← Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics & Payton Pritchard EXPLODE Early—How Neemias Queta IMPACTED Celtics win
00:25:02
Boston Celtics cruise past the Sacramento Kings as Payton Pritchard drops 29 points in a commanding win. Can Pritchard’s energy and offensive spark carry Boston through key absences like Jaylen Brown’s hamstring concerns? Neemias Queta and Baylor Scheierman make their mark with gritty interior play and versatile contributions, highlighting the team’s depth behind the stars. John Karalis breaks down major performances, including Luka Garza’s relentless offensive rebounding and Scheierman’s emergence as a utility player. The episode spotlights player development, Joe Mazzulla’s rotation tweaks, and lessons for rookie Amari Williams inspired by the Celtics’ bench. With trade rumors swirling and the Milwaukee Bucks up next, Boston’s postseason ambitions are under the microscope. Is this the turning point for the Celtics’ frontcourt?
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- [00:00]
John Karalis
Foreign podcast Network your team every day.
- [00:11]
Jake (State Farm Ad)
This is Jake from Lock Dawn. When the game's on the line, the best know when to pass because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state.
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Nick Gangstead
This is Nick Gangstead with the Lockdown Mavericks podcast. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. I love that I can earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase with my Apple Card, which can be automatically sent to my High Yield Savings account through Apple Card right in the Wallet app with my iPhone. I can use Apple Card with Apple Pay basically everywhere I go. You can apply for Apple Card too, right in the Wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings in Apple Card by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch Member FDIC terms and more@applecard.com now on the.
- [01:06]
John Karalis
Locked On Celtics podcast, Peyton Pritchard does all of the scoring while Jalen Brown sits out. But it was Nish K and Baylor Shireman who did the dirty work in an easy win over the Kings. Lock On Celtics pod, home of the winners. Hey, welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics Podcast podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast network. Where does your team every day? Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them Monday through Friday plus bonus podcasts like this one right here Friday night from TD Garden. I always love when they leave the floor out so I can sit here and have a nice podcast background. If you're watching on YouTube you can see I'm here. I'll just back out of the way but like hey look, it's the floor. That's where they just played a game and beat the Sacramento Kings. 11293 shows free available everywhere. If you're new to the show, I'm John Corralis. I'm a beat writer. I cover the Celtics for Sports illustrated Celtics on SI. I've been covering the team for about 20 years doing this podcast for 10 and I've written a couple of books about the team. So today we're just gonna bonus podcast so I tried to keep it a little bit shorter. Later on I'll get I saw a lot of lessons in this game for Amari Williams and I'm gonna, I'm gonna cover that because I want Amari Williams to do well. I think he can be a really good player, but he has a lot of work to do. We've seen flashes of it. That's coming up later. Individual performances, including Luca Garza, Baylor Schierman becoming a utility guy for the Celtics. Let's start at the top, though. Celtics built an early lead. They scored 40 points in the first quarter. Actually could have been more. It could have been, could have scored more. They could have held the Kings to less than 25. Kings had, what was it, 10, 10 of 12 from the free throw line. For some reason, the Celtics decided to foul, foul three point shooters in the first quarter, giving them a ton of shots the line. So it was a 15 point lead after one, but it could have been a much, a much bigger lead, which was fine because in the second quarter, the Celtics blew it open. It was a 25, 6 run to end the. It was basically that kind of covered the last half of the second quarter. It was a seven point game. And then next, you know, it was a 26 point game and that was it. That was it. It was over. Peyton Pritchard did all of the scoring. He was great. 