That’s one for the road
Isaac comes up with clutch basket as Magic hold off Celtics
BOSTON — The TD Garden crowd sat back and waited for the beloved Celtics to get things rolling against the Orlando Magic on Monday night, and although it took a while, the Boston faithful got with they wanted. But not for long Jaylen Brown’s 3-pointer with 1:10 remaining brought the crowd to its feet and it made its loudest roar of the night.
Jonathan Isaac quickly silenced it.
His pump fake sent Celtics forward Jayson Tatum flying past him and he calmly stepped up and drained a field goal with 52 seconds left that was a crucial bucket, helping the Magic keep the Celtics at bay. Boston’s Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward both missed 3-pointers inside eight seconds that would have tied the game and the Magic escaped with the 93-90 win.
Isaac finished with career highs in points (18) and rebounds (12) and Nikola Vucevic had 24 points and 12 rebounds, helping the Magic to never trail in the game.
Vucevic was at it again early in the contest, making up for inconsistent play by several of his teammates. After posting his second career triple-double Saturday at Philadelphia, Vooch was steady as usual and led the Magic to a 48-45 halftime lead with 16 points and nine rebounds at the break.
Isaac was active on the boards as well, with a pair of put-back dunks, earning 11 points and six rebounds at the half.
The rest of the team, however, struggled at times.
Evan Fournier shot an air-ball 3-pointer and barely drew iron on another, although he did hit one trey in the opening 24 minutes. Aaron Gordon also struggled from the floor, banking the ball hard off the backboard on one 3-point attempt and making a few questionable decisions on offense, including a drive off the wing that turned into an charging call.
Take away the shooting of Vucevic and Isaac (12 of 18) and the Magic hit just 9-of-31 floor shots and 3-of-16 3-pointers in the first half. Isaac also had a 3-pointer from his usual comfort zone in the deep corner.
Mohamed Bamba, the heralded rookie who had a breakout game in his NBA debut last Wednesday against the Miami Heat, played sparingly during the past two games. He had 14 minutes at Philly and then saw action for 19 minutes against the Celtics. He didn’t score, but he had two blocked shots, a steal and five rebounds.
Briscoe happy
Point guard Isaiah Briscoe, whom the Magic signed during Summer League play, got his first significant action as an NBA player at Philadelphia Saturday. Briscoe, who also played in mopup duty against the Hornets on Friday, comes to the Magic after a successful few seasons overseas in Estonia, where he averaged 19 points and four assists a game last year.
Scoring, however, will not be what he’s asked to do with the Magic, and his defense was what coach Steve Clifford likes off the bench, especially in the second half Saturday night.
“It was our first back-to-back and we had some energy issues there with that second group in the first half and I think Isaiah is the kind of guy who will always be ready and sometimes you just kinda throw a guy in there and see if he’ll provide a spark,” Clifford said. “I thought he did fine. …
I love the fact that he badly wants to play and yet he’s got a great attitude about it. He’s doing a ton of extra work and he knows his time will come.
“Over 82 games they’re all going to get a chance to be out there and play big minutes.”
Briscoe knows his role and was happy to get in his first few NBA games, especially in crunch time against the 76ers.
“It felt pretty cool against Philly with a chance for me to get in there and get my first real minutes,” Briscoe said. “I think I did all right. I watched film with coach Hetz [Steve Hetzel] and there were a lot of things I did good and a couple of things I need to work on. He was kind pleased with the things I was doing out there and it only can get better.”
Against the 76ers, Briscoe shared back-up point guard duties with Jerian Grant behind starter D.J. Augustin, playing six minutes with defense being the emphasis.
“That’s something that was one of the good things that I was doing,” Briscoe said of his defense. “Picking up full court and being disruptive. I can see I’m going to have to fight for my minutes and it all starts on defense.”
“It felt pretty cool against Philly with a chance for me to get in there and get my first real minutes.” — Isaiah Briscoe