April 25, 2025 • 23 mins
The final 30 seconds of Game 3 were total chaos. Inadvertent whistles and game and shot clock concerns helped the Orlando Magic sneak out with a 95-93 win over the Boston Celtics. This was a defensive slugfest reminiscent of the early 2000s, with both teams struggling to score. We’re diving in and sounding off on everything that happened, including those final 30 seconds, before taking a few comments from our fans on what went down.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Sound Off with me folks on Total Chaos. During the
final thirty seconds of Game three, Orlando wound up grabbing
a ninety five to ninety three win to cut Boston
series lead down to two to one, and we're gonna
get into exactly how that happened tonight on SoundOff. Welcome
into the SoundOff Postgame Pod, Ladies and gentlemen. We do
(00:28):
this every single night after every single game. Audio podcast
available every night, and for home games, we've also got
the video available on the Celtics YouTube page, So make
sure you tune in. We appreciate you listening and watching,
and make sure you please click subscribe and comment when
you can. All right, make sure you also send in
(00:49):
your comments, by the way, after every single game. This
podcast is all about you. We take your analysis, we
take your comments, so make sure you send them into
me or the Final Buzzer after every game and you
might be a part of the next show. All right,
let's dive into exactly what went down. Let's concentrate on
the final thirty seconds of this game, because that seems
(01:12):
to be the tipping point of what wound up being
a two point win for the Orlando Magic. All right,
So Jason Tatum grabs a rebound with about thirty two
thirty three seconds left, winds up hitting Derek Oy and
the Celtics are down by four. Winds up hitting Derek
White in transition, and d White gets to the rim
for an uncontested dunk. It only took about five or
(01:33):
six seconds from the moment Tatum grabbed the rebound to
the moment Derek White slammed it home. By the way,
it was a Derek White type of slam. He just
kind of like dropped it in, but we'll call it
a dunk. So within six five or six seconds, the
Celtics go from down four to down two. It was
about a best case scenario for them in terms of
(01:53):
how quickly they were able to shave that lead in half. Now,
next up, Orlando winds up bringing the ball down court.
The ball went through the net, I believe. With twenty
eight point one left on the clock against Celtics down
by two, Polo ben Cao Okay starts to bring the
ball up the court, gets around mid court and Jason
(02:14):
Tatum is hounding him. I mean, great defense from Jason Tatum.
Knowing that the Celtics will be best benefited by being
able to force a turnover or just force Orlando's offense
and in particular their best offensive player into a little
bit of an uncomfortable situation. That's exactly what Jason Tatum
did right around half court. Now seconds later, after Polo
(02:41):
had had the ball for about ten seconds and Orlando
had had the ball for about ten seconds, the referees
blew the whistle and wound up calling an eight second
violation on ben Caro. However, upon review, they said that
Tatum actually poked the ball away from Ben Caro shortly
after ben Caro cross mid court, and that is what
(03:03):
brought Ben Carroll back into the back court. So in
the end it wound up not being in a second violation.
It also was not an over and back. But here's
why that is such an important moment of the game,
and it's for two reasons. Number One, as I was
(03:23):
just describing, Jason Tatum was all over Ben Carrow at
half court. Like Ben Carroll, he had the ball, but
he was on his heels. It was a great defensive
moment for Jason Tatum, making Ben Carroll feel uncomfortable. He
was facing away from Orlando's basket at mid court with
the ball. That is the worst situation that you want
(03:46):
to be in as a basketball player, other than being
trapped in the corner when you are facing away from
your basket at mid court. That is not a good position.
So had the whistle not been blown, the Celtics might
have been able to force a turnover. And at the
very least, they had the Orlando Magic feeling very uncomfortable
(04:06):
as they went in to the middle portion in the
late portion of the shot clock. So you're also potentially
putting Orlando in a tough position to get a good
look at the basket. So that's number one, is that
had the whistle not happened, Boston might have forced an
earlier miss and maybe would have forced a turnover. They
(04:28):
didn't get that chance because the whistle was blown. The
second part of this, and I got to call out
Brian Scalabrini on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast. Great job
by him calling this out. Derek White's basket was scored
with twenty eight point one seconds left. The referees blew
(04:48):
the whistle for the Benkero call was seventeen point eight
seconds left. Somehow, there was still fourteen seconds left on
the shot clock for the Orlando Magic. That should not
have been the case. The reason is because if you
do the math from twenty eight point one down to
(05:15):
seventeen point eight, So if you do the math from
twenty eight point one seconds down to seventeen point eight seconds,
that is more than ten seconds, and now ten seconds
coming off the shot clock would have been at fourteen.
