Celtics protects home court against Magic, already an improvement from last year

The 2024-25 NBA Playoffs are already off to a better start for the Boston Celtics than last year after the Celtics won both of their opening games of Round 1.

As the two-seed, they earned the right to have home court advantage until the team reaches the conference finals (assuming that you play the No. 1 seed). For most teams who start the series on the road, the goal is to win one of the two road games to flip home court advantage. In the first round last year, the Miami Heat took Game 2 after Boston won the first game by 20. After losing the second game by 10, all the momentum seemed to have shifted to Miami, especially after they defeated Boston the year prior in seven games, a series where Boston kept losing at home. Luckily for Boston, they won the next three games to close out the series.

In the second round, it was déjà vu all over again. Boston took Game 1 by 25 points and then took the foot off the gas in Game 2 and lost by 24 points to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It created a pattern of letting ‘inferior’ opponents back into the series.

When the Orlando Magic won their Play-In game, my mind went back to the previous matchups against the Magic. Most of the games were physical during the regular season and that physicality has continued into the playoffs.

I didn’t expect the Celtics to sweep Orlando and in both games, they were in it until the end. But winning at home is super important if the team wants to get back to the Finals. In Game 1, with the energy from the crowd, it felt like the Celtics would have enough to win.

However, in the second game, the Magic upped the physicality and without Jayson Tatum, Boston had to make sure they didn’t get punked on their home court. Joe Mazzulla is all about learning from past mistakes and capitalizing and winning the opening two games to go to Orlando up 2-0 is a great lesson learned.

Not only is it beneficial for Boston to win their home games, but it can also deflate their opposition’s hopes. In the opening game, Paolo Banchero had 36 points on 14-27 shooting while teammate Franz Wagner netted 23. The two of them were making every tough basket, but they still ended up falling short. On Wednesday, it was a similar story,; they threw their best punch at Boston and it still wasn’t enough. Now, they go back home in a hole needing a win.

Kristaps Porzingis, who is beloved by the Boston faithful, talked about playing on the parquet.

“There’s no better place to do it. The biggest stage, and getting all of this love. This is what I dreamed of,” Porzingis said.

Home court is vital for Boston for many reasons. However, one reason that not many people are talking about is because of their away record. The Celtics had the best road record in the entire NBA at 33-8, which is incredible. Although the Celtics are road warriors, the more they can win at TD Garden, it makes it even easier and doesn’t put that pressure on them thinking they need to win a certain amount of games on the road.

This matchup is far from over but with a 2-0 lead, the pressure is on Orlando to come back to Boston with the series tied while Boston will look to return to Boston having advanced to the second round.