The Boston Celtics rarely lose when they take a lead as big as 15. Such an unraveling did transpire against a heavily deprived Orlando Magic side. However, their resilience ultimately paved the way for a stunning upset. The Shamrocks, despite Jaylen Brown’s 35 points couldn’t hold on to their first-half lead. Orlando’s suffocating defense played a hand. However, Brown also felt they were “allowed” to do certain things.

Most recently in the game against the Chicago Bulls, the reigning Finals MVP called out the officials for ‘threatening’ players. Tonight, it wasn’t as severe, but JB felt the referees played to Orlando’s advantage. “Things wasn’t going our way. We felt like the officials were one sided,” he said after the game.

In particular, Brown felt Orlando was “allowed to be physical” which deterred the Celtics from their strong first-half showing. But rather than crucify the officials as he did before, the Celtics star feels the team needs to get used to such environments as the defending champions.

“I think we need to see that more, get used to that, and get more comfortable with that level of environment,” Brown said.

In terms of foul calls, again, the Celtics did beat the Magic in terms of free throw advantage. They attempted six more, but Orlando didn’t miss any of their 21 attempts. Furthermore, aside from Jaylen Brown, the Magic managed to limit Porzingis in the absence of Jaylen Brown. Also, the Celtics’ 8-man rotation seemed to backfire as their bench got outscored by 30 points tonight.

But even if the Orlando Magic did have an advantage, JB didn’t hesitate in giving them credit. He felt like they “set the tone” in the second half with their tenacity and ultimately that is what helped them win the game.

The Orlando Magic showed heart against the Boston Celtics

As mentioned, the Magic turned the game around. By the first half, even though they prevented the Celtics from making threes, a 15-point lead is hard to recover from. The Magic achieved to settle the equation in the third quarter. A lot of it was due to them flipping the script on the Boston Celtics.

Following a 20% three-point shooting first half, Orlando did tremendous damage from distance in the second half. They hit 10 threes in the second half, shooting 55.6% from three. Tristan da Silva and Trevelin Queen combined to make seven of those and were also the standout performers for the night.

But that wasn’t all. The Celtics weren’t shooting the ball well, but the Magic guarded the perimeter with their lives. The Shamrocks only made eight threes the entire game, their lowest mark so far this season. Furthermore, the 18 turnovers they forced was also the second-most for the Celtics.

All around, it was a display of heart and strong will. Without the Wagner brothers and Paolo Banchero, their top three scorers, the Magic ere written off even before the game began. But they proved that no mountain is big enough, thwarting the Shamrocks in their own backyard, only their fourth loss at home.

Hence, with such an inspiring effort, tonight was a win the Orlando Magic most certainly deserved.