The Magic got the ball side out out of this
(05:35):
inadvertent whistle call with fourteen seconds left on the shot clock,
so technically they were gaining point three seconds. Again, the
whistle was blown was seventeen point eight left, which was
ten point three seconds after Derrick White's basket ten point three, okay,
(05:59):
So Orlando basically was gifted by this whistle being called
and by them not looking at the clock and figuring
out the numbers, Orlando gained zero point three seconds. Now,
when you see the way that this game ended, which
we'll get into in just a moment, that point three
seconds would have been very, very very important in the moment.
(06:22):
I don't think the Celtics caught it. I don't think
the refs caught it. Maybe the Magic caught it and
didn't say anything. Great job by the scorekeeper there, doing
a great job with the clock for the Orlando Magic.
You gotta love it, hey, Karl Anthony Towns just said
the same thing last night for the game in Detroit.
Shout out to the Detroit scorekeepers for being able to
(06:43):
try to keep Detroit in the game. But this happened
and it wound up costing the Celtics, so twofold. With
this whistle number one, the Celtics were their opportunity to
potentially force a turnover while the Magic were in a
very uncomfortable position, was taken away by this whistle. Also,
this whistle wound up gifting the Orlando Magic point three seconds.
(07:05):
It took in extra point three seconds off the clock
that wound up mattering because of what happened in the
ensuing seconds. Orlando inbounds the ball with fourteen seconds left.
Coming out of this inadvertent whistle, They wind up shooting
a shot, a three pointer by Franz Wagner at the
right wing at the very end of their shot clock.
Props to Orlando. They ran the clock down all the
(07:27):
way to the end. They missed the three pointer. A
long rebound is grabbed by Jason Tatum with about one
point two seconds left, one second to one point two
seconds left is about when his hands touched the ball.
Joe Miszula already calling for a time out at that point,
Al Horford already calling for a time out. At that point,
Jason Tatum already starting to motion for a time out.
(07:48):
At that point, the Celtics are calling four time out.
They were given a timeout with point three seconds left
on the clock. They go into the time out and
everyone is thinking, Okay, they're gonna put some time back
on the clock because we know that they called time
out with more than point three left on the game clock.
(08:09):
But we come back from commercial break and the refs
didn't do it. They did not review it. They did
not put more time back on the clock. And one
of the referees actually came over to Drew Carter and
Brian Scalabrinian explained that this was not an opportunity for
them to actually go to the review and find out
how much time should have been on the clock. It
(08:31):
sounded after the game like Drew Carter acquired some information
that had the refs just decided, hey, we saw this
on the clock, we saw them call time out with
point seven they could have added time, but it was
not a situation where they could have gone over to
the sideline the scorer's table and actually video reviewed it.
So they didn't video review it. They did not think
(08:52):
that they got the time wrong. No time was put
back on the clock. So the Celtics were coming out
of a timeout with point three left. That's enough for
a potential catch and shoot, but that's a desperation situation.
They basically had to tip a ball in and it
didn't happen, so they weren't able to tie the game.
But let's add all of this up. If let's say
(09:12):
it was point three seconds left, which it wasn't, but
let's say that it was, and that's what the Celtics
were given for the final possession of the game. Had
that whistle not happened earlier, and had the magic not
been gifted point three seconds, that would have meant that
point six seconds would have been on the clock for
the Celtics right there. Then, on top of that, you
(09:34):
add in the fact that the Celtics probably lost about
a half a second on the clock from when they
actually called time out to when it was awarded and
where the clock went to you could add another point
five seconds on there. So from point six now or sorry,
from point three, you add that other point three on,
we're at point six. Then you add another half a
second on you're at one point one. Right there, that
(09:55):
is enough time to take a dribble, to catch the ball,
move into a different direction, and get a shot off,
as opposed to being saddled with the only opportunity essentially
being a tippin' on the inbounds pass to try to
tie the game. So this was total chaos during the
final thirty seconds. Every night in the NBA, some calls
(10:16):
are going to go your way and some calls aren't. Tonight,
these couple of calls, these whistles, these lack of reviews,
just didn't go Boston's way. And it happens. But it's
a tough pill to swallow when you're in a series
where you could have gone up three to zero. And
we all know the history that no team in the
(10:38):
history of the NBA has ever come back from being
down three games to none in an NBA playoff series.
So tough pill to swallow for the Celtics. After the
end of this game, I think they're going to be
thinking about this one all night. There's no question about it.
They're going to be thinking about the ways that they
could have avoided this loss, including those whistles not going
their way during the final thirty seconds. But then they're
(11:00):
gonna move on and they're gonna come back to the
court Sunday after Sunday evening and try to grab a
three to one series win. All right, So how exactly
did Orlando win this game? I'm gonna give you just
a few quick reasons. Then we're gonna get into some
fan commentary. So, first and foremost, Boston was uncharacteristically loose
with the ball tonight. Nineteen turnovers from a team that
(11:21):
averaged less than twelve per game throughout the entire regular season.
The Celtics were the second best team in the NBA
at taking care of the ball. They didn't do it tonight.
