Despite getting out to an early lead at TD Garden Sunday against the Orlando Magic, the Boston Celtics needed overtime to beat the Magic — who sport a 7-30 record this season. Turnovers piled up and Orlando capitalized. It took a 35-point fourth quarter to force overtime, after scoring just 37 combined in the second and third quarters.
“At times when it’s feeling like it’s going easy for us, we get away from doing what we do well to get those leads. And I’ve said that before. So staying consistent with what gets us there,” Udoka explained. “Like I said, I think we got careless because we were scoring the ball easy early in the game, and let them back in it went from a 14 point lead to basically a three-point game at halftime due to our turnovers and careless play.”
Guard Jaylen Brown had a 50 point night, a career-high, but he also had seven turnovers, tying a career-high. Improving his playmaking has been a focus for him this season, though, so some growing pains are expected to occur at this point. He was 19-for-29 from the field, including 5-for-10 from three-point range. The Celtics had 21 total turnovers on the night, allowing the Magic to score 23 points off giveaways.