A subplot to Celtics-Magic: It has significant tournament implications

The Celtics are 2-0 in group play with two games remaining. If they defeat the Magic, they will win their five-team Group C and advance to the quarterfinals.

In addition to the game’s stand-alone intrigue, it will have major In-Season Tournament implications.

The surging Magic stretched their winning streak to five games by defeating the NBA champion Nuggets Wednesday. So they will present a significant challenge for the Celtics when the teams meet in Orlando Friday afternoon.

But the Magic are 2-1 in the group, and the first tiebreaker is head-to-head group-play record. So if Orlando wins, it would finish group play at 3-1 and own that tiebreaker over the Celtics.

At that point, the Celtics would need the Nets to defeat the Raptors, and they would need to topple the Bulls Tuesday. That would leave Boston, Orlando, and Brooklyn with 3-1 overall records and 1-1 marks in a three-way tiebreaker. The next tiebreaker would be point differential.

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Entering Friday’s games, the Celtics lead the group with a plus-17 differential, followed by the Nets (plus-8) and Magic (plus-5). Of course, a Celtics loss to the Magic would shrink that, and the margin of that defeat could be meaningful.

The second-place team in Group C will still have a chance to earn the conference’s wild-card berth, which will go to the second-place team with the biggest point differential in all groups.

The single-elimination quarterfinals will be played on the home court of the higher-seeded teams, and the semifinals and finals will be played in Las Vegas Dec. 7 and 9. Every game except the championship will count as part of the regular-season standings.

Emotions in play

With just under two minutes left in the fourth quarter of the 119-116 win over the Bucks Wednesday, Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis posted up the much smaller Damian Lillard and called for the ball.

When the entry pass came Porzingis’s way, he and Lillard tangled a bit before Lillard came up with the steal and began to race upcourt. Frustrated that a foul had not been called, Porzingis clapped his hands and yelled toward the official standing closest to him. And just like that, the league leader in technical fouls had one more added to his tally.

Porzingis has been whistled for eight technical fouls through 15 games. No one else in the NBA has more than four. A player receives a one-game suspension if he is called for 16 technicals during the regular season.

The puzzling part about Porzingis’s early spree is that he has never really been a technical-foul magnet. He said he’s just playing with more emotion this year.

“I always have, like, very cordial conversations with the ref,” Porzingis said. “It’s just like, ‘OK, I reacted. I didn’t even say anything. I just clapped my hands.’

“And of course, clapping hands doesn’t look good. And just small things that I have to be aware of and not get caught into that emotion in that moment because I just cannot keep doing this.

“And it’s not the end of the world, but I definitely have to be smarter about it and that’s it. That’s it. Again, I’m just enjoying playing here and being full of emotion and that emotion is coming out maybe a little bit.”

Difference of opinion

There was an odd interaction between Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo and first-year coach Adrian Griffin midway through the third quarter Wednesday.

Antetokounmpo was removed by Griffin after being called for a palming violation and clearly had an issue with his coach’s decision. He sat on the scorer’s table as the two had an exchange that appeared somewhat testy. Antetokounmpo stayed at his perch until the next dead ball, when he checked back in.

He declined to answer a question about the situation after the game, but Griffin mostly shrugged off the apparent disagreement.

“He wanted to stay in,” Griffin said. “I wanted to give him a breather. That’s all it was. And then I told him to stay at the table for one possession, and he got right back out there.”

Breaking away

Jaylen Brown registered a season-high eight assists Wednesday, and the most improbable one came in the final minute of the third quarter, when he ignited a fast break and tossed an alley-oop to Sam Hauser, who is known much more for his work outside the 3-point arc.

“I looked at him, he looked at me, and that was all the confirmation I needed,” Brown said. “We locked eyes and I said, ‘[expletive] it.’ He looked at me like he was ready. So I threw it to him and he followed through. So, shout-out to Sam.”

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at . Follow him .