Six turnovers during the first quarter kind of set the tone.
Seven turnovers on the night from Jason Tatum and his
first game back after missing one. Six turnovers from Jalen Brown.
That is how you let an inferior opponent compete with
(11:45):
you in a playoff series. It happened tonight. Orlando scored
twenty eight points off of turnovers. The Celtics scored six.
That's a twenty two point advantage in points off turnovers.
So the Celtics can't allow themselves to turn the ball
over against a team that doesn't have as much talent
as them. On top of that, Christos Porzingis had a
(12:05):
very tough night offensively, just totally seemed out a rhythm.
We'll talk about that a little bit later. But only
seven points on ten shots. That is not the type
of efficiency that we are accustomed to seeing out of him.
And then next up, the Celtics only got three total
points on three total shots from Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser.
(12:25):
Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser came off the bench and
attempted a total combined three shots. That's not enough. That
is not enough for those two guys. They are so talented.
And Peyton Pritchard just outscored Orlando's bench all by himself
in a game earlier in the series in game two,
So we got to get Peyton Pritchard more opportunities, We
(12:46):
got to get Sam Hauser more opportunities. Three shots for
those two guys is simply not enough. Oh and by
the way, the last reason the Celtics were without jew
Holiday tonight and that is a big deal this game
due to a right hamstring strain. Let's hope that he'll
be back for Game four on Sunday, but we'll have
to wait and see how that all shakes out over
(13:08):
the next forty eight hours, so we shall see. All right,
Let's dive into some fan comments after this game. First up,
we got the Sorus who's saying this was the worst
Celtics game in how long we're gonna find out in
just a moment. Next up, we've got Stephanie who gives
some context to this narrow loss. And then lastly we've
got John Silver with a comment on some thoughts about
(13:29):
Sunday's upcoming, very very important Game four. So here's the
first one coming in. This is from the Sourus. All right,
the sous first up comment of the night. Here, it
is ugliest second half the Celts have played in months.
Reckless turnovers, stagnant offense, standing around watching bad ISO possessions,
(13:54):
not nearly enough movement without the ball. And I'm gonna
leave off the final part of this because we're not
allowed to talk about that. But Lesaurus, let's dive into this.
So ugliest hat the Celtics played in months. Probably true.
I mean, the Celtics were unbelievably dominant for the final
couple months of the season, starting basically at the end
(14:14):
of January into the beginning of February. They were dominant
for those final couple of months, just taking care of
business night in and night out, playing at a super
super high level. Let's dive into the second half tonight.
With those turnovers, with the stagnant offense, io possessions, I
saw the same thing. I think the Celtics are going
(14:35):
to see the same thing on film. They weren't moving
the ball quite as much. They were playing a little
bit of hero basketball here and there throughout the second half.
But here's the numbers. Ten turnovers during the second half
alone that led to thirteen points for the Orlando Magic.
The Celtics shot the Celtics okay, the number two offense
in the entire NBA shot thirty two zero point four
(14:58):
percent from the field. That does not happen with this team. Now,
credit to Orlando. They were the number two defense in
the league. So listen, they've got a track record of
being able to slow teams down and being able to
impose themselves defensively. They did it tonight. They played a
big reason and how and why the Celtics played so
(15:20):
poorly on offense during the second half and really for
the whole game during this contest. But thirty two point
four percent from the field during the second half, only
two made three pointers on thirteen attempts. This just does
not happen with the Boston Celtics. So again, you gotta
give credit where credit is due. The Orlando Magic defense
(15:42):
imposed its will on Boston's offense and the Celtics were
out of sync during that second half. Still they somehow
had a chance to win. We're going to talk about
that during our next comment from Stephanie. But yeah, some
bad ISO possessions during that second half. Just felt like
guys were in and around and ball watching a little
bit and trying to take some hero shots. Now, credit
(16:05):
to the Celtics is they've got a lot of players
that can make those hero shots, and they've been doing
it for a long time, especially winning the championship last season,
winning another sixty one games this season during the regular season,
and even through the first couple games of this series.
You know that those guys can make them. But you loved.
You'd much more appreciate seeing the ball move and seeing
(16:27):
these guys trying to get into a rhythm as a unit,
especially when the offense just doesn't seem to be working
the way that it normally is. That's an easy way
to get out of it, okay, is by playing as
a unit, moving the ball, cutting off the ball, passing,
not taking an early shot, not taking a shot with
only a pass or two on a possession. So that's
(16:50):
an area where the Celtics can certainly improve during Game
four on Sunday. Let's hope that it happens. But the Sours,
I think you're right on with this. One of the
worst haves the Cels have played in a long long time,
and still they wound up only losing by two. All right, folks.
Comment number two of the night coming in from Stephanie.
