Tatum out with illness, Celtics blow lead in loss to Magic

Just minutes before their game tipped off in Orlando on Monday night, Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum remained in the locker room with what was reported as a “non-COVID related illness.”

At that moment, he was not completely ruled out, with NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin reporting that Tatum could still play despite not starting for Boston.

That never came to fruition, as the October/November Eastern Conference Player of the Month was officially ruled out for the night at halftime.

29 games into the season, the Celtics have still yet to play a full game with their entire core rotation of Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser (hat tip Zack Cox of The Boston Herald).

And at the time of publishing, there’s no more information on what Tatum was dealing with on Monday night, just two days after the 26-year-old made history in Chicago with a 40-15-10 triple-double.

What we do have information on is a bad night for Boston, as they fell to the Magic 108-104 in one of the most physical games of the season.

Through two quarters, the Celtics had an uncharacteristically light half shooting the three, going 3 for 15 from beyond the arc. For a team that relies so heavily on the three-ball, a half like that would normally be devastating.

But on the back of 19 first-half points from Brown and an offense that did damage in the paint (24 paint points in the first quarter alone), the Celtics were able to build a 58-43 lead heading into halftime.

And even with the first half turnovers being almost even for both sides (Orlando 9, Boston 7), the Celtics were able to turn the Magic’s turnovers into points, outscoring Orlando 14-7 in that department.

Points in the paint and points off turnovers was not a sustainable model, as Orlando outscored Boston 36-21 in the third quarter, completely stifling the Celtics’ offense while going on their big run of the night.

If you recall – this is the same Magic squad that lit up NBA Twitter on Saturday night, outscoring the Miami Heat 37-8 in the fourth quarter en route to a 121-114 comeback win. Even with their two best players in Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero both out with injuries, this is a team that has shown the capability of getting hot while playing a physical brand of defense – a terrifying combination for any opponent.

Boston experienced that first-hand on Monday.

“They have a system, they have a DNA about their physical defense and the way they play,” said Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla postgame. “And so regardless of who’s in, who’s out, you know what you’re getting from that team. And, you know, you got that tonight.”

While the Celtics were able to make a run of their own in the fourth quarter, they weren’t able to cool down Orlando, getting outscored again in the closing quarter 29-25.

Even with Brown finishing the night with 35 points, it just wasn’t enough to overcome their worst three-point shooting night of the season.

When it was all said and done, Boston shot an abysmal 8 for 32 from three, both a season-low in makes and attempts in that category.

The Magic had a plan defensively, and it did wonders for them against the defending NBA champs.

“I thought we passed up a couple [three point attempts] in the first half, but I thought that was part of their game plan,” said Mazzulla. “With their switching and their physicality, forced us into more – but again, that’s what the game called for. So [the] game called for the best shot, we have to take the best shots. And when we didn’t turn it over, I thought we fought for pretty good shots.”

Monday night was an especially strange showing for Porzingis offensively. While the big man finished with 17 points, he did so going 2 for 10 from the field and 0 for 4 from three. Had it not been for a 13 of 14 night from the charity stripe, this would have ended as one of the 29-year-old’s worst games of his career.

On top of that, Porzingis was involved in a dead ball altercation with both Goga Bitadze and Jalen Suggs that resulted in double techs for Porzingis and Suggs and an ejection for Bitadze.

It was clear that the Magic’s hard-nose style of play got to him both physically and mentally at the Kia Center on Monday, even if Porzingis went with the “all experience is good experience” mantra during his locker room media availability postgame.

“I think overall, it’s great to play against a team like this, that’s able to have this kind of intensity, this kind of physicality in a regular season game,” said Porzingis. “Hats off to them. Hats off to [Jamahl] Mosley, their coach who’s, you know, getting their minds like this, their culture like this, you know, for these regular season games.

“It’s really a great job he’s doing over there – that’s not easy to do, and it’s hard playing the game that played tonight.”

For the first time all season, the Celtics have lost two out of their last three games, and currently sit 3.5 games behind Cleveland for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Next up for Boston is their old rivals from Philadelphia, with the 76ers coming to TD Garden on Christmas Day looking to right the ship after a 10-17 start to their 2024-2025 campaign.

Boston’s 22-7 record heading into Christmas is eerily similar to their record heading into the holiday last season, as they were 22-6 before demolishing the Lakers out in Los Angeles.

Important to note:

That 22-6 Celtics team went on to win the 2024 NBA Finals.