On December 18, Beijing time, a new round of the NBA regular season officially began. The Celtics host the Magic. The starting lineups for both sides were: Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, Holiday and White for the CelticsMagic's Wagner, Banchero, Suggs, Bitadze and Black.
After the start of the first quarter, both sides tried to take the lead with three-pointers, but they were unsuccessful. The Magic's Banchero then scored on a breakaway and steals Holiday before Suggs completed an aerial relay dunk. The Celtics responded quickly, with Holiday and Tatum grabbing offensive rebounds for rebounds and Porzingis completing an air-cut dunk. The Magic's offense remained strong, with Wagner Jr. and Banchero scoring back-to-back points, and Houstan hitting solid three-pointers from the outside. Porzingis also contributed outside scoring for the Celtics. In the end, the two sides made a partial rotation and the game went into a see-saw state. At the end of the first quarter, the Celtics trailed the Magic by four points at 27-31, with Tatum and Banchero hitting each other three-pointers.
After the start of the second quarter, Tatum scored 4 points in a row, Pritchard scored up and down with an outside three-pointer, and Holiday broke through the dribble and scored 7 points, and the Celtics took a 12-3 lead. The Magic's overall offense has stagnated, and Anthony has almost scored in the open game in the last half quarter. Fortunately, Banchero stepped up in time and scored five points in a row, but Celtics veteran Horford's outside three-pointers kept up with the rhythm, and Brown ushered in a small explosion, hitting consecutive outside three-pointers to score nine points in a row. White and Holiday also hit two three-pointers in a row to lead the team to a 13-3 spurt. At halftime, the Celtics led the Magic by 11 points, 61-50.
Porzingis hit a three-pointer as Brown continued to fire from the outside. The Magic's Suggs scored four straight points, as did Bitadze, Blake, Banchero and Wagner Jr. Seeing that the point difference was chased to single digits, Celtics' White broke through to score to stabilize the advantage, and Porzingis completed 2+1 under the basket. Tatum made three free throws from the outside. At the end of the third quarter, the Celtics led the Magic by nine points, 83-74, and Isaac and Horford responded with a three-pointer.
After the start of the final quarter, the Magic's Isaac hit a three-pointer from the outside, Wagner Jr. broke through the offensive basket and scored, and Wagner scored five points in a row. Brown exploded again, scoring 17 straight points in the first quarter. Tatum also hit two three-pointers in a row, and the difference instantly widened to 23 points. Magic has no way back. In the end, the Celtics made early substitutions, and at the end of the game, the Celtics beat the Magic by 114-97 by 17 points!
For the Celtics, Brown finished with 31 points, five rebounds and six assists on 12-of-20 shooting. Tatum finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and three assists on 8-of-21 shooting. Porzingis contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds. Holiday finished with 14 points and six rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting. White had 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. Horford contributed eight points, eight rebounds and two assists. Pritchard had five points, six rebounds and two assists.
For the Magic, Banchero had 36 points and 10 rebounds on 14-of-30 shooting. Suggs contributed 13 points and five rebounds. Wagner Jr. had eight points, eight rebounds and six assists. Blake had five points, two rebounds and three assists.