(17:11):
This one says the Magic needed the perfect alignment of
everything in order to win by a single basket. I
think we'll bounce back no problem on Sunday. All right,
Let's go down the list of things that happened in
favor of the Orlando Magic during this game. Number one,
Drew Holliday didn't play. Number two Franz Wagner, huge offensive
(17:34):
game thirty two points. Number three Paulo Benkaro also twenty
nine points. So their two best players were excellent offensively
in being able to provide. The magic was scoring. All right,
Let's keep going down the list. Christas porzingis a terrible
night for his standards, a negative sixteen in the plus
minus category, only seven points on ten shots. This is
(17:56):
a guy who's one of the most efficient big men
in the league. In tonight he was at the other
end of the spectrum. Just an inefficient basketball game from him.
Not accustomed to seeing this, which makes me think that
he's gonna bounce back here moving forward. We'll keep going
down the list. Peyton Pritchard only three points on two
shot attempts. That's not like Pritchard. We usually see him
(18:18):
hovering around eight to ten shots in a game, especially
when he's in his rhythm. Did not get that tonight.
Sam Houser did not score a point, and you only
get six other points off the bench from Luke Cornett,
so Boston's bench really did not make much of an
impact outside of a couple of stretches there. For Luke Cornett,
who played about nineteen and a half minutes during this game.
(18:38):
The turnovers nineteen turnovers for the Celtics, whoever's less than
twelve over the entire eighty two game regular season, totally
uncharacteristic of them, but it happened in this game, and
it was another thing that wound up giving the Orlando
Magic a chance to win. Now, last, but not least,
we got to talk again about those whistle during the
(19:00):
final thirty seconds. You know, the first one kind of
takes the Celtics out of rhythm when they feel like
they're applying some pressure at half court to Polo Bencero.
Game totally could have changed if that possession just continued.
And then also when the whistle was blown, Orlando wound
up being able to take an extra point three seconds
off the shot clock. Then we go to that final
(19:21):
one where the Celtics grab the rebound Jason Tatum grabs
it looked like he called time out with the at
least point seven seconds left on the clock, and the
Celtics are only awarded a timeout with point three seconds
left on the clock. So you add all of this up, folks,
Drew Holliday, out Ben Caro, and Franz Wagner having a
great game. Christas Porzingi is not playing well at all.
(19:42):
Peyton Pritchard and Sam House are only scoring three total
points and taking three total shots. The Celtics getting the
short end of the stick on a couple of calls
during the final thirty seconds or whistles that didn't go
their way, and still Orlando only wins by two points.
That to me, Folks says that the Celtics are in
very good shape heading into the rest of the series.
(20:04):
To your point, Stephanie, you think they'll bounce back no
problem on Sunday. That's what my money would be on.
That's what I'm hoping is the case. We're gonna have
to wait and find out when Game four arrives Sunday
afternoons sorry set Sunday evening down in Orlando. Here it
is last comment of the night coming in from John Silver,
who says Celtics are fine. All right, johnn you sound
(20:27):
like Stephanie in our last comment. All right. Continuing on
with this comment, Orlando can't score over one hundred. Celtics
wins Sunday and close it in five. Magic play, very
physical defense, good test. All right. The most important part
of this comment to me is the part that says
Orlando can't score over one hundred and that is literally
(20:49):
a true story in this series. So far, we are
three games into this series in Orlando has scored one
hundred points at its maximum six points during Game one,
one hundred points in Game two, ninety five points in
Game three. This Magic team does not have a lot
of offensive firepower. The Celtics, on the other hand, do.
