NBA Playoffs: After a bruise series against Orlando, Boston appears sharper and heals to heal over time

Boston-before an excretion game in his first round against Orlando Magic, Boston Celtic's head coach Joe Mazzulla did not want to hear from the calm that a victory would make his sick team.

“Well, we have to win game 5,” he said.

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They did that, Orlando dominated in the second half of a 120-89 win and win of the series 4: 1.

In the meantime, the opponent of the next round remains undecided when the Detroit Pistons defeated the New York Knicks and expand their series to a sixth game for Thursday. The results on Tuesday delivered the Celtics for at least a few days, and that is important when you consider how bruising they collected against magic.

“It's good and bad,” said Mazzulla, always the contrarian, then over the additional break. “We will leave the arena for a few days. That could be good. But I think if we prepare for the next series, we have to enter the arena again and get ready. We will take the days we need and we will come back on it right away.”

You will need it these days. This was such a physical series as in a first round full of physicality in the NBA. Jaylen Brown has been fighting against an injury to his right knee since mid -March. Jayson Tatum suffered a bone blue on his shooting joint in game 1. And Jrue Holiday missed a third game in a row with a right thigh strain, which Mazzulla described as a “daily” injury that moved forward.

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“It's great,” said Brown about the additional break. “When is the earliest we will play?” Nobody knew with certainty. “Whatever it is, I will take advantage of it and be ready to go through the next.”

Go through them. So this series in the first round against magic. Despite a one -sided result, Orlando gave the Celtics everything they could manage from a physical perspective. The magic, the defense of which was classified in the NBA in the regular season as second, protected the Celtics directly and rarely helped, always changed and presented a ton 1-to-1 matchups. The game plan required Boston to go through them.

This crime collected on Tuesday evening and collected 35 points (at 10-of-16 shooting), 10 assists and eight rebounds in 34 minutes. He did the same in game 4 with a total of 37 points, 14 rebounds and three assists. The templates were difficult to get throughout the series. Since the magic at Boston's shooters stayed at home, there were no simple outlets for open 3s. Instead, Tatum and Brown did their work on an island and did well.

This was another lesson for a team that has seen almost everything in six conference finals in the past eight years, including two trips to the final and last year's championship.

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“You could say that,” said Brown. “I consider every experience as an opportunity to learn, so it was a great learning experience for us to make a complete playoff series, to be physical, go to the trenches. Flagrant fouls, physicality, they play through and still find ways to win.

As Celtics Big Man Al Horford said, if we know something about the Knicks and Pistons, “they are both teams that really play hard.” If both teams have hoped that the magic would deliver a blueprint for winning against the Celtics, a shame, because they believe, if at all, this series was one that made it stronger.

“I thought that was the topic of the series – physicality in the trenches,” said Mazzulla. “Every series, every game presents lessons, and if you are lucky enough, you take these lessons. There is a lot that we can learn from this series, and we will be ready if we play next.”

Tatum is more than ready. He solved the challenges that the magic presented, as he intends to. Trust is based on the experience of winning last season.

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“This season was the most relaxing and most carefree that I was in my career and understood that we won last year. We achieved the ultimate goal and we got this monkey off the back,” said Tatum. “Obviously, the goal this year is still the same to win and compete for a championship. I just enjoyed playing basketball this season and not letting it hang over my head. It was fun to do it.

“It enables me to concentrate on the upcoming task. I am not worried that I try to catch this or to prove it to someone. It is understandable that I know what I am capable of. I know what we are when we play in a certain way, and we only have this level to achieve this level.”

It is true: this series was not the best of the Celtics. You know who you are and there is another level that you can reach. Maybe the Knicks or Pistons will bring it out of them in the next round. You will probably need it against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference final. That could be ahead of ourselves, but these are the defending champions and they expect it.

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“I think nothing of it for granted,” said Brown, who bound the 17 career -legend Tommy Heinsohns 17 career -playoff series with the victory on Tuesday. “This is my ninth season and the eighth playoff run, so I think nothing of it. In order to be in the middle of some of the most winning players in this franchise, with a lot of upward trend, still before me, I am very grateful for me to get around with the further round. They are the playoffs.

But first some well -deserved calm.