– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — Without three of their five regular starters available due to injury, the Orlando Magic needed to be almost perfect to come away with a road victory. Instead, they saw the Boston Celtics play the perfect second quarter, enough to carry them to a win that they almost let slip away in the second half.
Jaylen Brown scored 35 points with eight assists and Josh Minott scored 12 of his 16 points in the second quarter, a frame where the Celtics made 18 of 22 shots from the field, as the Celtics defeated the Orlando Magic 138-129 inside TD Garden on Sunday night. Anfernee Simons added 23 points while Payton Pritchard had 19 points and eight assists for the Celtics.
Orlando came into the game scoring at least 30 points in eight consecutive quarters, but after that streak was snapped in the first quarter, when the Celtics ended with a 32-27 lead, Boston exploded with a 48-point second quarter while shooting 81.8 percent from the field. Minott made all five shots from the field in the frame, including both of his three pointers, as the Celtics raced to an 80-57 lead at halftime.
The Magic played without leading scorer Paolo Banchero for a sixth straight game due to a strained groin, and were also without point guard Jalen Suggs (rest) and forward Wendell Carter Jr. (ankle). Jett Howard picked up the scoring slack for Orlando, pacing the Magic with a season-high 30 points, while Desmond Bane had 18 points and Franz Wagner added 15.
Magic rookie Jase Richardson hit a three-pointer at the 6:25 mark to cut the Celtics lead to 11 at 121-110, but, after a timeout, Brown scored 12 consecutive points for the Celtics to regain control, with his personal run starting on three-pointers in back-to-back possessions.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday 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 44 pictures in total.
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