12 of 16, shooting, 29 points, 5 of 6 from 3. He had eight assists. Peyton's night. It's not a surprise that Peyton did well because Jaylen Brown was out. They listed it as hamstring tightness, right knee contusion basically was a night off. And those were the excuses. Although just side note, the. The. Any hamstring thing for Jalen Brown is always an interesting. Just kind of raise your eyebrows a little bit because the hamstring has always been something over his career that has plagued him a little bit. So he's managed it well. He came into the preseason or came out of the preseason with it kind of bothering him, and it just kind of shows up from time to time. It was. Was it the Chicago game or the Brooklyn game where he was listed as it was. He was on the injury report with the hamstring tightness. And then he said, I didn't have my burst. I didn't have the acceleration. It was the Brooklyn game because he was talking about getting past Claxton, who he always calls Clarkson, which I think might be intentional. But anyway, he said he didn't have his burst. And it's just something that you got to watch for with him because it just. It just keeps popping up. But whatever, he sat out. He seems fine. He'll probably play Play on Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks and we'll see where he goes from there. But Peyton Pritchard doing the work without Jaylen Brown, that's, that's kind of something that he does. The Celtics are what, three and one now without Jalen? And in three of those four games, Pritchard has had really good games. And then the other one, it was a, I forget which game it was, but it wasn't his best shooting night, but it was still okay. He still handled a lot of the, the scoring. No matter what, he can get in there. I, I'm, I continue to be impressed with Peyton Pritchard's ability to get into that lane, get into that paint and operate very well against bigger players. Now, a lot of times size will bother him. It's one of my concerns. If a playoff series comes up and they swarm him and can be physical with him, but against a team like the Kings that defensively is, we'll just say, not good. The Kings stink. This is a get right team. This is their eighth loss in a row for the Kings. And the Celtics coming off of that Hawks game needed a little bit of a get right game and they got it from, you know, thank you, Sacramento. But with Peyton getting in there and, and doing his dribble like, he's got one of the best handles in the league. So when he gets in there and he's dribble and dribble, dribble, he finds a way to just get free either for a bucket turnaround, jump shot, a step through for a layup, or finding Namishkada. And I got to fold the mishkeda into this right away because I thought Keda was a huge reason why the Celtics won this game and were able to build an early lead, not only catching a couple of lobs early on and, and finishing around the rim. I, I people who are regular listeners know that I came into the season just really down on the MIA like I, I came out of last season just, hey, he's, he's barely playable. This is going to be a tough time. I came in thinking that this was going to be the worst front court in the league. And Keda has just grown and grown and grown and I, you know, consider me impressed that he, he continues to find little ways to improve along the way. In this one, you saw him I relocating on the baseline. I really liked how he is. This is my line of questioning for him and Peyton after the game, when Peyton's doing his thing, dribbling, getting into the middle of the Paint. He's. He's just finding and probing and he moves so fast and so quick. And Keda is, you know, it. He doesn't. He still. I don't think he. He, like, stops and starts in the quickest way possible, but he's really worked on that footwork. And I, I do think that he finds these little pockets. Peyton says they call them windows, these little spaces where when Peyton finally draws two, Nemi finds his way into a spot where Peyton can throw a lob or a little dump off pass or Derek White can throw him a lob. That has been a huge, huge development. He finds those spots, he catches the pass and he finishes. This is. This is not the same Keda from, From last season. And I know a lot of Keita fans are going to say, this is who he's always been, or, please don't do that because you're taking away the credit that he deserves for the hard work to get to this spot. You know, this is. This is Keita figuring out, yes, more opportunity for sure, but also figuring out how to navigate in that spot with these players, how to get himself into positions to score. Every once in a while, he will kind of step out of his lane like he did when he did a fake dribble, handoff drought, drove down the right side of the lane, threw up a challenge, a contested layup, which Joe Missoula immediately said, luca, get him out. Garza came in, Nemi came out. They were talking. I could kind of pick up a little bit of the lip reading in the conversation where Kada was basically saying that he had something and Joe was like, you did not have it. I don't give a blank about what you saw. Like, that was a very pointed discussion, but also like, Joe was kind of half smiling. And afterwards, I think. I think I. I saw an I love you in there and like a handshake. I. It's one of those. Neemy just has to play