(21:13):
They've broken one hundred twice out of three games in
this series. Tonight, they didn't have much of an offensive
rhythm throughout the entire game. But you've just got to
imagine that the Celtics, who are the second best offense
in the entire NBA throughout the regular season, they're going
to find a way to score points, and I don't
think that the Magic quite have enough firepower to figure
(21:36):
out how to score enough points to keep up with
the Celtics. Again, tonight, Orlando really asserted itself defensively and
held the Celtics to ninety three points. That is impressive,
but I just don't think that that is sustainable of
keeping the Celtics team slowed down that much with a
defensive approach. So John, I am right with you on
(21:58):
this I think the Celtics are fine. It would have
been I used to have won this game and having
gone up three to zero on a Friday night with
a chance to close this out on Sunday, but it
didn't happen. But we move into Game four. I think
the Celtics are pretty confident in what they are putting
together defensively against this Orlando team that got a combined
what was it, sixty one points tonight out of their
(22:22):
top two players and only thirty four points from the
entire rest of the roster. So I think the Celtics
are going to be pretty confident about what they can
do defensively as this series moves forward, and I think
they're going to be pretty confident about being able to
put up one hundred plus points in all of the
games here moving forward. So Game four in Orlando tip
off at seven o'clock Nationally, you can catch the game
(22:44):
on TNT and locally, you can catch the game with
Drew Scale and Abby on NBC Sports Boston. Make sure
you tune into that game and make sure you send
in your comments after the final buzzer. Come be a
part of the sound off postgame pod with me until then,
enjoy your weekend. We will see you Sunday, s
Sound Off with me folks on Total Chaos. During the
final thirty seconds of Game three, Orlando wound up grabbing
a ninety five to ninety three win to cut Boston
series lead down to two to one, and we're gonna
get into exactly how that happened tonight on SoundOff. Welcome
into the SoundOff Postgame Pod, Ladies and gentlemen. We do
(00:28):
this every single night after every single game. Audio podcast
available every night, and for home games, we've also got
the video available on the Celtics YouTube page, So make
sure you tune in. We appreciate you listening and watching,
and make sure you please click subscribe and comment when
you can. All right, make sure you also send in
(00:49):
your comments, by the way, after every single game. This
podcast is all about you. We take your analysis, we
take your comments, so make sure you send them into
me or the Final Buzzer after every game and you
might be a part of the next show. All right,
let's dive into exactly what went down. Let's concentrate on
the final thirty seconds of this game, because that seems
(01:12):
to be the tipping point of what wound up being
a two point win for the Orlando Magic. All right,
So Jason Tatum grabs a rebound with about thirty two
thirty three seconds left, winds up hitting Derek Oy and
the Celtics are down by four. Winds up hitting Derek
White in transition, and d White gets to the rim
for an uncontested dunk. It only took about five or
(01:33):
six seconds from the moment Tatum grabbed the rebound to
the moment Derek White slammed it home. By the way,
it was a Derek White type of slam. He just
kind of like dropped it in, but we'll call it
a dunk. So within six five or six seconds, the
Celtics go from down four to down two. It was
about a best case scenario for them in terms of
(01:53):
how quickly they were able to shave that lead in half. Now,
next up, Orlando winds up bringing the ball down court.
The ball went through the net, I believe. With twenty
eight point one left on the clock against Celtics down
by two, Polo ben Cao Okay starts to bring the
ball up the court, gets around mid court and Jason
(02:14):
Tatum is hounding him. I mean, great defense from Jason Tatum.
Knowing that the Celtics will be best benefited by being
able to force a turnover or just force Orlando's offense
and in particular their best offensive player into a little
bit of an uncomfortable situation. That's exactly what Jason Tatum
did right around half court. Now seconds later, after Polo
(02:41):
had had the ball for about ten seconds and Orlando
had had the ball for about ten seconds, the referees
blew the whistle and wound up calling an eight second
violation on ben Caro. However, upon review, they said that
Tatum actually poked the ball away from Ben Caro shortly
after ben Caro cross mid court, and that is what
(03:03):
brought Ben Carroll back into the back court. So in
the end it wound up not being in a second violation.
It also was not an over and back. But here's
why that is such an important moment of the game,
and it's for two reasons. Number One, as I was
(03:23):
just describing, Jason Tatum was all over Ben Carrow at
half court. Like Ben Carroll, he had the ball, but
he was on his heels. It was a great defensive
moment for Jason Tatum, making Ben Carroll feel uncomfortable. He
was facing away from Orlando's basket at mid court with
the ball. That is the worst situation that you want
(03:46):
to be in as a basketball player, other than being
trapped in the corner when you are facing away from
your basket at mid court. That is not a good position.
So had the whistle not been blown, the Celtics might
have been able to force a turnover. And at the
very least, they had the Orlando Magic feeling very uncomfortable
(04:06):
as they went in to the middle portion in the
late portion of the shot clock. So you're also potentially
putting Orlando in a tough position to get a good
look at the basket. So that's number one, is that
had the whistle not happened, Boston might have forced an
earlier miss and maybe would have forced a turnover. They
(04:28):
didn't get that chance because the whistle was blown. The
second part of this, and I got to call out
Brian Scalabrini on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast. Great job
by him calling this out. Derek White's basket was scored
with twenty eight point one seconds left. The referees blew
(04:48):
the whistle for the Benkero call was seventeen point eight
seconds left. Somehow, there was still fourteen seconds left on
the shot clock for the Orlando Magic. That should not
have been the case. The reason is because if you
do the math from twenty eight point one down to
(05:15):
seventeen point eight, So if you do the math from
twenty eight point one seconds down to seventeen point eight seconds,
that is more than ten seconds, and now ten seconds
coming off the shot clock would have been at fourteen.
The Magic got the ball side out out of this
(05:35):
inadvertent whistle call with fourteen seconds left on the shot clock,
so technically they were gaining point three seconds. Again, the
whistle was blown was seventeen point eight left, which was
ten point three seconds after Derrick White's basket ten point three, okay,
(05:59):
So Orlando basically was gifted by this whistle being called
and by them not looking at the clock and figuring
out the numbers, Orlando gained zero point three seconds. Now,
when you see the way that this game ended, which
we'll get into in just a moment, that point three
seconds would have been very, very very important in the moment.
