Al Horford did not rate the Boston Celtics team meal as "the only gathering of players"But he said the team discussed in detail its expectations for Wednesday’s game against the Orlando Magic.
The Celtics then came out and backed up his speech with their best defensive effort of the season in a 92-79 win by the Magic.
Jaylen Brown scored 28 points and the Celtics used an 18-1 run early in the second half to open a close game. Boston, which saw point guard Marcus Smart criticize teammates Jayson Tatum and Brown after Monday’s loss to Chicago, held Orlando to 10 points in the third quarter.
"A meeting, a team dinner, it was nice to share bread and hang out"Horford said of Tuesday’s session in which head coach Ime Udoka left the players alone for about 30 minutes to discuss their differences."Most importantly, we talked about making sure we went out and had a good start. Defensively, I felt like we took a few steps".
Jayson Tatum added 14 points as the Celtics snapped a three-game losing streak and defeated the Magic for the seventh straight time in the past three seasons. Boston made 11 of its first 17 shots of the second half.
"We talked about his 18-point second quarter and we wanted to have some advantage"Udoka said."We wanted to block the paint and have them beat us with jump shots".
Horford had 12 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for the Celtics, who won despite shooting 41.8% from the floor. Brown made 12 of 17 shots and had his fifth 20-point game of the season.
Wendell Carter Jr. had 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Magic, who were winless at home. The Magic scored 28 points in the first 12 minutes for their first lead in the first quarter of the season. However, they collected only 33 after halftime.
"In that third quarter, we got frustrated when none of our actions worked."Carter said."We were making the first shot instead of getting to the second side. That is immaturity".
Going 46-44 after a slow first half, Boston came to life offensively in the third quarter, fleeing the Magic. By the time Orlando missed 14 of its first 15 shots of the third period, Boston had built a comfortable 69-50 lead.
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