within himself and can't step out of who he is for this team, even though he might be capable of some of those moves. Sometimes it's tough to. It's tough. Sometimes he gets a little carried away and I'll get to Baylor Scheireman in a second. Baylor is. Is. Is prone to do this stuff, too. You're feeling yourself, you're feeling good, and then you just do that one thing too many. It's gonna be like, okay, dial it back. Which is fine. I'd rather have somebody dial it back and I'll get to Amari Williams. Later. I'd rather have the dial it back than try to pull it out like we're trying to do with Amari Williams. So Mimi comes in, does a great job screen setting, rolling short, rolling passing. What did he have? He had a couple of assists in this game, but 10 points, 15 rebounds, 4 offensive rebounds. Energy was good. He, he's just super important. I think with the Celtics little bit of a swoon, 6 and 6 in their last 12. There are a number of different reasons. Some of it is fatigue like Tom Westerholm mentioned yesterday. Some of it is the schedule it just packed, pack packed which goes into the fatigue. Some of it is Jaylen Brown shot has kind of regressed a little bit. Also part of the fatigue. But, but Nemi being sick recently has been a an under discussed kind of element to this and I, I'm one of the people who hasn't discussed it enough. And I think this game kind of shows how important he is to making the offense flow, how important he is to defending the rim. There were a couple of shots where, you know, I forget who it was, but one of the kings goes up for a floater and then here comes Neemi in the adjustment. Ends up being an air ball because you try to get it up over his hand and they miss and you have to go the other way. And that's just not something you get with Garza on the floor. And Amari can get in there and, and do that from time to time, but that's. That that's not the same effect that Keita is, is showing. So Keda coming in really important in this game. I thought he did a great job. Was a huge reason why the early scoring was there. Guys got open, he brought Charman. I think Baylor showed a little bit of everything and Joe Missoula called him their new utility guy, which is interesting. I'll get to that when we come back. Today's show is brought to you by. Game time. This would have been a great game for you to come to because guys got going early. Crowd was great. It's super cold in here, but once the energy was flowing, you couldn't even tell. And if you had the game time app, it'd be very easy to find your tickets, find a grid seat and get a great deal. 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Let's code locked on L O C L O C K E d locked on for 20 off download the game Time app today. Remember, if you're using the web, it's gametime co gametime co not com gametime.com also brought to you by fanduel we are just about was it eight days away from Super Bowl Sunday? It's one last kickoff, one last chance to get in the action before the NFL season comes to a close. It's Super Bowl 60, and FanDuel is making sure you're right in the middle of the action with a special officer, whether you're backing the Patriots. Yeah, go Patriots. Or Boo, backing the Seahawks. Whichever one you're doing, whichever one you're riding with, or if you're building the same game parlay one more time. This is where predictions turn into plays, stats turn to storylines, and every snap feels bigger. So here's a perfect way to cap the season and make the super bowl even more exciting, if that's possible. If you're a new customer, you bet five bucks and you get $200 in bonus bets if you win. So make it count. Because after the super bowl football season is over. Now when you go to FanDuel.com and get started here, you're going to be asked to set a limit, set a budget. Do that because you want to gamble responsibly. FanDuel will help you do that. Whatever your limit is, whatever your disposable income is, whatever you can afford to lose in case you get cold, that's what you should set your limit at. Go to FanDuel.com the official and official sportsbook partner of Super Bowl 60. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. You are an Everydayer and the trade deadline is here. How about a free month of the new everyday club to get you ready? If you need a group chat to keep up with the chaos of the trade deadline, join ours. The everyday club every day or club gets you access to group chat on Discord just for Celtics fans, plus national chats where you can hang out with fans from across the league. You also get ad free versions of the show. If you sign up by the trade deadline. That's February 5th. You can use the code deadline for your first month free tap the link in the show notes or go to locked on celtics.supercast.com locked on celtics.Supercast.com to get started. Baylor Shireman got the start because Jalen Brown was