(06:22):
I don't think the Celtics caught it. I don't think
the refs caught it. Maybe the Magic caught it and
didn't say anything. Great job by the scorekeeper there, doing
a great job with the clock for the Orlando Magic.
You gotta love it, hey, Karl Anthony Towns just said
the same thing last night for the game in Detroit.
Shout out to the Detroit scorekeepers for being able to
(06:43):
try to keep Detroit in the game. But this happened
and it wound up costing the Celtics, so twofold. With
this whistle number one, the Celtics were their opportunity to
potentially force a turnover while the Magic were in a
very uncomfortable position, was taken away by this whistle. Also,
this whistle wound up gifting the Orlando Magic point three seconds.
(07:05):
It took in extra point three seconds off the clock
that wound up mattering because of what happened in the
ensuing seconds. Orlando inbounds the ball with fourteen seconds left.
Coming out of this inadvertent whistle, They wind up shooting
a shot, a three pointer by Franz Wagner at the
right wing at the very end of their shot clock.
Props to Orlando. They ran the clock down all the
(07:27):
way to the end. They missed the three pointer. A
long rebound is grabbed by Jason Tatum with about one
point two seconds left, one second to one point two
seconds left is about when his hands touched the ball.
Joe Miszula already calling for a time out at that point,
Al Horford already calling for a time out. At that point,
Jason Tatum already starting to motion for a time out.
(07:48):
At that point, the Celtics are calling four time out.
They were given a timeout with point three seconds left
on the clock. They go into the time out and
everyone is thinking, Okay, they're gonna put some time back
on the clock because we know that they called time
out with more than point three left on the game clock.
(08:09):
But we come back from commercial break and the refs
didn't do it. They did not review it. They did
not put more time back on the clock. And one
of the referees actually came over to Drew Carter and
Brian Scalabrinian explained that this was not an opportunity for
them to actually go to the review and find out
how much time should have been on the clock. It
(08:31):
sounded after the game like Drew Carter acquired some information
that had the refs just decided, hey, we saw this
on the clock, we saw them call time out with
point seven they could have added time, but it was
not a situation where they could have gone over to
the sideline the scorer's table and actually video reviewed it.
So they didn't video review it. They did not think
(08:52):
that they got the time wrong. No time was put
back on the clock. So the Celtics were coming out
of a timeout with point three left. That's enough for
a potential catch and shoot, but that's a desperation situation.
They basically had to tip a ball in and it
didn't happen, so they weren't able to tie the game.
But let's add all of this up. If let's say
(09:12):
it was point three seconds left, which it wasn't, but
let's say that it was, and that's what the Celtics
were given for the final possession of the game. Had
that whistle not happened earlier, and had the magic not
been gifted point three seconds, that would have meant that
point six seconds would have been on the clock for
the Celtics right there. Then, on top of that, you
(09:34):
add in the fact that the Celtics probably lost about
a half a second on the clock from when they
actually called time out to when it was awarded and
where the clock went to you could add another point
five seconds on there. So from point six now or sorry,
from point three, you add that other point three on,
we're at point six. Then you add another half a
second on you're at one point one. Right there, that
(09:55):
is enough time to take a dribble, to catch the ball,
move into a different direction, and get a shot off,
as opposed to being saddled with the only opportunity essentially
being a tippin' on the inbounds pass to try to
tie the game. So this was total chaos during the
final thirty seconds. Every night in the NBA, some calls
(10:16):
are going to go your way and some calls aren't. Tonight,
these couple of calls, these whistles, these lack of reviews,
just didn't go Boston's way. And it happens. But it's
a tough pill to swallow when you're in a series
where you could have gone up three to zero. And
we all know the history that no team in the
(10:38):
history of the NBA has ever come back from being
down three games to none in an NBA playoff series.
So tough pill to swallow for the Celtics. After the
end of this game, I think they're going to be
thinking about this one all night. There's no question about it.
They're going to be thinking about the ways that they
could have avoided this loss, including those whistles not going
their way during the final thirty seconds. But then they're
(11:00):
gonna move on and they're gonna come back to the
court Sunday after Sunday evening and try to grab a
three to one series win. All right, So how exactly
did Orlando win this game? I'm gonna give you just
a few quick reasons. Then we're gonna get into some
fan commentary. So, first and foremost, Boston was uncharacteristically loose
with the ball tonight. Nineteen turnovers from a team that
(11:21):
averaged less than twelve per game throughout the entire regular season.
The Celtics were the second best team in the NBA
at taking care of the ball. They didn't do it tonight.
Six turnovers during the first quarter kind of set the tone.
Seven turnovers on the night from Jason Tatum and his
first game back after missing one. Six turnovers from Jalen Brown.
