ORLANDO, Fla. — Moritz Wagner scored 27 points and the Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics 113-96 for their sixth straight win Friday, throwing the Eastern Conference’s Group C up for grabs in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.
Paolo Banchero had 23 points and seven rebounds for Orlando. Franz Wagner finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Cole Anthony came off the bench with 16 points.
“I think the Brooklyn game, it was kind of frustrating because it was like we didn’t realize it was a tournament game and we felt like we just handed them the game,” Banchero said. “These last three, we’ve completely flipped it and took it a lot more seriously.”
With Boston and Brooklyn scheduled to complete pool play on Tuesday night, the Magic can qualify for the quarterfinals either as the Group C winner or as a wild card, depending on game results and point differential. Orlando finished with a plus-22 differential. The Nets are at plus-8 and the Celtics are at 0.
Jayson Tatum led Boston with 26 points. Jaylen Brown added 18, but made just 2 of 16 shots after scoring 12 points in the first 10 minutes. The Celtics, who went into the game with an NBA-best 12-3 record, made only 7 of 29 3-point shots and were outrebounded 48-31.
“You’re definitely frustrated when you’re not making shots, but at the end of the day it goes back to two things: transition (defense) and the offensive rebounds,” Boston Coach Joe Mazzulla said.
Moritz Wagner, the older and bigger brother of Magic starter Franz Wagner, scored 10 straight Magic points while they were pulling away to a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a game, it’s not controllable. Sometimes it comes to you and then you just take advantage of it,” said Moritz Wagner, whose season-high point total came in 24 minutes. “There’s something really enjoyable about that process. You can get lost in that and just play, and it’s going to come back around.”
Jalen Suggs hit two of the Magic’s four 3-pointers during a 17-0 run after Boston had taken a 62-50 lead early in the third quarter. The Celtics missed eight shots during the game-changing run and went scoreless for 4:42.
Boston center Kristaps Porzingis left the game in the third quarter because of tightness in his left calf after scoring nine points and taking down four rebounds.
The Celtics also played without Jrue Holiday, who missed his first game of the season because of a sprained right ankle.
“Obviously we’re a much better team when everybody’s healthy. But throughout the course of the season, there’s going to be nights where you know certain guys are out,” Tatum said. “We can’t use that as an excuse for why we didn’t win the game. We’ve still got to figure out a way to get the job done.”
Moritz Wagner and Cole Anthony (16 points, six assists) led the Magic bench to 57 points, one fewer than the bench accumulated in Wednesday night’s win over Denver.
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