out. Played 31 minutes and played great. I thought he had an incredible game, not only shooting well, which he did 16.6 of 10, shooting 3, 4 of 7 from 3. He got five rebounds. He got a steal, he got an assist. I loved that steal. I don't know why I'm so fixated on the steal, but is I think to me, an example of his defensive progression? Because the Kings were in transition and I don't remember exactly who the players were. This is Maxime Reynaud, who was coming down, and Baylor passes him off, right? He's like to Nene, he's like, that's your guy. I got this guy. You got the ball. But he's looking at the ball. It might have been Dennis Schroeder. I think it was Schroeder. So he's watching Schroeder. He's going up. That's his man now. But he also knows that he's passed off Renault to Keda. Instead of just going up, being maybe a little bit out of position, Shireman stays kind of engaged and understands like, wait a second. I see what's happening here. I see what Schroeder's about to do. The pass goes into Reynaud, but Baylor kind of stays in there, knocks it free. It ends up being Schroeder's turnover, but he knocks it free, gets the steal, and they start going the other way. It's an awareness thing to me. It's the understanding of, okay, yes, I have directed my teammate and I've now picked up my guy, but he understands this is not where my responsibility ends. My responsibility continues to read the play and understand what might be happening and kind of keep myself in a position where I can go out, I can stay here, and he makes the play, makes the steal. That to me, because it's Baylor Shireman because he's grown to be able to make some of those plays. I just think that that's an important kind of thing to highlight for him. The hustle was great. All of that was. Was great. He. He works hard again, like, he will sometimes step out of his body, step out of himself, just like Nemi. I think we saw that more in the last game against Atlanta where he was just, like, jacking up some shots. He's like, whoa, whoa, buddy, let's. Let's dial it back just a little bit. Play within yourself. You'll be fine. And I thought Baylor did a really good job with that, bringing the energy, bringing the defense. Gotta highlight Luca Garza as well. 11 points, six offensive rebounds. Luca has this knack, and I don't know if it's because he can't jump. I might be. Because he gets these offensive rebounds and finds a way to get foul. I've never seen a player get fouled as much on putbacks as Luca Garza does. And I think it's because he can't jump. He doesn't have that big burst. And the guys going for the defensive rebounds and he finds his way in there and they're just slapping. He can't get out of their way. He can't just jump past. I don't know. It's a wild knack, but he does a great job of it. And I've said this before, I don't know where the Celtics go with the trade deadline. I don't know what happens with their center rotation. I do have questions about whether Luca is going to be a fit for next year's team. Part of what makes him the fit this year. I'm repeating myself, but if you haven't heard it before, part of what makes him a fit for this year's team is because they don't rebound well defensively. So they need somebody to go in there and rebound well offensively to make up for the difference, and that's what he's doing. I think whatever move the Celtics make at the trade deadline or next summer to maybe bring in some more rebounding help. Plus the return of Jason Tatum, who's been their best defensive rebounder, that might. That might minimize what Garza's impact is next year and. And whether they need him next year. Maybe they do need him. I'm not. They might. They might keep him around. He might be, you know, a great third option for a center, which I would totally be on board with. I'm not advocating for him to go but what I'm saying is, if he does what he's doing out here, what he's proved this year is that some team in the NBA is going to need him to do exactly what he's doing here. A team that needs offensive rebounding to kind of make up for some of the deficiencies that they have, they can use a Luca Garza. And if. If it's the Celtics where he extends his career, or if it's beyond the Celtics, maybe they go somewhere else. I think this year has just been such a great opportunity and he's taken such advantage of it that this, this season alone, whatever happens with Luca Garza, I think this is kind of like reinvigorated his NBA career. So I'm. I'm impressed. I'm impressed that he went through that stretch of DNPs and came back and just kind of kept his head on straight. He has such a great attitude about this stuff, so it's good to see him out there doing what he does. Ugo Gonzalez played 22 minutes. This is great. I love Ugo. 1 of 8,04 from. From 3, plus 9. 