The Celtics’ first-round slugfest came to a merciful end Tuesday night at TD Garden.

By taking Game 5 120-89, Boston avoided a return trip to Orlando and another matchup with the bulldog Magic, who brought the fight to the reigning NBA champions during their brief but physical series. The Celtics won’t take the court again until this weekend at the earliest, when they’ll square off against either the No. 3 seed New York Knicks or sixth-seeded Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

As they await the conclusion of that series, which New York leads 3-2, here are three takeaways from the Celtics’ first-round triumph:

1. The Magic forced Boston out of its comfort zone

Entering the playoffs, the Magic wanted to play with physicality and limit the effectiveness of the Celtics’ record-setting 3-point shooting. Check and check.

Orlando beat the heck out of Boston, committing injury-inducing flagrant fouls in each of the first three games and leveling Celtics players on several other plays that pushed the boundaries of legality. All the while, its elite, in-your-face defense put a massive dent in the Celtics’ 3-point volume, lowering their average of 3-point attempts per game from a league-high 48.2 during the regular season to 31.2 in this series, which would have ranked last in the NBA.

The Celtics’ three lowest 3-point attempt totals of the season came in Games 3, 4 and 5 against Orlando. Veteran big man Al Horford said the matchup was “challenging in many ways.”

“You guys saw it,” Horford said. “We want to shoot 60 threes when we’re out there, run and gun, play fast, and we couldn’t do that. Sometimes you have to get it done in different ways.”

Boston made the necessary adjustments while successfully limiting Orlando’s top-heavy offense, which lacked the necessary depth behind central stars Paolo Banchero (29.4 points per game in the series) and Franz Wagner (25.8). The Celtics finished the series with the fourth-best offensive rating of all playoff teams, the third-best defensive rating and the third-best net rating, trailing only top seeds Oklahoma City and Cleveland, who both breezed through noncompetitive first-round sweeps.

The Celtics also handled the Magic’s bully ball especially well in the final two games of the series. Jayson Tatum smiled through a series of fourth-quarter fouls in Game 4, and Boston flipped Game 5 when Derrick White and Jaylen Brown drew three consecutive fouls on Banchero — his third, fourth and fifth of the night — minutes into the second half.

Tied at the time, the Celtics proceeded to outscore the Magic by 31 points over the final 22 minutes.

Tatum said having to grind through that type of series was “probably exactly what (the Celtics) needed.” His teammates agreed.

“That was a great learning experience for us,” Brown said, “to go a full playoff series, having to be physical, having to get in the trenches, rebound, flagrant fouls, play through it, physicality, play through it, and still find ways to win. That’s one of the challenges people would have said before the season — take away the 3-point shooting, play them physical — and I think we responded well to that this series. So that’s something that we’ll continue to build on, but that’s great to have that in our back pocket and take that going forward in the playoffs.”

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2. Jayson Tatum’s wrist looks just fine

Since returning from the bone bruise in his shooting wrist that kept him out of Game 2, Jayson Tatum has played like Larry Bird — and that’s not an exaggeration.

The Celtics star joined Bird as the only players in franchise history to score 35 or more points in three consecutive playoff games, dropping 36 in Game 3, 37 in Game 4 and 35 in Game 5. In Tuesday’s clincher, Tatum narrowly missed a triple-double (10 assists, eight rebounds, one steal) and had one of his best shooting performances of the season, going 10-for-16 from the field, 4-for-4 from three and 11-for-11 from the foul line.

Tatum’s ability to generate and convert free throws was a vital asset for Boston in this series. After posting the second-worst free-throw percentage of his career during the regular season (81.4%) and going 0-for-4 in Game 1, he was a perfect 37-for-37 over the final three games.

“Very impressive,” Horford said. “The thing that impressed me the most about him is that time and time again, when it’s time to finish off a series, get it done, he goes to another level. And (Game 5) was so impressive just to see him. We get him to a certain point, and he then knows what to do and just kind of takes over. So that was pretty special to see him just making play after play. Whether it was him shooting it, him passing it, on the defensive end — just all over the place. Pretty impressive the way he closed it for us.”

Mazzulla has avoided referencing last year’s title run, but Tatum said his status as a defending champ has allowed him to play with more freedom and less pressure.

“I said this season was the most relaxed and carefree that I’ve been in my career, understanding that we won last year and we accomplished the ultimate goal and you kind of got that monkey off your back,” he said. “So obviously, the goal is still the same this year to win and compete for a championship, but I’ve just enjoyed this season of playing carefree basketball and not having that hang over my head. It’s been fun to do and just a sense of freedom. I’ve just carried the season with that.”

Players scored 35-plus points against the Magic just 12 times during the regular season. Tatum and Brown did so in four of the five games in this series, with the latter notching 36 in Game 2.

3. The time off should help

With the Knicks-Pistons series still undecided (Game 6 is Thursday night in Detroit), the Celtics will get to enjoy a few extra days of downtime before the East semis tip off. That break comes at an ideal time, as at least three Boston starters are dealing with injuries.

Jrue Holiday missed the final three games of the first round with a right hamstring strain, and he seemingly was not close to playing in the final two. Mazzulla described the veteran guard’s status as “day to day” and said he’s “doing everything he can to come back,” but the timeline for his return is unclear.

Brown still is playing through the knee injury that’s hounded him since before the NBA All-Star break, with the Celtics listing him as questionable for Games 4 and 5 against Orlando. Tatum’s wrist didn’t affect his scoring ability after his Game 2 DNP, but he indicated later in the series that it was not fully healed.

“We’ll exit the arena for a couple days,” Mazzulla said. “That could be good. But I think as you start to get ready for the next series, you’ve got to re-enter the arena, and you got to get ready. So we’ll take the days that we need, and then we’ll get right back at it.”