Three Studs, Three Duds As Starless Celtics Collapse To Magic

With the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed already secured, the Boston Celtics hit their well-earned cruise control point of the regular season Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic at Kia Center.

Boston took a conservative approach and didn’t play its starters — Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday — in its third-to-final contest before the playoffs. That gave head coach Joe Mazzulla a valuable opportunity to plug in the reserves. Rookie Baylor Scheierman made his first career start in the most undermanned lineups the Celtics have played all season long.

Unsurprisingly, the inexperienced rotation of Scheierman, Payton Pritchard, Torrey Craig, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet got off to a slow start and fell behind by as many as 19 points to Orlando in the second quarter. Boston’s stay ready crew put forth a valiant effort against a next-in-line Magic team that just wasn’t enough.

Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s 96-76 loss to Orlando, which dropped the team’s record to 59-21 on the season:

STUDS
Payton Pritchard
Boston couldn’t have asked for much more from Pritchard when considering the circumstances at play.

The undersized Celtics guard recorded his fifth double-double of the season, scoring 15 points with 10 assists. Pritchard continued his push for securing the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, although it required making up for an inefficient 1-for-7 shooting performance from 3-point range alongside three turnovers.

Franz Wagner
Orlando is playing with urgency as the team entered Wednesday night with a chance to secure its No. 7 seed before its playoff run.

Wagner flirted with a double-double, but settled for a game-leading 23-point performance. The 23-year-old shot 9-of-17 from the floor, grabbed eight rebounds, dished out two assists and tallied a pair of steals. Most impressively, Wagner only needed to knock down two shots from 3-point range to give the Celtics problems and put them away.

Baylor Scheierman
The Celtics got out of Scheierman everything he’s shown thus far: Competitive intensity.

Scheierman pitched in a solid 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field with five rebounds, three assists and a steal. The Creighton product, who presented flashes of fancy passes, a confident shooting clip and energy tailor-made for Celtics culture, came up short in the 3-point department — Scheierman finished 1-for-7 from three.

Still, it was a positive sign of what Mazzulla could get come playoff time.

DUDS
Torrey Craig
Boston’s biggest post-trade deadline pickup squandered yet another chance to make an encouraging impression before the Celtics gear up for the playoffs.

Craig logged 27 scoreless minutes, shooting 0-for-4 from the floor with seven rebounds, one assist and three turnovers. The 34-year-old was one of four Celtics players who couldn’t buy a bucket, which isn’t a great sign if Craig intends to contribute once it becomes do-or-die time for Boston’s chances of defending its title.

Sam Hauser
It was a disappointing output from Hauser.

Boston’s veteran sharpshooter couldn’t pull through enough to help bridge the gap with Orlando, and it turned out to be very costly. Hauser finished with 10 points, missed six 3-pointers (out of eight total attempts) and registered a miuns-17 rating.

Not great.

Boston’s efficiency
The Celtics constantly emphasize the importance of defeating opponents in the margins race, but that’s exactly what anchored them throughout the night.

Mazzulla’s crew shot a hard-to-watch 32-of-82 from the field (39%), 7-of-40 from three (17.5%) and committed 16 turnovers to Orlando’s 10. It’s hard to compete with anyone in the league, much less escape with a victory, when that’s the standard an opposing team is going up against.

Then again, it was a meaningless tail-end battle — for the most part.