NBA Results December 16th, 2022: Celtics lose

Magic @ Celtics Friday: Jaylen Brown scores 26

The Boston Celtics, the top-ranked team in our power rankings heading into the week, hosted the Orlando Magic on Friday. The Magic, a low-ranked team but one that has played very well lately, actually won the game in a contest that was fairly competitive in the final possessions. They put up a single-digit spread in the game, winning by 8 points. The final score in the contest was Orlando 117, Boston 109.

With the loss, the Celtics are now 22-8 on the season and they are definitely having a bad week. They started the week as a 21-6 team but after going 1-2 so far this week, they are in danger of falling out of the top spot in our rankings.

They will host the Magic again on Sunday but even with a win, Boston’s reputation has taken a hit with the Friday home loss to the Magic. According to our betting preview of this game, where we recommended taking Orlando’s handicap, the Celtics were -1200 moneyline favorites.

NBA Results December 16th: Orlando is in cruise control

Meanwhile, the Magic improved to 10-20 with the 8-point victory. They are a team that has to be feeling a lot of confidence right now. It will be interesting to see what their odds are to make the play-in tournament and/or the playoffs when futures markets update at the end of the evening.

The leading scorer in the game was Jaylen Brown of the Celtics. He had 26 points in the game but he also had 7 turnovers.

These two teams will meet again on Sunday. Arguably, Orlando has already achieved more than anyone thought that they would in two games at Boston. If they should sweep the two games against the Celtics, there will probably be a lot of believers out there in the Magic all of sudden. Orlando is definitely a team a watch for ante-post markets having to do with win totals and playoff qualification.