yeah. From three. Um just just to hammer home your point. No, like the the but this is the difference, right? The the difference is uh there’s one play a Derek White three-pointer late third quarter. They’re running a pick and roll. Uh, I think it’s with Porzingis and Corey Joseph just takes he forgets for a second for a second and he takes one step too too far. Yep. And and two guys go to KP and and now Cory Joseph understands that. He’s like, “Oh, nope. I’m stay I’m supposed to stay. Too late.” Derek White hits the three-pointer and you’re like, “Oh, man.” Like he you can see him like that was on me. It’s that you could and you can feel like especially in that building in the Kia Center, you could feel like the the like air rushing out of the balloon a little bit like just Yeah. They have to be so on point. Yeah. And it’s not it’s it’s it’s plays like that. It’s like Paulo being a step too close. Like it’s I think there’s I think there’s been several plays where Jonathan Isaac whose instinct is I’m going to protect the rim and block the shot, but that means you’re leaving Al Horford open in the corner. That means you’re leaving someone open in the corner and you know like the Magic rely very heavily on the low man. That’s that’s a big part of their defense. Their low man kind of overplays to protect the to protect the rim just provide a you know show another body. You can’t do that against Boston because they’re going to find that guy in the corner and you’re not gonna be able to close close out in time or you know you’ll have to shift and then they’ll pass to the wing and it’ll be a swing swing. Uh this is why the Celtics are a championship team. Yeah. You have to pick what you’re going to give up and you still have to be perfect to make up for it. And especially a team like Orlando that that you know, I don’t know if we’re going to get to the physicality of everything in this series in the third segment or not coming up here. Um the Magic have to like kind of hold this hold this team down like limiting possessions, making this thing as ugly as possible, being willing to foul just to knock guys out of rhythm. It’s it’s not even so much about we’re just foul they’re just fouling to foul. They’re fouling because you don’t want to see the ball go through the hoop almost. You don’t you know you want you want them to think twice about going in the paint. Um they have to do you know it’s it’s been said everywhere. Teams that muck games up like this are doing it because they have a talent deficit. The Magic have a talent deficit. They can’t score 120 points. They have they’ve done a good job. The Celtics have scored 110 once in this series if I’m not mistaken. Um it’s it’s the Magic haven’t the Magic haven’t hit 100 this series if I’m not mistaken as well. 109 was Boston 109. Yeah. Yeah. So like they have to play this way to give themselves a chance. And you know as much as we’re praising the Magic’s defense and lamenting the Celtics offense if as if I’m not mistaken Boston has like a 117 offensive rating in the series. It doesn’t feel like it because the scores are so low. Um, but the Celtics have found enough pockets to to make the Magic hurt and the Magic just don’t have the force to keep up. It’s it’s allow frowns and it’s made what the Magic need to do this offseason just so blatantly obvious. Yeah. Well, Boston, according to basketball reference, uh, their offensive rating is 113.7. These are the ghosts that I’m talking about. Yeah. Um the the Celtics, you know, for all the talk about how perfect you have to be, um I think Porzingis, like he he he talked a little bit about it. The Celtics when they catch and turn, they expect either someone to be there or to get hit. And sometimes they’re open, but when you turn and you don’t expect to be open, there’s like a oh, you know, and then that that’s those are the ghosts that I’m talking about. And and that’s why I think it’s been hard for the Celtics to get on some of these runs. The runs, the opportunity for extended runs have been there, right? And I think this is this is where uh when I talk about optimism and pessimism, the the optimism for me is I see Celtics runs just sitting there. They haven’t hit the shots to make that happen. I’ll explain that in just a second. Today’s show is brought to you by Wayfair. I’ve talked about this. You know, half my house is Wayfair. My my wife whenever she wants to to redecorate a little bit. I can tell my texts end up being a bunch of Wayfair links. Um, and you know what? Spring is here, so it’s home project season. So, if you want to refresh a room, tackle a full renovation. Wayfair is the best kept secret for all things home improvement. So, if you want something small like a stylish cabinet, hardware uh change, or maybe like a major upgrade, new vanity, outdoor lighting, Wayfair has quality products for every budget. Uh, their free and fast shipping makes everything easy. No hauling heavy items from the store. I I know they’ve got the top brands like GE and mowing at great prices. 