2 points plus 9. He just finds a way to make a positive impact. It's whether it's like offensive rebounding, which he got a couple of those. An assist. He just finds his way into positive plays. He just. He's good. He's just good at that stuff. Once he. Once he grows and I, obviously, I'm just. I'm high. I'm high on Ugo Gonzalez. I think he's just gonna be a great player moving forward. Jordan Walsh. It didn't. Didn't shoot well. I thought he played well, too. A couple of mistakes. I thought he played well. Anthony Simons didn't shoot well. 6 of 16, 2 of 10. 16 points, though, off the bench, which is. Which is big. A lot of guys, I think after a hot shooting first half, a lot of guys cooled off, but I don't. I don't want to mix up bad shooting with bad play. I thought they generally played well. Which brings me now to. I don't think that I'm going to go to the lessons for Amari Williams. There's not much more to say. The Celtics beat the a bad Kings team. The lessons for Amari Williams exist in Luca Garza, exist in Nish Ka, exist in Baylor Shman. Those three guys, especially, I think you to say, these are the things I should do. This is. This is the positioning, how he. How he operated out of the dunker spot, which I think Amari Especially in the Chicago game. But he has a tendency to kind of, kind of float out of the dunker spot where he should be a little bit more on the baseline, a little bit better at relocating. He's a two way rookie. So I'm not saying that, you know, this is a problem. It's just something he's got to work on. But the way, the way Neemi has grown into a guy who understands where his teammates are going to be, where he needs to be on the floor, all of that stuff, the Luca Garza just kind of always keeping that attitude of it doesn't matter what I've done before, the next time I'm on the floor, I'm going to try to maximize that. That lesson is there for Amari Williams and then the, the Baylor Charman, which I think is the biggest one. Baylor wasn't perfect out there. He wasn't perfect by any stretch. You probably break down the film, you know, frame by frame, like, nope.
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- [23:35]
John Karalis
Little bit off there, you know, whatever. Like, you can nitpick, but he did everything at full speed 100% and was trying full time. And I'm always kind of when he gets confused or intelligence thing out there, slow down and it may be confusing, but. Kind of blasts that confusion, makes hustle plays and finds his way into, into spots where like, you know what, maybe I don't know where I'm supposed to be exactly, but I'm going to do everything full speed and I'm. Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing best. So those three things, I just, for some reason it struck me tonight that these are all things that I'm willing should be kind of like looking at and saying, okay, incorporate this stuff. Neemi, his growth, his film, his, his, his development. Luca, his attitude. Baylor, his hustle, all of that stuff. I feel like I am in a basketball version of the wizard of Oz all of a sudden. It's like somebody needs a brain, somebody needs a heart, you know, somebody needs courage. Is this, these are the three things that Amare needs and I don't know is Joe Missoula is the crazy wizard behind, behind the curtain that's going to make it all happen. I think that's a great place for me to leave this podcast. So Celtics get an easy win. Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday, early game. So I have a podcast after that. That's the next podcast. I get to take a day off from podcasting. That's okay because I love doing it. I love podcasting for you. So it's five days a week Monday through Friday. If they play on a Friday or a Saturday, I'll give you a bonus podcast like this one, so make sure you're subscribed to ever get your podcast, you can watch the show on YouTube and again, if you're not, if you're watching on mute, this is I love this because after I'm done here I get to go like stand on the middle of the court, just kind of soak it all up, which I like to do sometimes. So thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Become an Everydayer with me Monday through Friday. Join the everydayer club. 5 bucks a month. 50 bucks if you want to pay up front for the year. You want to get a free month? Use the code deadline at locked on celtics.supercast.com Get a free month between now and the trade deadline. Now. Next step for you. Please share the podcast. Please tell your friends, your family, everybody that they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics Podcast. Here on the Lockdown Podcast Network is your team every day.
- [26:08]
Jake (State Farm Ad)
This is Jake from Lock Dawn. When the game's on the line, the best know when to pass because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, that's help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state.
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