Jaylen Brown leads Tatum-less Celtics past Magic in Game 2

BOSTON — For the first time since 2017, the Celtics played a postseason game Wednesday night without the services of Jayson Tatum.

Fortunately for Boston, it still had the reigning NBA Finals MVP. And a bloody unicorn.

With Tatum sidelined with a bone bruise in his wrist, Jaylen Brown racked up 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting to lead Boston to a 109-100 win over the Orlando Magic at TD Garden, and a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series. Game 3 is Friday night in Orlando.

Brown scored seven of his points in the final four minutes, including a corner 3-pointer with 1:26 remaining that iced the game for the second-seeded Celtics. He added 10 rebounds, five assists and one steal in his best outing since the knee injury that limited him for the final two months of the regular season.

Kristaps Porzingis overcame his second straight poor shooting performance to tally 20 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. The center also bolstered his cult-hero status among Celtics fans by returning to action after having his forehead split open during the second half.

Derrick White scored 17 points, including two clutch fourth-quarter 3s, and newly minted NBA Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard added 14 points off the bench.

The No. 7 seed Magic again got big nights from young stars Paolo Banchero (32 points, nine rebounds, seven assists) and Franz Wagner (25 points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals) but couldn’t keep pace with the defending champs.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whose hard foul in Game 1 caused Tatum’s injury, was loudly booed during pregame introductions, then again when he was whistled for a foul on Al Horford in the opening minutes. The veteran guard reacted to the latter by raising his arms, egging on the Garden crowd.

Horford was the only Celtics player to directly criticize Caldwell-Pope’s Tatum takedown. The two would meet again later.

As Tatum watched from the bench in a tan polo and slacks with a wrap on his right wrist, Brown carried the Celtics’ offense early, scoring 12 of the team’s first 17 points and making four of his first six field-goal attempts. Overall, though, Boston shot the ball poorly in the first quarter, especially inside the arc, where they started 2 for 10.

The Celtics were able to get to the free-throw line at a much higher rate than usual, however, against Orlando’s physical, foul-happy defense. They went 10 for 12 from the line in the first quarter, putting them on pace to shatter their single-game season high of 35 foul shots. The Magic, who led the NBA in fouls drawn during the regular season and attempted the most free throws per 100 possessions, shot just two in the first, which ended with Boston holding a slim 23-21 lead.

After that low-scoring start, the Celtics upped their pace in the second quarter, and their offense opened up. Boston staged a 14-5 run — all with Brown on the bench — that included the first three field goals of the night for Porzingis.

In one sequence, Porzingis blocked Banchero at the rim, and Jrue Holiday drove for a layup at the other end. Less than a minute later, Porzingis hammered down a dunk, stole the ball from Magic guard Anthony Black, then bullied his way through the much smaller Black on a post-up, putting the Celtics ahead 37-26 and triggering an Orlando timeout.

The Magic scored the first seven points out of that stoppage, at which point Brown reentered. Holiday halted Orlando’s run with an unexpected highlight, skying for a two-handed slam off a feed from Brown. It was just the second dunk of the season for the 34-year-old guard, who rarely operates above the rim at this stage of his career.

Tempers flared shortly thereafter when Caldwell-Pope and Horford clashed again, this time after the former tripped the latter behind the play. A brief scrum formed on the court, and officials reviewed Caldwell-Pope’s move for a possible flagrant foul — which would have been his second of the series — before deciding it did not meet that criteria.

The Celtics led 50-47 at halftime despite shooting just 35.0% from the field and 4 for 17 from 3-point range. The difference: their 18-for-23 showing from the foul line. Porzingis accounted for 12 of those attempts (nine makes), more than he totaled in all but one full game during the regular season. That game was, not coincidentally, against the Magic in December.

Boston returned to its typical offensive approach to start the second half. Its first four shots of the third quarter were 3-pointers, and it made three of them: two by Brown and one by Derrick White after an offensive rebound by Horford. Horford pulled down another tough board on the ensuing Orlando possession, springing Porzingis for a fast-break layup and catching Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. with an elbow to the face in the process. The 11-0 run gave the Celtics their largest lead of the game to that point, 61-49.

A string of tough makes from Banchero and Wagner narrowed the gap, but Brown responded with a pivotal sequence. After converting a slick baseline bank shot following a Holiday block, Brown picked Cory Joseph’s pocket and threw down a rim-rattling dunk at the other end. He slithered his way past Banchero for another bucket a minute later, then assisted on a pair of Payton Pritchard 3-pointers.

With the Celtics leading 77-66 late in the third, Porzingis absorbed a shot to the forehead from Magic center Goga Bitadze. The blow opened a gash near Porzingis’ hairline, sending blood streaming down his face. As he did when he suffered a similar facial wound against the Phoenix Suns last month, the fan-favorite big man smiled and peacocked as he retreated to the locker room — then returned to the bench shortly thereafter.

Porzingis shot his free throws with a large bandage on his head and, after some repairs, checked back into the game midway through the fourth quarter.

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