That is how you let an inferior opponent compete with
(11:45):
you in a playoff series. It happened tonight. Orlando scored
twenty eight points off of turnovers. The Celtics scored six.
That's a twenty two point advantage in points off turnovers.
So the Celtics can't allow themselves to turn the ball
over against a team that doesn't have as much talent
as them. On top of that, Christos Porzingis had a
(12:05):
very tough night offensively, just totally seemed out a rhythm.
We'll talk about that a little bit later. But only
seven points on ten shots. That is not the type
of efficiency that we are accustomed to seeing out of him.
And then next up, the Celtics only got three total
points on three total shots from Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser.
(12:25):
Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser came off the bench and
attempted a total combined three shots. That's not enough. That
is not enough for those two guys. They are so talented.
And Peyton Pritchard just outscored Orlando's bench all by himself
in a game earlier in the series in game two,
So we got to get Peyton Pritchard more opportunities, We
(12:46):
got to get Sam Hauser more opportunities. Three shots for
those two guys is simply not enough. Oh and by
the way, the last reason the Celtics were without jew
Holiday tonight and that is a big deal this game
due to a right hamstring strain. Let's hope that he'll
be back for Game four on Sunday, but we'll have
to wait and see how that all shakes out over
(13:08):
the next forty eight hours, so we shall see. All right,
Let's dive into some fan comments after this game. First up,
we got the Sorus who's saying this was the worst
Celtics game in how long we're gonna find out in
just a moment. Next up, we've got Stephanie who gives
some context to this narrow loss. And then lastly we've
got John Silver with a comment on some thoughts about
(13:29):
Sunday's upcoming, very very important Game four. So here's the
first one coming in. This is from the Sourus. All right,
the sous first up comment of the night. Here, it
is ugliest second half the Celts have played in months.
Reckless turnovers, stagnant offense, standing around watching bad ISO possessions,
(13:54):
not nearly enough movement without the ball. And I'm gonna
leave off the final part of this because we're not
allowed to talk about that. But Lesaurus, let's dive into this.
So ugliest hat the Celtics played in months. Probably true.
I mean, the Celtics were unbelievably dominant for the final
couple months of the season, starting basically at the end
(14:14):
of January into the beginning of February. They were dominant
for those final couple of months, just taking care of
business night in and night out, playing at a super
super high level. Let's dive into the second half tonight.
With those turnovers, with the stagnant offense, io possessions, I
saw the same thing. I think the Celtics are going
(14:35):
to see the same thing on film. They weren't moving
the ball quite as much. They were playing a little
bit of hero basketball here and there throughout the second half.
But here's the numbers. Ten turnovers during the second half
alone that led to thirteen points for the Orlando Magic.
The Celtics shot the Celtics okay, the number two offense
in the entire NBA shot thirty two zero point four
(14:58):
percent from the field. That does not happen with this team. Now,
credit to Orlando. They were the number two defense in
the league. So listen, they've got a track record of
being able to slow teams down and being able to
impose themselves defensively. They did it tonight. They played a
big reason and how and why the Celtics played so
(15:20):
poorly on offense during the second half and really for
the whole game during this contest. But thirty two point
four percent from the field during the second half, only
two made three pointers on thirteen attempts. This just does
not happen with the Boston Celtics. So again, you gotta
give credit where credit is due. The Orlando Magic defense
(15:42):
imposed its will on Boston's offense and the Celtics were
out of sync during that second half. Still they somehow
had a chance to win. We're going to talk about
that during our next comment from Stephanie. But yeah, some
bad ISO possessions during that second half. Just felt like
guys were in and around and ball watching a little
bit and trying to take some hero shots. Now, credit
(16:05):
to the Celtics is they've got a lot of players
that can make those hero shots, and they've been doing
it for a long time, especially winning the championship last season,
winning another sixty one games this season during the regular season,
and even through the first couple games of this series.
You know that those guys can make them. But you loved.
You'd much more appreciate seeing the ball move and seeing
(16:27):
these guys trying to get into a rhythm as a unit,
especially when the offense just doesn't seem to be working
the way that it normally is. That's an easy way
to get out of it, okay, is by playing as
a unit, moving the ball, cutting off the ball, passing,
not taking an early shot, not taking a shot with
only a pass or two on a possession. So that's
(16:50):
an area where the Celtics can certainly improve during Game
four on Sunday. Let's hope that it happens. But the Sours,
I think you're right on with this. One of the
worst haves the Cels have played in a long long time,
and still they wound up only losing by two. All right, folks.
Comment number two of the night coming in from Stephanie.
