The Boston Celtics avenged their Friday night loss to the Orlando Magic by turning around and beating Orlando less than 48 hour later on Sunday. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics in scoring with 27, while Anfernee Simons was a flamethrower off the bench for Boston with 25 points in 23 minutes on 5-of-8 from three. A particularly impressive Celtics performer on Sunday was Luka Garza. The 26-year-old center, signed by Boston in July, had his best game in a Celtics uniform thus far, contributing 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists on a near-perfect 7-of-8 from the field. What’s more, Garza did all of that in just 17 minutes of action. Garza is only averaging 13.4 minutes per game this season, but Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla might feel okay upping those minutes if Luka keeps playing like he did on Sunday. The former Iowa Hawkeye is now shooting 52.5 percent from the field in 2025-26. Garza isn’t going to overwhelm anybody in the NBA with size like he did against smaller bigs in college, but his energy remains elite, and he’s a tough, hard-nosed player who competes at a high level. Story continues below advertisement Garza brings his hard hat to the basketball court every night, and that’s infectious. He’s occasionally capable of going on little flurries of scoring and rebounding, which serve to pump up his teammates and inject the team with positive energy. One of those spurts happened on Sunday for Garza, and the Magic were left wondering how to contain Garza for a few minutes. What this current Celtics team lacks in talent (compared with recent years, at least), they are trying to make up for with grit. Story continues below advertisement Garza embodies that mentality and approach, which makes him a great fit for this Celtics “gap year” that may very well result in a playoff berth down the line, the return of Jayson Tatum, and low-key contention. Don’t sleep on this team.