– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — One can understand members of the Boston Celtics showing solidarity with injured superstar Jayson Tatum, yet Kristaps Porzingis might have taken that bit of camaraderie one step too far as he greeted his gruesome-looking injury he suffered on Wednesday night with a million-watt smile.
Porzingis had 20 points, 10 rebounds and one bloodied forehead, cut open by an elbow to the face in the third quarter, during the Celtics’ 109-100 victory over the Orlando Magic to take a 2-0 series lead in the first-round series inside TD Garden. Jaylen Brown led Boston with 36 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while Derrick White scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half.
Already playing with an inactive Tatum, who was ruled out of tonight’s game after suffering a bone bruise in his right wrist in the fourth quarter of Game 1, and a compromised Brown, who has been managing a troublesome right knee that reportedly required an injection not too long before the regular season ended, the Celtics witnessed their latest injury scare in the third quarter of tonight’s game when Porzingis fell to the floor on his back after a nasty shot to the head from Magic center Goga Bitadze that was later deemed to be a flagrant foul as both went up for a rebound. Despite the blood dripping onto his scalp while lying on his back and then down to his chin upon getting back to his feet, Porzingis was all smiles as he walked back toward the Celtics locker room to get patched up soon after he made one of the two flagrant foul free throws.
“I love my WWE moments, Porzingis said after the game. “We’re not going to let anybody punk us.”
Roughing up Porzingis like a pro wrestler seemed like the only thing the Magic could do to stop the Unicorn up to that point, as Porzingis had 15 points, six rebounds, two steals and two block in the first half alone.
The second half belonged to Brown and White, with the former scoring 22 points on 8-for-12 shooting in the game’s final two quarters. The coup de grâce came after Brown put on a series of between-the-leg dribbles before driving to the free throw line and shooting a high-arcing jumper over the outstretched arm of Paolo Banchero that seemed as if it reached the airspace the possible 19th championship banner would hang inside the arena before dropping through the hoop to give Boston a 100-89 lead with 3:17 remaining.
Payton Pritchard, who the presented with the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award in a ceremony before the game at center court, had 14 points and made three of his six three-point attempts.
Like Game 1, Banchero and Franz Wagner shouldered the bulk of the scoring load for the Magic, with the former leading the team with 32 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Wagner had 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting, but made just one of his seven three-pointers. Wendell Carter Jr. scored 16 points while Anthony Black had 11 off the bench, the two others outside of Banchero and Wagner who reached double figures in points for Orlando.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 47 pictures in total.
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