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Postgame Report: Magic vs. Celtics (11/29/15)

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

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By John Denton

Nov. 29, 2015

ORLANDO – Because so many of the Orlando Magic’s players have never been in a playoff race late in the season, head coach Scott Skiles has taken to preaching to his team about how midseason games – in November in this case – often play a major role in postseason positioning.

With the Magic and Boston entering Sunday just one game apart in the standings and fully expected to do battle all season in the vastly improved Eastern Conference, Skiles rammed home to his team the importance of the first showdown against the Celtics.

As has been the case most of this season, the Magic responded to Skiles’ challenge on Sunday night with a gritty, workmanlike effort for another victory. Orlando pushed its winning streak to three games – all of them coming after Skiles made a daring change to the starting lineup back on Tuesday – by beating the Celtics 110-91 at the Amway Center.

Standout guard Victor Oladipo, who has played his best basketball since being moved to the second unit three games ago, was at his do-everything best again on Sunday. He had little-to-no problem with Boston’s ball pressure and gave the Magic 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

``(The win) was big, but it was big for us because it was the next game on the schedule,’’ said Oladipo, who has averaged 20 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists since moving into a reserve role. ``We’ve just got to take it one game at a time, realize that each game is important and go from there.’’

Up eight at the half, Orlando got better as the game wore on and pushed its lead to 17 in the third quarter and as high as 21 points in the fourth. Boston got no closer than 12 over the final 12 minutes of the game.

``I guess, for the night, we let ourselves enjoy the win, but that’s not our ultimate goal. We have much higher aspirations for our team,’’ said Magic forward Aaron Gordon, who had 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and a block in nearly 22 minutes off the bench. ``If we get caught up in this (win) we’ll turn around and lose the next game. We’re just going to try to go out and win each game.’’

Twice before this season, the Magic were at 5-5 and 6-6 and failed in their bids to attain a winning record. Sunday’s impressive victory pushed the Magic (9-8) above .500 for the first time in three years this late in the season.

Already owners of a winning November – its first plus-.500 month (9-6) since March of 2012 – Orlando won its third game in a row. It’s the first time the squad has won three games in a row since early April of last season. Also, the Magic are 9-5 since starting the season 0-3.

``We’re not the type of team where I can pencil that (success) in and we’re still kind of day-to-day,’’ Skiles said. ``The guys know that (it’s early in the season). The guys did what they had to do (against Boston).

``We talked about this (home stand) being a three-game season and we wanted to come home and get all three games and we did that,’’ Skiles continued. ``Now, we’ve got a long trip and they’re all teams that we feel we can beat. But if we’re not playing well it can go the other way for us. So we have to continue to focus on how we’re playing.’’

Boston (9-8) came into the game with one of the NBA’s best defenses, but it was the Magic that was more aggressive and hounding the ball all night. Orlando smothered the Celtics to the tune of 40.9 shooting and it forced 12 turnovers.

Nikola Vucevic took advantage of his size advantage against the Celtics smallish frontline and gave the Magic 18 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out with 2:07 to play. The three-headed power forward combination of Andrew Nicholson (14 points), Jason Smith (six points) and Channing Frye (six points) combined to make 11 of 18 shots, score 26 points and shut down Boston’s Jared Sullinger (three points and 11 rebounds).

``We’re all trying to keep that spacing out there and make defenses pay attention to the bigs,’’ said Smith, who made three of five shots and is now shooting 50.9 percent for the season. ``Every one of us can shoot. But the other end of that is that we all really have to play defense. We might be going in against a small lineup or facing two bigs, but we have to really be attentive to what our defensive calls are. But overall, we’re doing pretty well.’’

Tobias Harris added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Magic.

Isaiah Thomas scored 20 points and handed out seven assists for Boston, but he had little impact early in the game. Avery Bradley had 17 points, but didn’t score in the fourth quarter.

Sunday’s game wrapped up a three-game home stand for the Magic – one they started with impressive defeats of the New York and Milwaukee. The Magic treated Sunday’s game with great importance because of what’s dead ahead on the schedule.

The Magic leave on Monday for their longest road trip of the season – a 10-day, five-game stint through the Midwest and the West Coast. Orlando plays Minnesota (Tuesday), Utah (Thursday), the Los Angeles Clippers (Saturday), Denver (Dec. 8) and Phoenix (Dec. 9). The Magic won’t be back at the Amway Center until Dec. 11 when they host LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

``For our team, we have to continue to grow and every game we’re going to keep getting better. But at the same time, we’re above water right now and the goal is stay above (.500),’’ Harris said. ``It’s about consistency and being a consistent team night in and night out. If we can continue to be consistent with our play, with our offense and our defense and keep playing together we can be a tough team. That’s winning basketball when you can do it on a nightly basis.’’

Up eight points at the half following a dominant second quarter, the Magic pushed the lead out to 17 in the third quarter following more stellar play on both ends of the floor. And when Oladipo drove hard into the lane and found Shabazz Napier in the corner for a 3-pointer it allowed the Magic to take an 84-67 advantage into the fourth period.

The Magic broke open a close game in the second quarter and led 53-45 at the half thanks, in part, to the play of Nicholson off the bench. The power forward got into the game early because of foul trouble to Frye and he came through with 10 first-half points. He had two 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the second quarter and his thunderous dunk midway through the period sent the Celtics into a timeout.

Even though they are at their high water mark for the past three seasons and riding one of their best winning sprees in years, Skiles warned the Magic that all of their positive vibes can turn sour if there’s a drop off in their focus or hunger. The message of staying hungry and humble was coursing throughout the team’s locker room following the game, and that agenda was set by Skiles.

``We’re on a nice uptick right now, we’d like to keep it going and we’re hoping that the guys are feeling good about themselves, but you’re always just one game away from it going the other direction as well,’’ Skiles said. ``So we’ve got to keep it all in perspective.’’