Magic close regular season with a thud against Celtics backups

The Orlando Magic were in a great position on the season's last day. Win, and they'd finish no lower than seventh place, facing a Boston Celtics team resting their best players. They couldn't get it done.

The Philadelphia 76ers will host the Magic on Wednesday in the 7-8 play-in game after Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza and Ron Harper Jr. combined for 84 points in Boston's 113-108 win. Orlando used its top players but couldn't overcome Boston's 42-point third quarter.

Magic couldn't stick the landing on the season

Before Sunday, it looked like the Magic were getting things together at the perfect time for the playoffs. They had won five straight games, defeating the playoff-bound Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves during the streak.

The Celtics' feisty reserves were too much for the Magic, as was their inability to hit three-point shots. The Magic were the fifth-worst three-point shooting team in the NBA this season, even after their offseason trade for sharpshooting Desmond Bane (39.1 percent 3P%). That weakness haunted them Sunday when they shot 12-of-43 from distance. Jalen Suggs shot 7-of-15, then the rest of his teammates missed 23 of their 28 attempts.

It's the capper to a Magic season that's been alternately encouraging and frustrating. They'd hovered just above .500 for much of the year, thanks to injuries and an unreliable offense. Orlando began March with a seven-game winning streak that was immediately followed by a six-game losing streak. It's hard to know what to expect as it heads into the postseason.

Magic face a daunting playoff road

Orlando now lacks home-court advantage for its game against the Sixers, who lost Joel Embiid to appendicitis but have the rest of their roster healthy. Should they fall to the Sixers in Philly, they'll face the Charlotte Hornets or Miami Heat. The Magic went 5-0 against the Heat, but only 1-3 against the Hornets, who had an average margin of victory of 20.3 points in their last three games against Orlando.

If they get out of the play-in, the 60-win Pistons or the resurgent Celtics await. That's a brutal draw for a team that came two wins away from getting the five seed, giving it a week off before a playoff rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Most troubling is the decline of Orlando's defense, something that's been its calling card the last two seasons. On Sunday, it gave up career-high scoring games to three different Celtics, with Scheierman beating his previous best point total by 10 points.