
Boston Celtics overcome slow start to dominate Sacramento Kings with bench power and late-game heroics. Can Joe Mazzulla’s squad sustain this balanced attack as tougher matchups loom? John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal unpacks the Celtics’ 120-106 victory, spotlighting standout efforts from Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and a scorching bench featuring Anfernee Simons and Sam Hauser. Learn why clutch plays aren’t just for the fourth quarter, and how Boston’s early struggles against the Kings’ hot shooting turned into a fourth-quarter shutdown. Key insights include strategic rotations, the importance of shot selection, and the ongoing challenge of maximizing talents like Jordan Walsh and Josh Minott. Plus, John Karalis urges fans not to overreact to Joe Mazzulla’s postgame quips and breaks down the critical stats every Celtics watcher should know.
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Foreign. Every day. It was a slow start, but a strong finish. And you know what? I'm impressed with what these Celtics are doing. That plus the one thing I'm begging people not to do right now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Huh? Yep, yep. Be town be ever ready. It's the seas. Who else could it be? Be what they gonna say now screaming like J.T. corralis recap the madness every game, every practice, prime time. Jeff and D. White on the sideline. Renin J. How we started raising ban that's how we finish. Locked on Celtics pod, home of the winners. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown podcast network where it is your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday. Plus I got bonus podcasts. They playing on a Saturday night. I got a bonus podcast for you. There's bonus pod all, all month long. They play like tons of Saturdays, tons of Fridays. This is going to be free podcasting everywhere. Make sure you're subscribed. Get the show however you want to listen to it. If you want to watch it on YouTube, you can do that too. If you're new to the show. I'm John Corralis, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've been covering the Celtics for about 20 years. Been doing this podcast for 10, and I've written a couple of books about the team as well. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Before tip off on Fridays, check out the FanDuel app and see what's dropping during NBA happy hour every Friday, 6 to 7:30pm Eastern. Today, the Celtics, we're talking about a 120, 106 win over the Sacramento Kings. Later on, we'll talk about water finding its level. We'll get into the individual performances there between Derrick White and Jaylen Brown. The bench. But let's just start from the beginning. The slow start, strong finish from the Boston Celtics. A terrible, I'd say first quarter for the Celtics where they fell behind early again. And once again it was super hot shooting. And the Celtics coming out not even cold. But in the first quarter it was. They recovered. But the Kings came out to a big run. Another team that literally the team that makes the fewest three pointers per game came out early in the. By the time they got early in the second quarter, they had made seven. And they normally make 10 for an entire game. And in this one they ended up making 12. So they cooled off. That's, you know, the strong finish for the Celtics was not so strong a finish for the Kings. They were O of 10 in the fourth quarter. But the Celtics came in struggling again. They lost another first quarter. That was a thing that, that one of the talking points heading into the game. I don't know what to make of the fourth quarter. I mean, the first quarter kind of struggles. I think some of it is just the other teams are coming in blistering hot. The, the, the Trailblazers did it. A couple other teams have done it. There's nothing you can do about that except there, there are like the Celtics could play some better defense, the Celtics could contest shots a little bit more. But still there are people who are making shots. Like Precious Achua hit two three pointers and had eight points in a matter of a few minutes. Like Precious Tachua is shooting 20 some odd percent, 28% for the year he had. He came in making seven total three pointers on the season and he made two right away. So you're like, oh, this is going to be how this night goes now. Again they cooled off and the Celtics did step up the pressure. They did close out a little bit better. And so that, that helps. They need to be better about that right away. But outlier shooting is outlier shooting. So the Celtics need to be better in first quarters. You can't get away with that. Like the Saturday game against the Clippers. They're not going to be able to get away with that. If you let the Clippers get going, especially the way they're playing now. They've won what, six in a row. Kawhi Leonard is, is all of a sudden prime. Kawhi again, 55 the other night, dropped what, 40, some 40 something in this game. I didn't even see what the final box score was, but he's been, he's been crushing it. Let me, let me just quickly look up at this. The Clippers box score. Kawhi Leonard, 45 points on 16 of 29 shooting. He was 6 of 16 from three. Yeah. So