Celtics vs Magic Game 2 Injury Report: Will Paolo Banchero Play Tonight?

The stage: Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs. Opponents: the defending champions, Boston Celtics. The battleground: TD Garden and its passionate crowd. That’s what the Orlando Magic have to go through to get out of the first round. Game 1 ended in a 103-86 loss for the Magic, with all the momentum now with the favorites, the Celtics, in their quest for a repeat. There were at least two positives with the Magic’s All-Star Paolo Banchero scoring 36 points, while Franz Wagner scored 23 points. 

At least, they are firing on all cylinders. But the rest of the squad didn’t offer much help to those two. On top of that, Derrick White had a 30-point game, which meant Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s 17 and 16 points outlay were enough for the win. But the Orlando Magic will surely be looking to regroup, analyze their mistakes, and come up with a different game plan for Game 2. Paolo Banchero played the most minutes (42) out of anyone, and it was surely a gruelling game for him. The Magic will need their star player to be in top form tonight. After such an exhausting game, did Banchero, by any chance, get hurt?

No, Paolo Banchero did not get hurt in Game 1 and is available to suit up for tonight’s Game 2 in TD Garden. He missed 34 games at the start of the season due to a torn right oblique, but any lingering issues from that injury are now long gone. So, Paolo would be rearing to go tonight. Despite the loss in the first game, the Magic power forward carried the team on his back along with Franz Wagner. The pair combined for 59 points of the Magic’s 86 points in the game. 

No one in the rest of the squad could register double-digit points in that game. For the Magic to take some games away from the Celtics and put up a fight in this series, Banchero and Wagner will definitely need scoring help. The likes of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cory Joseph, and the rest need to step up. 

The Magic are really missing Jalen Suggs (knee injury) and Moritz Wagner (torn ACL) since March and January 2025, respectively. So, it’s now up to the role players to share the scoring load of these two. Paolo Banchero is confident that the Magic have a good plan going into Game 2. Speaking to WESH after yesterday’s practice, he said, “Some of our communication on defence, the switching, how we wanna guard. We gave them some open threes. That hurt us. So, figuring that out, how we wanna clean the switches up. Offensively, just stuff we can do to keep the offence flowing. When the first action doesn’t work, how can we flow into the next action and get a good shot.”

The Celtics are the best three-point shooting team and average about 17.8 shots made per game, the league’s highest, with a 36.9% shooting percentage (8th in the league). On the other hand, the Orlando Magic rank last in three-point shooting percentage and rank 27th in offensive rating out of 30 teams in the NBA. So, the Magic need to really figure out the game plan. They are best when they force the other team to turnover the ball or make stops with their resilient defence and attack on the fast break. But the Celtics have four switchable perimeter defenders and a shot blocker in Kristaps Porzingis below the rim. So, the Magic will need to set the ball rolling from the first whistle and control the momentum of the game. 

Up until the playoffs, the Magic have done a good job of offsetting the loss of Jalen Suggs and Moritz Wagner for the remainder of the season. Suggs’ elite perimeter defence was especially missed in the first game. His teammates will surely be pumped to even the series tonight with Suggs cheering them on. 

Orlando Magic Predicted Lineup Against Celtics

Everyone from the Magic lineup from Game 1 is cleared to play tonight. For starters, it’s always good to have a healthy roster. With a new game plan, the Magic players will need to shake off their nerves and zone out the thunderous TD Garden crowd. Here’s how they are predicted to lineup for Game 2 against the Celtics tonight. 

So, will the Magic be able to forget the Game 1 blues and suck the life out of the arena to even the series? Or will the defending champions sweep the first two games of the first round? Whatever happens, it’ll be exciting to watch for sure. For the Magic, it’s a really tough but doable task.