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Like, it’s it’s the playoffs are heated. Like, this is a Stop your whining about the physicality, Boston fans. Stop it. And like Yeah. And then Celtics fans like this is the dirtiest team ever these guys. Oh my god. Why don’t you just get the fat? If John and I can be friends, you all can be friends too. We’re gonna like honest honestly like the the self like we’ve talked about this a lot and and somewhat to player annoyance actually. Like we all kind of see the Paulo Fron duo as as like the next iteration of the the Tatum Jaylen Brown duo. And so we see like the Magic Magic fans see the Magic growing in the same like direction, the same way that the Celtics grew and and developed um as a team and into a contender. And guess what? These two teams are going to see each other in the playoffs again. Tatum and Brown are too young. Paulo and Fron are too young. The Celtics are the are the gatekeepers to the to the title. We’re gonna we’re this is going to happen again. And and and so, you know, it’s just just be prepared for it. And and all this bad blood may still be there. I don’t even know if it’s bad blood. I think there’s some gamesmanship going on. There’s honestly like I I’d be curious what you think about this, John. I think some of I think some of the talk is the Celtics are like, “We’re the two seed. Why are we playing this team? Why why is why why is our reward for being the two seed playing a team that probably should be the four of the five defends really hard?” Like, we want we want we wanted an easy five games. Yeah, we wanted Atlanta. We wanted Trey Young to have that one game where he goes off and that’s that’s the that’s the courtesy that we give them. I just watched the Cavs beat the Miami Heat by 2,000 points. Like, where was that? Where is that? Well, we could all we could all celebrate that, right? I think everybody here is happy about that. Ding dong. The Heat are dead. Heater dead. Um, I think I think the Florida teams will all be done uh by the end of I I I I suspect so too. By the end of Tuesday, early Wednesday morning. But well, knowing knowing knowing how long these games go will be Wednesday morning. It’ll be Thursday. Uh my optimism for the Celtics is again I I I rewatched it’s I almost feel bad like and I don’t know why I was so far off my my feeling about the third quarter of game four was so negative for the Celtics and then I just finished re-watching and I was like that wasn’t that wasn’t that bad. They still Seluk’s lost that quarter by one, but it’s like, man, if if they just first of all, if they just hit a couple of shots that were were open, uh, welcome to my world. Yeah. Right. And I I think if they get those shots at home, there might be a little bit more of, you know, and and it starts with Payton Pritchard and getting some some more from Sam Hower. It’s it it’s more um figuring out, you know, the the the right combinations for Porzingis pick and rolls. Like I have come to the conclusion that you shouldn’t run Porzingis pick and roll with Jason Tatum because Tatum generally has a bigger defender and they’re just going to switch that anyway. So you got to run your pick and roll with Porzingis with you got to switch Gary Harris. you gotta switch Gary Harris or Corey Joseph or Anthony or you know and the Magic are switching less now than they did earlier in the series. I think they especially with the way Porzingis was attacking the rim early in that game. Um I I think they’ve they’ve decided we we can’t afford to have Cory Joseph be the main defender because we can’t crack down because of the shooting. You know, it’s just they’re they’re starting to switch a little bit less on that specific action. But if it’s a if it’s a Tatum Porzingis pick and roll, they’re cool with Paulo or Fron guarding Porzingis. And they’re very comfortable with Wendell Carter. I mean, Wendell Carter, the the Celtics have targeted him a little bit, and Jaylen Brown’s gotten shots over him. Tatum’s gotten shots over him, but for a center guarding those players in space, I I honestly like I I think Wendle Carter’s had an awesome defensive series. Um he’s held his own. Um it’s not a favorable matchup and he’s gotten beat a few times. He’s committed a few fouls. It hasn’t been perfect, but like Wendell Carter has been the lynch pin of this whole defense. His ability to defend out on the perimeter and Magic fans have been banging on him because his shooting’s not been what it needs to be. He’s very kind of limited as a as a center in the paint because he’s just not an above the rim player. Um, but his his defense, I think, has been as important as anything else the Magic have had to stay in in some of these games. Yeah. So, I I I still think that with all of that, the Celtics still have opportunities. Yeah. To hit shots. They are um they’re shooting what where are their percentages here? 44 a.5% overall and 30 less than 35% from three, which