Rozier, Monroe bust up Magic
ORLANDO, Fla. — St. Patrick’s Day was still a few hours away, but that didn’t keep the Celtics and Magic from getting their wobble on a little early.
Put it this way, the winning team shot 37.8 percent last night.
The only way it would have been worse for the Celts is if they hadn’t been that team.
But Terry Rozier and Greg Monroe had 17 points apiece and Al Horford returned from two games out (illness) with a solid 15 points and nine rebounds to send the Shamrocks to a 92-83 victory over the lottery-bound Magic.
“It wasn’t pretty,” stated (or understated) coach Brad Stevens. “We obviously didn’t make a ton of shots, but our first-half and third-quarter defense was pretty darn good.
“We let go a little bit, I thought, at the start of the fourth quarter and it kind of forced us to put back some guys, but I’m really pleased with especially our first half defense.”
The Celts were without Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis and Gordon Hayward. Orlando was without Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross — and hope.
The Celtics shot 35.3 percent in the first half, but they couldn’t be too upset, because they led by 17, 4831.
They were helped by the fact they had 13 offensive rebounds and 13 secondchance points in the first 24 minutes.
“There were a lot of rebounds to be had,” said Stevens, “so that’s probably good that we got a couple of them.”
The Celts led by as many as 24 and were never in any real trouble, though they napped through much of the last quarter when the Magic outscored them, 3117, to make a rout look relatively reasonable, at least in a cosmetic sense.
“It was a little ugly at the end,” said Rozier, “but we came out on top, and that’s the most important thing.”
Horford was a big factor overall, though he went just 6-for-18 from the floor.
“I thought Al looked great,” said Stevens. “Al probably would be the first to say that he’d like to have some of his shots back. He had great looks all night, but that might be part of getting a rhythm (after) not playing since last Thursday. But I thought he looked great.”
“Wind-wise I felt good,” Horford said. “I was a little rusty on offense, but defensively I felt great.”
Irving closes in
Irving remained out with left knee maintenance, but he’s on the trip and could play tomorrow night in New Orleans.
“He did a workout after shootaround (yesterday) and felt pretty good,” said Stevens. “The progression is set for (today) and we’ll see (tomorrow). That’ll be a day-of decision, but he’s not far obviously.”
Horford was just happy to be playing again after being sick.
He described his illness as “flu-like, fever, sore throat, stomach — just everything. I was down for a couple of days. Tuesday’s when I kind of turned the corner and started to feel better. I thought I was going to be good for Wednesday [against Washington] and still wasn’t ready.
“Late Saturday night it started to come down, and Sunday morning I woke up and it was a no-go. I feel like I’ve been fighting it for a couple of weeks. I think it just caught up to me. It just got to a point that, for whatever reason, it got me down and then there was nothing I could do.”
The word is positive on Brown, who, according to a source, could travel with the Celts on their Western Conference swing that begins next Friday in Portland. He’s been out since the nasty fall on his back, shoulders and neck a week ago Thursday in Minnesota.
Tatum moves on
One game after struggling a bit in the latter portions of Wednesday’s double-overtime loss to the Wizards, Jayson Tatum was again looking to help fill the void left by his absent mates.
“I mean, when a lot of guys are out, you’ve got to step up and do more,” he said. “You’ve got to look to be more aggressive in those situations.”