Jayson Tatum Bled, Came Back and Closed Orlando — Celtics Win Fifth Straight, 108–97

Jayson Tatum's night in Orlando started with blood. Late in the first quarter, the back of his head collided with Jamal Cain's forehead, and the Boston Celtics' best player walked to the locker room bleeding while the Magic — down a star of their own, with Paolo Banchero out with a high-ankle sprain — tried to make a Sunday afternoon at Kia Center uncomfortable. Tatum came back with 6:13 left in the second quarter. He finished with 32 points, and by the end he had personally outscored Orlando's entire team at the free-throw line. Boston won 108–97, its fifth straight win after an opening-night loss, and at 5–1 the Celtics look exactly like what they were supposed to be.

The line did the talking

Tatum's 32 came the hard way: 8-of-19 from the field on a night Boston shot 27 percent from three, and 15-of-17 from the stripe. Fifteen made free throws is a number that needs its context: Orlando, as a team, made 15 free throws all game, on 19 attempts — the receipt Field Level Media flagged in its recap. Boston made 22 of 26. Tatum was fouled on three three-point attempts across the night, twice in the final 36 seconds of the third quarter alone, and he kept walking to the line and converting: five of six in that late-third stretch rebuilt a lead Orlando had just erased. Add seven assists and two blocks in 34 minutes, and the box score reads like a closer's, not a volume shooter's.

The company helps explain the start he is on. The NBA's own postgame note had Tatum joining Larry Bird (1987–88) and John Havlicek (1970–71) as the only Celtics to average at least 28 points and 7 assists through the first six games of a season. And per Celtics statistician Dick Lipe, via NBC Sports Boston, Tatum is the first Celtic since Paul Pierce in 2008 to attempt at least 54 free throws over a four-game span. This is what the early season looks like when a star decides the whistle is a weapon.

Orlando kept coming — and kept getting answered

The Magic (2–4) refused to be a footnote. Boston built the game's biggest lead, 15 points, early in the third quarter by holding Orlando scoreless over the first four minutes of the half. Orlando answered with an 18–3 run — three Tristan da Silva threes in the burst — and Anthony Black's three tied it at 72 late in the third. Black tied it again at 79 with a three-point play 49 seconds into the fourth, the last tie of the night.

Boston's response was an 18–6 run to 97–85, built by the supporting cast: a Payton Pritchard three-point play, a Luka Garza three (Garza finished with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists off a bench that out-produces every bench in the league so far), a Paul George three. Orlando made one more push — Desmond Bane and da Silva cut it to 97–93 with 3:59 left — and then Tatum closed the door personally: back-to-back pull-up jumpers, an assist to Neemias Queta for a layup, and an assist on George's three with 1:32 left that made it 106–95. Boston outscored Orlando 11–4 over the final 3:59. Queta, starting with Mitchell Robinson rested, blocked Franz Wagner twice in the final two minutes.

The star-versus-star line

With Banchero out, Orlando's offense ran through Wagner — and the comparison tells the night's story. Wagner finished with a career-high 12 assists but shot 5-of-20 for 14 points, hounded into the two late blocks by Queta. Tatum's line — 32 points, 7 assists, 15-of-17 at the line — came with the game's closing run running through his hands: he scored or assisted on nine straight Boston points after Orlando got within four. George, Boston's other closer, scored 10 of his 17 in the fourth quarter, with 8 assists of his own. Orlando's best lines belonged to its young wings: da Silva's 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Black's 23 and 8 — career-type nights that still weren't enough, because the Magic turned it over 18 times and Boston turned those into 21 points.

Orlando is 0–3 at home and gets Washington at Kia Center on Monday, still looking for its first home win. Boston's reward for five straight is a back-to-back: Monday night in Houston against a 6–1 Rockets team. The Celtics keep answering every question the schedule asks. Tatum, bleeding and all, is the reason. Every number from this one lives in the Game Center, and Tatum's start is broken down in the Stats Hub.

Elsewhere Tonight

• Brooklyn 98, Indiana 90 — Michael Porter Jr. 23 PTS / 9 REB and Julius Randle 20/5/6 gave the Nets (1–5) their first win of the season at Gainbridge Fieldhouse; Andrew Nembhard led the Pacers with 23.
• Golden State 124, LA Clippers 112 — covered by Previously's published wrap on rookie Yaxel Lendeborg's career-high 37 (Warriors' fourth straight win, with Stephen Curry rested); referenced here only.
• LA Lakers 131, Toronto 125 — covered by Previously's published wrap on Luka Dončić's 45 PTS / 15 REB / 6 AST / 5 STL; referenced here only.