Recap: Orlando outworks Boston.

Danny Ainge likes scrappy, positionless players that will outwork you. Brad Stevens likes scrappy, positionless players that will outwork you.

Tonight’s game is what happens when your scrappy hardworking team shows up and doesn’t work that hard.

Orlando outworked Boston at both ends of the court, and it wasn’t close. Not at any point after the second quarter.

The final score reflected that. Boston 91, Orlando 110.

The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair–ending with the score 21-20 in favor of Orlando, but the same air of inevitability was there that accompanied other bad losses this season. Boston turned the ball over a bunch, and was pretty much playing from behind the whole first quarter. They were giving up really easy baskets but they were also making shots at a decent clip so the situation looked better than it really was.

When the lid went on the basket in the second quarter, Boston’s discombobulated defense and Orlando’s ability to snag rebounds set the tone for the rest of the game. Boston went in to the half down 8–and it felt like they were fortunate to be only that far in the hole. At the end of the third quarter, they were down 17, and they fell another two points behind in the fourth, finishing the game in a 19 point hole. At no point in the game did the Celtics seem coordinated enough–on either end–to sustain a comeback against what has turned out to be a surprisingly good–but, let’s be honest, not awesome–Magic team.

The Celtics, when they play well, control the tempo of the game. Their defense forces the opposing team into extended half-court sets where the looks get worse and worse as the shot clock winds down. If that happened on two consecutive possessions tonight, I didn’t see it.

The Green:

Terry Rozier. The rookie was -2, 3/5 for 7 points, and did exactly what Stevens put him on court to do: hound ball-handlers all the way up the court.

That’s it.

The Gross:

Bench scoring: ORL 56, BOS 31 -25

Rebounds: ORL 54, BOS 34, -20

Boston shot 5-27 from 3 (18.5%)

Greenlights:

Terry Rozier giving Boston a little spark and getting a little shove from Vucevic. https://t.co/2DmKx4LiFm

— Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) November 30, 2015

 The Grid:

Somehow Isaiah Thomas led all scorers with 20 points. Oladipo finished the game with 19, and Vucevic with 18.

The Celtics shot only 40% and allowed the Magic to shoot 48%

Jared Sullinger finished the game with 11 rebounds. No other Celtic had more than 4.