the Clippers are going to be. That's going to be a tough one. So you can't get out to the slow start. Luckily for the Celtics, the bench stepped up early. Anthony Simons, Luca Garza. Luca Garza checked in and, and changed the game again. And this is another situation here where the Celtics were kind of lacking. Maybe it was a little bit of the energy. And then here comes Luca Garza first quarter, making a difference, setting screens, he finishing a couple of plays. Simons comes in and starts making some plays. Derek White, who I'll get to in a second, did not do much in that first quarter. The second quarter belonged to Anthony Simons, who had 11 points. Garza. Garza has this kind of fun way of finishing well below the rim. He did have a dunk in this game, which is not something that you see frequently, but he finishes below the rim. Like, I swear that on his. Some of these layups, he's. It. The ball is hitting the. The backboard below the rim and then bouncing up and in like it's. It's a weird kind of angle that he's got. He. He's just. He's not super athletic. He knows it. He's just developed this crazy way of finishing. But Garza, Garza once again doing all of the Garza things, screening, being, being, you know, a solid. Getting to solid rebounding position. It's not like he had a ton of offensive rebounds. In fact, he only had one offensive rebound in this game, but felt like more because you just kept seeing him in position to get offensive rebounds. And so his, his energy, his. He. He knows what he does. He does it well. And he got. Got the early minutes and made a difference. Simons was an entirely first half kind of player because in the second half the Celtics got the starters going and, and that, that did I think obviously help them pull away. But Simons in the first half, this was critical. We talk about this all the time. You know what, you probably know what I'm going to say if you're in every day or if you're with me every Monday through Friday, I'm teeing it up. You could probably say it along with me here. Clutch play doesn't just happen in the fourth quarter. Anthony Simons in that second quarter with the 14 points is just as important as Derrick White's 14 points in the fourth quarter because the Celtics were able to take a lead at halftime. You don't see this from the Celtics bench a ton, but the. The explosion from Simons, you got what was. It was 35 of Boston's 62 points at halftime belong to the bench. They had more than half of Boston's points. That is not something that you see very often, but that second quarter was super important, super clutch to me. For Anthony Simons, it allowed Jaylen Brown to kind of get himself together and get going in the third quarter. And then it. Then it was Derek White in the fourth quarter to do all of, you know, to kind of take this thing home. So the bench did a great job and it wasn't just those two guys. Obviously the bench included Sam Houser. Sam Houser, 5 of 7. What have I said a million times here? Sam Houser is so hot and cold. He's a little inconsistent. He's streaky even for, you know, a shot that is inherently streaky. He, he takes that to a different level. He had a slow start to the season. He shot 40% in December. And now here comes the fire. I think January is going to be the fire month for him. He starts it off with five of seven from 371 and a half percent. And he was cooking. He also had five rebounds, so 15 points, five rebounds for him. Garza had 11 points. Gonzalez was a plus 20. Even though he only had three points. He had six rebounds, an assist, a steal. And just the rebounding was big. And he was just, he did a lot of good things. Just a typical Hugo Gonzalez making a positive impact. So the bench was, was fantastic. Derrick White, Jalen Brown. Super interesting games for two super important players. We'll talk about those two games. Talk about water finding its level and the one thing I'm begging people not to do. Coming up later on today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel has this new cool thing called NBA Happy Hour every Friday night. Fridays are fun. Fridays feel different in the NBA. And now FanDuel's NBA Happy Hour becomes an official kind of pre game for you. A limited time window where special offers drop right inside the FanDuel app before the action starts. So if it's between 6 and 7:30pm Eastern, open up the FanDuel app and you can see something new. Boosts, bonuses, surprises. So check it out. 