A fourth-quarter run and late flurry of 3-pointers helped the Boston Celtics take the second leg in a pair of road games with the Orlando Magic, 111-107 on Sunday.
Orlando took the first game in two straight matchups with Boston, a 123-110 decision on Friday in NBA Cup group-stage competition. The Celtics rebounded on Sunday in a back-and-forth contest that saw Boston hold off the Magic down the stretch.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 27 points, Derrick White added 21 points and Anfernee Simons buoyed Boston on another otherwise middling 3-point shooting night. Simons went 5-of-8 from deep, coming off the bench to score 25 points.
The rest of the Celtics were 8-of-25 from beyond the arc, but that was still good enough to outpace Orlando’s woeful 7-of-30. The Magic’s season-long leading scorers, Banchero and Franz Wagner, finished with 28 and 20 points on Sunday, but shot just 1-of-9 combined from long range.
Boston went on a 13-0 run spanning more than three minutes midway through the fourth quarter, flipping a two-point deficit into a double-digit-point lead.
Orlando answered with a 14-5 run, pulling within two points on Paolo Banchero’s jumper with 1:46 remaining. Banchero again scored on a jump shot down the stretch, moving the Magic to a 104-103 margin in the final minute.
The Celtics had answers each time, however. Brown connected on a 3-pointer after the first of Banchero’s two clutch baskets, then Jordan Walsh set up White on another 3-pointer that pushed the one-point Boston lead to a two-possession advantage.
Walsh came up big again after a Jalen Suggs bucket on Orlando’s end, when the third-year guard sank a 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining that effectively put the game away.
Walsh’s two offensive contributions late capped a solid all-around effort off the bench, as he finished with six points, six rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes.
Boston converted 17 total Magic turnovers (six by Banchero) into 29 points, nearly doubling the 15 Orlando managed off of 14 Celtics turnovers.
