ORLANDO — The Magic’s plan to beat the defending champion Celtics has been to, well, beat them.
Rough them up. Play with extreme physicality. Test the boundaries of legal play, then step over them at times, knowing officials are more likely to keep their whistles holstered during the playoffs.
Boston, with its superior talent, depth and experience, remains the clear favorite to dispatch seventh-seeded Orlando and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. But the muck-it-up Magic are making sure the Celtics leave the first-round series bruised and bloodied, regardless of the final result.
“There might be a fight break out or something, because it’s starting to feel like it’s not even basketball and the refs are not controlling their environment,” Jaylen Brown said after Orlando took Game 3 on Friday night at the Kia Center, surviving a fourth-quarter Celtics rally to win a 95-93 rock fight. “So it is what it is. If you want to fight it out, we can do that. We can fight to see who goes to the second round.”
Brown’s comments came hours after Magic guard Cole Anthony yanked his elbow on a shot attempt, causing the Celtics star to tumble to the floor and, Brown said, dislocate his left index finger. Anthony was called for a Flagrant 1 foul on the play. Orlando has committed one of those in each of the first three games of this 2-1 series, and all three resulted in injuries to Celtics players.
The first, a midair hard foul on Jayson Tatum by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, left Tatum with a bone bruise in his shooting wrist that kept him out of Game 2. The second was a wild elbow from Goga Bitadze that opened a gash on Kristaps Porzingis’ forehead, requiring five stitches to close.
Beyond the fouls that were called, Brown also believed the Magic “got away with a lot” in Friday’s game. A contest at the rim left Luke Kornet with a bloody nose, and Derrick White went crashing into the Celtics’ bench during a late-game clash with Wendell Carter Jr. Carter also mauled Porzingis under the basket as time expired, preventing the Celtics center from leaping as he tried for what would have been a game-tying tip-in.
“If you get away with it, I would do it, too,” Brown said. “That definitely affected us, but we’ll be ready for Game 4.”
As Brown noted, Orlando’s aggressive approach had the desired effect. The Celtics committed their most turnovers in any game this season (21) and attempted their fewest 3-pointers (9-for-33), blunting the most dangerous weapon in their offensive arsenal. They were outworked on the glass, too, with Orlando owning a 15-8 edge in offensive rebounds.
Brown, who played 34 minutes Friday after being listed as questionable with a knee injury, also believed he was on the wrong end of an unfair whistle in the loss, specifically pointing to his two offensive fouls during a nightmare third quarter for Boston.
“I don’t have a problem with the game being physical, but it seems like when I use my physicality, I get called in the opposite direction,” Brown said. “That’s what my frustration was. It was just a tough whistle tonight. Maybe next game will be better, but it started in the third quarter with those two offensive fouls. I feel like the physicality, (if) you are allowing guys to hand check, let it go on both sides then. Other than that, it was just a tough whistle for me tonight, and we’ve just got to be ready for Game 4.”
The Celtics, who were playing without starting guard and defensive stalwart Jrue Holiday (hamstring), were outscored 24-11 in the third quarter while recording more turnovers (five) than made field goals (3-for-16).
That Boston had a chance to win despite all of those factors spoke to the inefficiency of Orlando’s offense, which has yet to score more than 100 points in the series despite getting three straight strong outings from headliners Paolo Banchero (29 points in Game 3) and Franz Wagner (32 points).
“I don’t have a problem with (the physicality),” Brown reiterated, “but don’t call an offensive foul when a dude is trying to jump on my back or whatever the case may be. Let it go. If you are going to let it go on defense, let it go on offense, too. Just a tough whistle tonight. Orlando played well, so we’ll be ready for Game 4. We had every opportunity to win this game and we came up short, but we’ll be ready for the next one.”
Game 4 is Sunday night in Orlando, with Game 5 following on Tuesday at TD Garden.