While You Watched March Madness Or Enjoyed A Beautiful Day, Jaylen Brown Hit 10 3-pointers

 

    I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I watched every minute of this afternoon's Celtics (21-21 overall, 13-7 home) game against the Magic (14-28 overall, 5-15 road) at the TD Garden, but honestly who did that isn't employed by either team? Boston rolled to a 112-96 victory behind another outstanding performance by shooting guard Jaylen Brown (game-high 34 points) who hit 10 3-pointers, a new career-high and only one behind Marcus Smart's franchise record that he set last season. Swingman Jayson Tatum (23 points) and Brown were so good that they didn't need much help from their teammates although it was a rarity to see all five Celtics starters score in double-figures in the same matchup. 

    The NBA Trade Deadline is on Thursday and you have to believe that Orlando will be looking to trade guys like power forward Aaron Gordon (12 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) or shooting guard Evan Fournier (16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists) who could both create a decent return. Magic center Nikolay Vucevic (22 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists) has always been underrated in my estimation but I'm sure if you want him, you have to pay a very high price. Small forward James Ennis III (18 points, 5 rebounds) was the final bright spot for Orlando. 

    Sunday was a great day for The Others on the Celtics as center Daniel Theis (13 points, 11 rebounds) notched a double-double, point guard Kemba Walker added 14 points, five rebounds and two steals and Smart finished with 11 points and eight assists. The Celts shot 7.4% better from the field than the Magic (45.5%-38.1%), thanks to Jaylen they hit more than twice as many 3-pointers (23-11) and they had seven more assists (27-20) than the visitors. Did you realize that the #4-10th ranked teams in the Eastern Conference are only separated by a total of 2.5 games? That means that the final 30 games of the regular season for the Celts promise to be both very entertaining and hopefully unpredictable.

    This being the Celtics in 2021, you just knew that they would struggle in the first quarter of play after a brutal stretch of losses. Orlando led 31-27 after the first quarter but Boston recovered to head into halftime with a 56-48 advantage. The C's continued their strong play in the third quarter (outscoring the Magic 33-25). The two teams played to a stalemate in the fourth quarter (23-23). Up next, Boston has a four-game road trip that begins with a back-to-back since they'll be in Memphis (19-20 overall, 10-13 home) tomorrow night (9, NBC Sports Boston) followed by two games in Milwaukee (27-14) on Wednesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) and Friday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) then ending in Oklahoma City (18-24) on Sunday night (9, NBC Sports Boston).