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BOSTON – After a week off with some players in quarantine and others just limited in the work they could do by NBA health and safety protocols, the Celtics looked more rested than rusted.
Boston built their lead from start to finish and beat the Orlando Magic, 124-97, for their fifth straight victory Friday at TD Garden.
Even without Jayson Tatum, the Celtics had six players scoring in double digits as players from the top to the bottom of the list upped their offense.
Jaylen Brown was not eliminated until Friday afternoon, but led Boston with 21 points and eight assists.
Payton Pritchard believed he had more to lose than most with the layoff, as the rookie had jumped before the team closed for three games. But he picked up where he left off and made four 3 points en route to 16 points.
The Celtics led no less than 28 in the fourth quarter, allowing Brad Stevens to use his 12 healthy players and rest some of the players who had been inactive.
Boston (8-3) stays at home and will host the New York Knicks for the first time this season, Sunday at 1 p.m.
With Tatum out and several Celtics returning from their forties, Stevens debuted in a different lineup adding Grant Williams and Jeff Teague to the top five along with Marcus Smart, Brown and Tristan Thompson. This meant Daniel Theis was leaving the bench for the first time in the opener of the 2019-20 season.
This lineup worked, but most of them did against the surpassed Magic. Teague appeared to benefit the most from the startup. He scored the Celtics’ first five points, took an early charge and tallied 10 points in the first half. He finished with 17 points, his record since 19 on opening night.
After the Celtics took a 34-28 lead after the first quarter, the Magic scored the first seven points of the second to briefly take the 35-34 advantage, but Pritchard buried a 3-point to start a run. of 10-1 which put Boston back. in control. The lead reached 14 before Orlando cut it to 60-48 at halftime.
As in the second quarter, the Magic caught up to start the third before Boston extended their lead further at the end. Orlando got under six points at 74-68, but Brown hit a pull-up in the lane on a possession and found Pritchard for a 3-point on the next to start 9-0 which put out the last embers of the suspense.
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