Kemba returns, Celts rout Magic
Fournier has 18 vs. former team
ORLANDO, FLA. » Kemba Walker tied a season high with 32 points in his return from a four-game injury absence, Evan Fournier had 18 points in his first game back in Orlando since being traded, and the Boston Celtics routed the Magic 132-96 on Wednesday night.
Jayson Tatum shook off a slow start and finished with 27 points for Boston, which swept the three-game series with the Magic and beat Orlando for a sixth straight time over the past two seasons. The Celtics made 21 3-pointers, just two fewer than their season-best 23 against Orlando on March 21.
Walker, who entered averaging 20.7 points in 34 career games against the Magic, showed no rust following a nine-day layoff because of a strained left oblique suffered on April 25.
Walker made 11 of 18 shots and shot 6 of 9 from 3-point range in 28 minutes for Boston, which pulled even with Miami for sixth in the Eastern Conference standings. Walker scored 32 points for a third time this season.
Fournier, who played for the Magic for 6 1/2 seasons before his trade to Boston on March 25, was honored with a highlight video between the first and second quarters.
Dwayne Bacon and Moritz Wagner each scored 20 points for Orlando, while Mo Bamba added 19 points and 15 rebounds as the Magic’s twogame winning streak ended.
Magic coach Steve Clifford was back on the sidelines after missing six games following a positive COVID-19 test.
Clifford, 59, said getting vac
cine shots on each side of his positive test helped him.
“It was very uneventful, thankfully and, from what I’ve been told, the biggest part was because I had been vaccinated,” Clifford said. “My body was ready for it.”
Fournier returns
To illustrate how much he loved Orlando during his tenure with the Magic in late March, Fournier said he had never lived in the same city more than two years since he was 13 when he left his family home to chase his professional basketball dreams. The next day, the guard who was in the midst of a career year was traded from Orlando to Boston.