An intense battle between the Celtics and Magic on Monday night led to some extracurriculars during Boston’s 108-104 loss to Orlando.
Kristaps Porzingis was front and center for the drama as he traded verbal barbs with Jalen Suggs with 3:38 remaining in the fourth quarter. Gaga Bitadze tried to break up the exchange but ended up escalating by grabbing Porzingis near his throat in his attempt to play peacemaker. Porzingis shoved him away as multiple players and coaches separated the duo.
Ultimately after a video review, Porzingis and Suggs received technical fouls while Bitadze was ejected for getting physical with Porzingis in a threatening way. After the loss, the Celtics big man downplayed the altercation though.
“Nothing, just competing,” Porzingis told reporters in Orlando. Start talking a little bit and we went face to face and just kept on talking. Bitadze came from the side and kind of shoved me. Of course, I reacted to that. Just some NBA action a little bit. Nothing serious, just competing. It’s good that no one got thrown out from our side and we just kept playing.”
The Celtics blew a 15-point halftime lead in the loss despite facing a Magic squad playing without their top two scorers in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Porzingis believes that the physical matchup could be a good teaching tool for Boston this year amid an off offensive night.
“I think we could have adjusted a little bit earlier knowing there wasn’t a lot of stuff being called, and we can also use that,” Porzingis said. “We have to be ready for that offensively, but we can also use that a little more defensively if it’s that type of game but overall it’s great to play against a team like this that’s able to have that kind of intensity, this kind of physicality in a regular season game.”
The Celtics were also without Jayson Tatum for the matchup but were still heavy favorites for the matchup against a Magic squad down four rotation players. Boston will get two more chances for revenge during the regular season but Porzingis believed the Magic were worth of praise despite the physicality and fourth quarter altercation.
“Hats off to them, and hats off to Mosely their coach who is getting their minds and their culture like this for a regular-season game,” Porzingis said. “It’s really a great job that he’s doing over there. It’s not easy to do and it’s a hard playing team that we played tonight.”
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