It's safe to say that the 2024-25 season has not gone according to plan for the Orlando Magic. And yet here they are, still alive and kicking and looking to make the reigning champion Boston Celtics sweat in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs. For the first half of Game 1, the Magic were going toe to toe with the Celtics before Boston pulled away with a 103-86 victory courtesy of a 55-37 second half rout of Orlando.

All season long, offensive production has been an issue for the Magic, and after the game, rising star forward Franz Wagner singled this issue out as the team's biggest as they allowed the Celtics to build a huge cushion that they wouldn't relinquish.

“I think we got a little stagnant on offense and that’s when they’re a really good defensive team. They got a couple easy threes in transition. They want to shoot a lot of threes and that’s when they go on big runs,” Wagner said in his postgame presser, via Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel.

A lack of quality guard play has limited the Magic's ceiling on offense all season long. With Jalen Suggs now out for the season, the Magic are starting Cory Joseph at the one. Joseph is a quality veteran and a welcome presence in the locker room, but at this point of his career, asking him to log heavy minutes against arguably the league's best team is a huge ask.

The Magic ranked 27th this past regular season in offensive rating, and they have a tendency to grow stagnant on offense. And unlike in their play-in tournament win over the Atlanta Hawks, Cole Anthony and Anthony Black failed to make their mark, putting the onus to create all offense on Wagner and Paolo Banchero's shoulders. And this may not be a winning recipe against a Celtics team that is as battle-tested as any in the league.

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Magic are crying out for a more dynamic force at point guard

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) controls the ball while Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) defends during the first half at TD Garden.
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero can handle the ball, but the Magic are overtaxing them by letting them do all the shot-creating and making. Even a combined 59 points from those two weren't enough.

While it's not quite the offseason yet for the Magic, this Game 1 performance of theirs against the Celtics shows that they might be a dynamic force at point guard away from being able to maximize the talent on the roster, returning to their perch as a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference.