Celtics
“All I saw was Paolo getting an elbow to the face.”
With their season hanging in the balance, the Orlando Magic were keeping the Celtics at bay on Tuesday night at TD Garden.
In the opening minutes of the third quarter of that Game 5 bout, the Magic were holding onto a 53-48 lead.
It’s a score that may not inspire much in terms of confidence of Orlando forcing a Game 6. But Orlando was once again seemingly dictating play in hostile territory — with Boston struggling to break through offensively against a stingy Magic team.
But whatever momentum Orlando was building on Tuesday dissipated in short order after star forward Paolo Banchero was whistled for his fifth foul of the evening with 9:46 to go in the third quarter.
With Banchero one foul away from spending the rest of the night on the bench, Orlando head coach Jamahl Mosley opted to pull his best player in hopes of preserving him from crunch time in the fourth quarter.
It turned out to be a fruitless endeavor, considering that what was once a tight contest ended up being a blowout over the final 12 minutes of action.
With Banchero out for the remainder of the third quarter after fouling Jaylen Brown, the Celtics orchestrated a 22-4 run over that final 9:46 — giving Boston an 83-62 lead entering the fourth.
By the time Banchero returned to the court at the start of the fourth, it was too late to reverse his team’s fortunes.
“He’s the life source for that team,” Brown said of Banchero. “He’s a phenomenal young player…. But once we saw him get in foul trouble and hang his head — we were ready to go. So we just took advantage of that from there.”
Even though Boston capitalized in the second half (13-for-18 from 3-point range) to turn Tuesday’s matchup into a lopsided victory, Banchero’s absence down the stretch proved to be the most consequential result in the Celtics’ series-clinching 120-89 victory.
Mosley shared a similar musing postgame, with Orlando’s head coach taking umbrage with the call on the court that sent Banchero to the pine for most of the third quarter.
For Mosley, the case could be made that the call should have been an offensive foul on Brown — given that Brown’s elbow struck the Orlando forward in the face while driving to the rim.
“Oh, it definitely swung the series,” Mosley said of Banchero’s fifth foul. “It definitely swung the game. I have no idea what the explanation was. It was — he came into his path. All I saw was Paolo getting an elbow to the face, or backed into the face, and he got the foul.
“And that was a game-changer right there. Your best player picks up his fifth foul in the third quarter. It became tough to come back from that moment, but our guys, you know, continued to fight.”
Mosley and the Magic challenged the call on Banchero’s fifth foul, which was quickly upheld upon review. Postgame, crew chief Tony Brothers was asked in a pool report about what he saw on the play that made the officials confirm the initial call.
“Brown is driving to the basket, Banchero walks into him and walks him up under the basket,” Brothers said. “Brown attempts a normal shooting motion and in that normal shooting motion he makes incidental contact with Banchero’s face.”
Brothers added: “Brown’s action did not rise to the level of anything outside of just the common foul on Banchero.”
Things snowballed quickly for Banchero and the Magic coming out of the first half — with the 22-year-old forward picking up his third, fourth, and fifth fouls in the span of just 1:34 in the third.
Derrick White started the foul woes for Banchero by drawing a charge just 40 seconds into the quarter before Brown drew the next two infractions against him — putting him out of commission for what turned out to be a season-ending sequence for the Magic.
In Mosley’s eyes, some of those fouls against Banchero were a byproduct of frustration setting in due to a lack of calls in Banchero’s favor while driving to the rim earlier in the game.
“What I saw was the fact that he was driving to the basket and not getting calls,” Mosley said when asked of what he saw on the third and fourth fouls against Banchero. “And in those moments, there’s a level of frustration that can kick in when they’re impeding your progress to the rim.
“And so they give him one charge, and then they give another one, where it’s a touch foul. And then the same time, he goes to the rim, they’re bodying him out of the way, and there’s no call. And I get — they see it, we see it — but it doesn’t get hit. And then he picks up his fifth foul on what could have possibly been an offensive foul. I don’t know. That’s where it becomes a little bit frustrating, because I don’t understand what we’re calling in that moment.”
Tuesday was not the first time that Mosley has been candid about the officiating during this five-game series.
After Brown lamented the lack of calls over the first three games against Orlando — a stretch where the Magic were whistled for a flagrant foul in each bout — Mosley was irked at the disparity in free-throw attempts (32 for Boston, 20 for the Magic) in Boston’s Game 4 win on Snuday.
“We had to understand that the calls, the whistle was going to head in that direction after what’s been said,” Mosley said.
Regardless of the discourse over officiating and gamesmanship, Jayson Tatum (35 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists) and the Celtics still executed down the stretch to put away a tenacious Orlando roster.
“It was probably exactly what we needed. Good test — first round,” Tatum said of defeating the Magic. “Couple guys really banged up and dealing with some things, but showing that mental toughness of getting up and getting ready for each game. Doing whatever it takes, whatever the game calls for, and just figuring out a way to win.
“That’s all that matters this time of the year. As a group, we’ve been through it all. We showed it and proved it this series. Looking forward to the next one.”
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