(17:11):
This one says the Magic needed the perfect alignment of
everything in order to win by a single basket. I
think we'll bounce back no problem on Sunday. All right,
Let's go down the list of things that happened in
favor of the Orlando Magic during this game. Number one,
Drew Holliday didn't play. Number two Franz Wagner, huge offensive
(17:34):
game thirty two points. Number three Paulo Benkaro also twenty
nine points. So their two best players were excellent offensively
in being able to provide. The magic was scoring. All right,
Let's keep going down the list. Christas porzingis a terrible
night for his standards, a negative sixteen in the plus
minus category, only seven points on ten shots. This is
(17:56):
a guy who's one of the most efficient big men
in the league. In tonight he was at the other
end of the spectrum. Just an inefficient basketball game from him.
Not accustomed to seeing this, which makes me think that
he's gonna bounce back here moving forward. We'll keep going
down the list. Peyton Pritchard only three points on two
shot attempts. That's not like Pritchard. We usually see him
(18:18):
hovering around eight to ten shots in a game, especially
when he's in his rhythm. Did not get that tonight.
Sam Houser did not score a point, and you only
get six other points off the bench from Luke Cornett,
so Boston's bench really did not make much of an
impact outside of a couple of stretches there. For Luke Cornett,
who played about nineteen and a half minutes during this game.
(18:38):
The turnovers nineteen turnovers for the Celtics, whoever's less than
twelve over the entire eighty two game regular season, totally
uncharacteristic of them, but it happened in this game, and
it was another thing that wound up giving the Orlando
Magic a chance to win. Now, last, but not least,
we got to talk again about those whistle during the
(19:00):
final thirty seconds. You know, the first one kind of
takes the Celtics out of rhythm when they feel like
they're applying some pressure at half court to Polo Bencero.
Game totally could have changed if that possession just continued.
And then also when the whistle was blown, Orlando wound
up being able to take an extra point three seconds
off the shot clock. Then we go to that final
(19:21):
one where the Celtics grab the rebound Jason Tatum grabs
it looked like he called time out with the at
least point seven seconds left on the clock, and the
Celtics are only awarded a timeout with point three seconds
left on the clock. So you add all of this up, folks,
Drew Holliday, out Ben Caro, and Franz Wagner having a
great game. Christas Porzingi is not playing well at all.
(19:42):
Peyton Pritchard and Sam House are only scoring three total
points and taking three total shots. The Celtics getting the
short end of the stick on a couple of calls
during the final thirty seconds or whistles that didn't go
their way, and still Orlando only wins by two points.
That to me, Folks says that the Celtics are in
very good shape heading into the rest of the series.
(20:04):
To your point, Stephanie, you think they'll bounce back no
problem on Sunday. That's what my money would be on.
That's what I'm hoping is the case. We're gonna have
to wait and find out when Game four arrives Sunday
afternoons sorry set Sunday evening down in Orlando. Here it
is last comment of the night coming in from John Silver,
who says Celtics are fine. All right, johnn you sound
(20:27):
like Stephanie in our last comment. All right. Continuing on
with this comment, Orlando can't score over one hundred. Celtics
wins Sunday and close it in five. Magic play, very
physical defense, good test. All right. The most important part
of this comment to me is the part that says
Orlando can't score over one hundred and that is literally
(20:49):
a true story in this series. So far, we are
three games into this series in Orlando has scored one
hundred points at its maximum six points during Game one,
one hundred points in Game two, ninety five points in
Game three. This Magic team does not have a lot
of offensive firepower. The Celtics, on the other hand, do.
(21:13):
They've broken one hundred twice out of three games in
this series. Tonight, they didn't have much of an offensive
rhythm throughout the entire game. But you've just got to
imagine that the Celtics, who are the second best offense
in the entire NBA throughout the regular season, they're going
to find a way to score points, and I don't
think that the Magic quite have enough firepower to figure
(21:36):
out how to score enough points to keep up with
the Celtics. Again, tonight, Orlando really asserted itself defensively and
held the Celtics to ninety three points. That is impressive,
but I just don't think that that is sustainable of
keeping the Celtics team slowed down that much with a
defensive approach. So John, I am right with you on
(21:58):
this I think the Celtics are fine. It would have
been I used to have won this game and having
gone up three to zero on a Friday night with
a chance to close this out on Sunday, but it
didn't happen. But we move into Game four. I think
the Celtics are pretty confident in what they are putting
together defensively against this Orlando team that got a combined
what was it, sixty one points tonight out of their
(22:22):
top two players and only thirty four points from the
entire rest of the roster. So I think the Celtics
are going to be pretty confident about what they can
do defensively as this series moves forward, and I think
they're going to be pretty confident about being able to
put up one hundred plus points in all of the
games here moving forward. So Game four in Orlando tip
off at seven o'clock Nationally, you can catch the game
(22:44):
on TNT and locally, you can catch the game with
Drew Scale and Abby on NBC Sports Boston. Make sure
you tune into that game and make sure you send
in your comments after the final buzzer. Come be a
part of the sound off postgame pod with me until then,
enjoy your weekend. We will see you Sunday, s
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