is it’s not it’s not Celtics basketball. It’s not um their passing has dropped off a cliff because they uh uh you know the Magic have been cutting off a lot of those kickouts and all of that stuff. The Celtics know that they need to move the ball a little bit more. Um maybe I think maybe game five there might there might be a little a little bit of an opportunity for the Celtics to just kind of be like put them away and and I just don’t know it it hurt I was going to say I don’t know if the the Magic are going to have that fight for the full 48. Yeah, there’s there like we’ve all seen these elimination games especially these road elimination games. There comes a point in every one of those games where the team, you know, unless like we don’t I don’t think any of us think the Magic are going to be playing from ahead. It’s it’s going to be a tight nip and tuck battle. If the Magic win the game, it’s going to be because it’s very very tight. They’re not going to come out, shoot, you know, 50% from three, make 15 threes, and blow the game open. Like that’s that’s just that’s just, you know, there is a universe where that happens. It it the odds of it being this universe are very very low. Um there there comes a point in every single one of these elimination games where the the winning team lays that heavy punch that that that one last run go up by 12 15 the coach calls a timeout to try and slow it down and the will just goes away and it’s just gone. Yeah. And and the Magic have always been very good like this the thing that defines this team is that they don’t quit. Um, you know, they they could have they could have lost by 20 25 in game one. They they really I think fought hard. I know they only they still lost by 17, but they fought hard. Game two, they lost by what 10. Um, and now that game probably should have been a 15 20 point game. Like they’re they’re gonna that like most for the most part they’ll play to the final whistle. And there are honestly a lot of opport there was a you know they could have folded in game three um heading down to heading into the half down 10. You know, there are several moments where BA where like they couldn’t just get over that hill in game four and Boston could have like put together some put together those shots to bury them. It does feel like that’s how game five is going to go. It’s probably going to be very similar to game four where it’s like nip and tuck within five, six, seven points for most of the first half and then Boston’s going to hit a run where they go up by double digits and the Magic are going to have to ask themselves the question, do we still want to do this? Like we’ve had we’ve had to be perfect. Like game four, Paulo looked gassed. Like Paulo Vancerero just looked tired. Yeah. A lot of his shots were falling short. And you could just kind of see the mental and physical strain on him. And I still think like Paulo and Fron will probably get their numbers. They’ll get 20 25 points each. Can they get the third the 60 combined that they need to win to win this game? And keep the team in it. Um because you know it becomes like now you’re desperate. Now you’re you know like now you’re trying to do stuff that you don’t normally do like the Magic did at the end of game four uh when they were trying desperately to get back in that game with some trapping and some and some other things to speed the game up. And that’s how these these these these things go. Like it’s it’s not, you know, the Magic could lose by 25 and it’s not indicative of how close or or far this this series is. It’s just we all like we all see Cancun on the horizon. It it it it’s human it’s human nature. It it it sucks. No one like no one likes it, but we we all we all when vacation’s on the on the way, we we see it. The one thing and this is going to be the the line that pisses off Magic fans. What I don’t want to what I don’t want to see is the frustration. I don’t want to see that either. You know what I mean? Like no, like there’s look, I’ll make Celtics fans happy. There have been some straight shves that the Magic have done that they should not be doing. Like there there like there’s some there’s some hip check there’s been some hip fouls. This has been a 32minute trap. You got it. You No, there there there have definitely been some hip check fouls and there’s definitely For sure. For sure. Like the fl the flagrant fouls were, you know, kind of hard playoff fouls. Those happen, but yeah, there’s been little hip checks, little bumps, little, you know, little bruises. The Magic are they are definitely doing them intentionally. Um they’re not to the level of a flagrant foul, but they they’re they’re there to bother the Celtics. They’re there to do that. I agree. I I I do not you know, if it’s a you know, if if the thing is getting away from them, you know, no cross-checking, no like no guys, like no nothing risky at that point. It’s just like, you know, just get to the end of the game, you know, and and and you