ORLANDO — A sluggish start and sloppy finish doomed the Celtics on Friday night in 123-110 loss to the Magic.

Jaylen Brown scored a game-high 32 points to lead Boston, but he finished as a game-worst minus-21 in his 36 minutes. Payton Pritchard added 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting, Derrick White tallied 16 points and 10 assists, and Anfernee Simons bounced back from an ugly first quarter to score 11 points in the fourth, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 7:23 remaining.

The Magic, bested by Boston in a five-game opening-round playoff series last spring, controlled play from that point toward, rebuilding a double-digit lead with just under two minutes to play. And because this was an NBA Cup game, with a potential point-differential tiebreaker looming at the end of group play, Orlando co

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