Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics, Game 2, Wednesday, April 23 – Odds, TV, Keys to Game

Orlando's offense predicates on hunting mismatches for stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Given Boston's proficiency in switching with multiple high-level defenders, the Celtics are built to withstand — and to some degree mitigate — the advantage the Magic's forward duo usually enjoys.

Jrue Holiday spent seven combined minutes guarding Wagner and Banchero in Game 1. Although he gives up 20 pounds to Wagner, 45 to Banchero and a half-foot of height to both, the 6-time All-Defensive honoree held them to combined 1-7 from the floor and forced three turnovers as the primary defender.

“His individual defense took on the challenge of his matchup, and I thought he did a great job on both ends,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said following Game 1. “His defense led to our offense.”

Banchero and Wagner were 23-of-44 for 57 points versus all other matchups.

"[He's] always been disruptive," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said Monday. "There's a reason why he's always in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year, because he's just so smart. His knack to guard multiple positions but also to be abel to not guard other positions because of where he's roaming on the floor.

"He just has a knack for those things, and I think the faster we can read those situations the better we'll be."

Limit mistakes

Boston was elite in many statistical categories this season. However, scoring points off turnovers and in fastbreak situations was not among them.

You wouldn't think it after watching Game 1, where the Magic surrendered 24 points off of 15 turnovers and gave up 26 fastbreak points to the usually methodical Celtics.

Orlando knows that isn't a formula for beating this Boston team.

"That's most important, the biggest thing," Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said Tuesday. "If we can limit our turnovers, get more possessions on the offensive end, I think we'll be great."

On average in the regular season, 14.2 percent of Magic possessions ended in a turnover. In Game 1 Sunday, that mark shot up to 17.2 percent.

"I thought they did a good job of playing a full 48 minutes," said Franz Wagner. "They're a really good team, and I think especially in the second half, they just took advantage of a lot of our mistakes."

"Any playoff series, you've got to limit your mistakes defensively and offensively. For us, we've got to try to take out the threes, try to eliminate them from getting as many threes up and just make them uncomfortable, try to make them [take] contested twos, and just try to play 48 minutes physical."

Banchero said his Magic need to be more decisive, and emphasizing pace was a key focus the last couple days at practice as well.