know, give Caleb Houston a dunk. Like that’s that’s that’s all we want at the end of the day. If you don’t know that story, we should all be cheering for Caleb Houston to get his first dunk if if if that if it comes to that, we should all be cheering for it. Uh, all right. Well, appreciate you, man. Thank you. I’ll see you at the arena. Yep. It’s it’s been it’s been a pleasure. This has been uh if if this is the end, maybe it’s not, but if this is the end, uh it it this has been a a fantastic series. Uh I’m sure Boston feels like they have learned a lot about themselves for the rest of their journey. Um hopefully they get some time to be healthy. So go Pistons. Um uh and I I think the Magic have learned a lot as they continue to develop and and grow into what they hope will be a title contending team. But you you just never know with these things. So it’s been it’s I think it’s been a productive series for both franchises. I’m going to wrap it up by throwing the Magic fans a bone. I’ve been I’ve been on the Magic bandwagon for a couple years. I know you haven’t caught the right brakes. Ton of respect. As much as I’ve complained about the hard fouls, I know that that’s part of the plan. And if the situation was reversed, I’d be celebrating it if Boston had to do it. Um, I think I think Magic are in a good place. I think Mosley is a good coach. Uh, he’s got them playing super hard. So, no matter how this goes, a ton of respect to the Magic for how they’ve played. This is this is if it’s a 4-1 series, definitely didn’t feel like it was 4-1. So, um, and a ton of respect to the Magic fans showing out in the comments because you got to you got to support your team. So, Yep. All right. Thanks everybody. Thanks. Appreciate it, guys. I want to thank John once again for having me on the show, for joining the show, for doing whatever. Uh, John does an amazing job covering the lockdown Celtics. Again, he he literally wrote the book on Celtics history. He has a book on Celtics history. He has a book on last year’s championship team as well. Go check that out. Go check out uh his work as well at Locked on Celtics. It’s one of my favorite Locked On podcast, one of my favorite listens. And regardless of what happens in this series, I will be cheering for the Celtics the rest of the way. No bad blood here. No no hard feelings here. It’s just basketball. Um so appreciate John uh once again for joining the show and providing his insight on this series and on on what he’s seen from the Magic as well as what Boston has done in this series. But that’s going to do it for me today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked on Magic. Of course, find me on Twitter, philipr_omd. Subscribe to the podcast, Apple Podcast, search tun Spotify, Odyssey, and all the way podcast to your podcast enables device. You can find us as well on YouTube. Search for Locked on Magic. We’re also on Instagram and on Twitter, locked magic. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out Orlando Magicaily.com. You can find us there on Twitter, OMagic Daily. And for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, Orlando Magic Hub, at patreon.com/orland Magic Hub. I will have a report from shootaround in the morning up on my Patreon page. Again, that’s patreon.commagichub. Now that you’re done listening to us, be sure to make the Locked On NBA Game Night podcast your second listen of the day. Every night until an NBA champion is crowned, get local analysis on a national scale. That’s the power of the Locked on Podcast Network. Find NBA Game Night on Locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. That’s going to do it for me today, though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked on Magic. We will see you tomorrow night from TD Garden to Rap Game Five and we’ll see uh whether I can make it to my 6 a.m. flight to get back for exit reviews if the Magic lose. We’ll do that on tomorrow’s episode of Locked on Magic. But until then, for Orlando Magic Daily and Locked on Magic, this has been Phil Rosman Knight. We’ll see you again next time for another episode of Locked on Magic.

The Orlando Magic’s disciplined defense has seemingly caught the Boston Celtics by surprise. While the series is 3-1 headed back to Boston, the Magic have given the Celtics all they can handle even if they ultimately may fall short.

Both the Magic and Celtics have gotten something out of this series as it draws to its conclusion.

Locked On Magic’s Philip Rossman-Reich and Locked Celtics’ John Karalis break down the first four games of the series, what has gone to plan and what has been unexpected and a whole lot more as the teams prepare for an elimination Game 5 at TD Garden.

0:00 Intro: Celtics lead Magic 3-1 in series
5:07 Holiday’s absence impacts Celtics’ defense
15:34 Magic’s defense forcing Celtics to adjust
25:06 Celtics’ shooting struggles and opportunities
30:42 Game 5 predictions and series reflections

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