Maine Celtics' playoff elimination poses questions about JD Davison, Drew Peterson's futures
Photo by Evan Yu/NBAE via Getty Images
A special Maine Celtics season ended on Sunday night with a 135-119 loss to the Osceola Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals, despite continued strong play from G League MVP JD Davison.
Davison dropped 34 points and 11 assists, 14 of which came in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough to overcome a 42-point performance by Mac McClung. A Davison jumper brought the Celtics to within single digits with four minutes to play, but the Magic pulled away behind hot shooting and superb offensive execution.
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Celtics two-way forward Drew Peterson recorded 25 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 turnovers. Fellow two-way signee Miles Norris added 19 points and 8 rebounds on 7-11 shooting from the floor. Starting center James Banks III, a second-year player on the Maine Celtics, once again faced foul trouble, and was limited to 4 points and 5 rebounds in just 11 minutes.
Tristan Enaruna, who finished with 20 points on 7 of 17 shooting, started in place of Jordan Walsh. Walsh was in Boston for the Celtics' 124-90 win over the Wizards, and played 7 fourth-quarter minutes in the victory, grabbing two rebounds.
Mac McClung leads a dominant effort for the Magic
On the other side, Mac McClung led the way with 42 points and 6 assists. McClung, the 2024 G League MVP, shot 16 of 26 from the field and 3 of 7 from threes.
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Ethan Sampson, another Magic two-way player, and Jalen Slawsoh each added 20 points. Osceola shot 18-39 (46.2%) from three, with five players hitting at least three three-pointers.
Maine knew beating the Magic wasn't going to be easy.
'It's gonna be a challenge,' Lashbrook said after the Celtics' win over the Westchester Knicks on Thursday. 'It's gonna be a battle. That team has been on a roll — about the same time that we started getting on our run, they went on their own run. To me, it's been the two best teams over this last back half of the stretch, and so it'll be fun game for us to match up.'
As a result of the victory, the Magic (22-12) will advance to face the Stockton Kings (22-12) in a three-game G League Finals, while the Maine Celtics season comes to an end.
What's next for JD Davison and the Maine Celtics?
The Celtics' three two-ways — Davison, Norris, and Peterson — will rejoin the Boston Celtics for the postseason run, as will Maine Celtics assistant coach Tyler Lashbrook, who was an assistant coach on the Celtics' championship team last year. The two-ways will be eligible to play in the Celtics' final four regular season games — against the Knicks, Magic, and Hornets (twice), but given their two-way status, they won't be eligible to suit up in the playoffs.
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The Celtics still have a 15th roster spot available on their main roster and could sign one of their two-way players to the final sport, as they did with Neemias Queta toward the end of last season. Queta spent far more time (13.7 minutes per game across 28 games) with Boston last year than any two-way player has this year, but it's still quite possible that Boston would convert one of the two-way contracts to a guaranteed deal.
Davison has been by far Maine's best player this season, averaging 25.1 points and 7.5 assists this season — and 35 points and 13.3 assists in the postseason. In his third season with the Celtics, Davison dominated the G League from start to finish and was named MVP of the league last week.
But, Peterson has spent more time around Boston than Davison, and could also be up for consideration for the final roster spot. Peterson has appeared in 22 regular-season games for the Celtics this season, averaging 7.2 minutes per game on 40% shooting.
Davison, meanwhile, has only appeared in 13 games, averaging 4.3 minutes. But his dominance in the G League has been unrivaled and has been the coaches in noticed by the coach in Boston, too.
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'His leadership has really grown — just his ability to impact winning in different ways,' Joe Mazzulla said last week.
It seems most unlikely that Norris, who has spent just a few weeks with the Celtics organization, would be converted from a two-way to a guaranteed contract so quick.
A decision regarding the 15th roster spot will be made in the coming weeks, with the Celtics' regular season coming to a close on April 13th at home against the Hornets.
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