ORLANDO, Fla. — The Boston Celtics finished the NBA regular season with 10th-best 3-point shooting percentage in the league at 36.9%.

What didn't make them the most dominant team in terms of efficiency, they made up for in frequency, attempting 5.5 more long-range shots than any other team in the NBA at 47.8 per game.

The Orlando Magic ended the regular season with the worst 3-point percentage in the NBA at 31.8%. They were 23rd in the league in the number of 3s they attempted per game at 35.3.

The 3-point shooting could determine the outcome of their best-of-seven first-round playoff series that begins Sunday in Boston.

The Magic (41-41 in the regular season) are considered big underdogs in the series. They have not won a playoff series since going to the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2009-10 series, when they lost to the Celtics.

They have reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2019 and 2020 and had to fight for the seventh seeding in this year's playoffs by winning the play-in game against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday because of a season full of long-term injuries to key players.

They did beat the Celtics in two of their three meetings in the regular season, but those results don't tell the entire story. Celtics All-Star Jason Tatum did not play in Orlando's win on Dec. 23 in Orlando or in their final meeting on April 9, when Boston played mostly backups. Magic star forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner did not play in the Dec. 23 game because they both were out with oblique injuries, and Wagner and guard Jalen Suggs did not play in the Magic's loss in Boston on Jan. 17 because of injuries.

Suggs and center/forward Moe Wagner are out for the season with a knee injury, but the team is otherwise healthy, coach Jamahl Mosley said. The Celtics also go into the playoffs relatively healthy and will be coming off a week's rest.

Banchero said he knows the Celtics (61-21) pose a major challenge for Orlando but that he and his team are eager to get to work.

"They have a lot of weapons out there, defending champs," Banchero said Friday after practice. "So, they're going to be ready to play. But I'm confident in what our defense is trying to do, so I'm excited."

The Magic's defense could help them out some. Orlando proved to be good at chasing their opponents off the 3-point line, allowing the fewest attempts in the NBA at 31.3 per game and the fewest made at 11.4%, and they ranked 10th in the 3-point percentage allowed at 36.5%.

But Banchero said Boston's defense is good, too.

"They're first in the league in rim protection, so they're going to make it hard to get in the paint and get to the rim," Banchero said. "And they've got guys under there that can block shots. They've guards and wings that can switch and defend the perimeter and defend the rim. So, as good as they are on offense, they also are a very good defensive team, too, so that presents a challenge to us offensively of us trying to get clean looks and do what we do."

Orlando left for Boston early to focus on its playoff preparations and get in some practice time on the Celtics' home court.

"They know exactly what we're working toward," Mosley said. "But you start with one game at a time and focusing on that, playing 48 minutes of Magic basketball."

Mosley and his players said the team has been concentrating on the players' level of focus and attention to detail. He said they have been working on what they plan to do offensively and defensively so far and will put it all together with a practice on Boston's court Saturday. 

He said the team must focus on avoiding turnovers and on grabbing defensive rebounds to limit Boston's second-chance points.

"I think within any series teams, there are going to be things that rattle you for a moment," Mosley said.

"I think it's the teams that can bounce back the fastest that give themselves a clear-cut advantage, to understand when they have to get back into the moment and not let things that have happened take over for three or four possessions," he added

Last year's playoff run was the first for most of the Magic's players and taught them how important momentum and home-court advantage was. They forced the Cavaliers to a Game 7 before losing in Cleveland.

Mosley said the Magic just need to focus on one game at a time.

"You have to play the game to figure out what adjustments need to be made, what looks good, what doesn't look good, what they're doing, what they're trying to solve," Mosley said.

"We've done a great job over this last stretch of playing games on the road, so our guys understand they can walk into the environment and get the job done," he added. "But we've got to go play this game to see exactly what we need to move or change or do anything different."

The Magic have planned watch parties at three different locations for fans in Orlando during the first two games in Boston. Information on the locations and how to RSVP can be found on their website.