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Listeners asked for more and now you can get it with the Everydayer Club for just $5 a month, you'll get every episode ad free plus access to our members only discord exclusive audio from Locked on Sports today and other perks you won't find anywhere else. If you never miss a show, this is the next step. Join the Everydayer club today@lockedonpodcast.com everydayer club or visit the link in the show notes that's locked on podcast.com/everyday club, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. You're an everydayer now. Join the Everydayer Club. The Everydayer club is only $5 a month. If you want to join, you get ad free audio compatible with every major podcasting app. You don't have to download a different app. You can just use the normal app that you use. You just you get ad free audio. Get access to our Discord server. You get access to merchandise drops. It's at locked on celtics.supercast.com locked on celtics.Supercast.com check it out. Five bucks a month. Or if you want to pay up front, you get 50 bucks for the year. That gives you two months free. So check that out. I think you'll enjoy it. The Everydayer Club so Derek White and Jalen Brown both ultimately at the end you say, okay, Derrick White, 16.7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 more block shots, just one turnover. A nice night for Derrick White. Jalen Brown, 29 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. Not bad, except they had weird nights. D White was just cold, brutally cold through the first three quarters. And I think it was one of six through the first three quarters. And then all of a sudden in the fourth, he was four of seven. So he did have a bunch of assists in the fourth quarter. I mean, through, through the first three quarters. Seven assists through the first three. So he wasn't completely absent. But the one of six through three quarters is so interesting to me. I got to go back and watch how he was defended because it just felt like maybe the Kings were thinking, look, we're gonna, we're not going to try to stop or limit Jalen Brown because he's doing whatever he's doing. But we're going to try to take these other guys away more. For me, the, the two points through three quarters for Derrick White is the six shots through three quarters. That's, that's the weird part for me because six shot attempts through three quarters for Derrick White. That's very unusual. Again, the assists he found Other ways to make it happen. So the seven assists through three still gave him a positive impact, but he ended up a plus 14 because he scored 14 points in the fourth quarter that when they went into it tied. So he was there to kind of finish things off. A couple of three pointers, a couple of shots in the paint. Very typical Derrick White kind of shot profile. He, you know, did the three in the pocket thing. He was feeling it in the fourth quarter and look, you just gotta, you just gotta keep rolling with it, right? That's, that's, you know, when you're O of five or. I think he was 04. Well, he was two for three in the, in the fourth quarter, so he was over four going into the fourth quarter. Shooting from three. You just got to keep going. You got, you got to trust yourself and trust, trust that you're going to make some of these shots again. Him and Peyton Pritchard, I always kind of like to combine them together because they, those two have been struggling a little bit from three and then, you know, a little bit more than a little bit and they end up both 4 of 15 from 3 in this one. But sometimes you just need to hit the timely ones. And then there's Jaylen Brown who scored 29 but took 25 shots. Not the most efficient night. One of nine from three could not hit a jumper to save his life, but man, he got to the rim very easily. And I think sometimes, I don't know, I got to go back and look at the nine three pointers. There are a couple of pull ups, there are a couple of, I don't want to say ambitious ones, but there are always early offense shots that these guys take. And you know when you're dribbling down the floor and you see a guy dip below the three point defender, dip below the three point line and you can step into that shot in rhythm. Especially if you're Derrick White, Jalen Brown, Peyton Pritchard, if that guy is, is retreating that far down, you, you do have to take sometimes that pull up jumper and sometimes it's because you know what, that, that might be the best shot you get in a possession. Jalen Brown or Derrick White taking an in rhythm, you know, left, right, shoot like jumper. That, that's, that should be automatic and it's not always, but it should be because the defenders below the three point line, you, you have room. It's a wide open shot. Take it. You work 20 seconds in an offense to take that shot. And I know I've made the argument in the past about like, well, you can get that shot just about any time. But in today's NBA, the way the defenses are played, you kind of can't get that shot anytime anymore. The other reason why you take that shot is you want to get that defender up. You want that defender to have to respect that you're going to take that shot, that you're capable of making that shot. So you can't always just come down and be like, now I'm just going to drive, drive, drive, drive, drive. Because then they start packing the paint a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. So you have to take some of those threes, those early offense threes. You have to take them so the defense respects you and then you can get a blow by, or you can set a high pick and roll and have a lot more space to work with. You just bend the defense a little bit more. So there, there is something now, probably if you go back three, four years, maybe. My opinions on the early offense, three pointers have changed, but the game has evolved. My understanding of the game has grown, and I see the value in that. So even though Jalen was 1 for 9, some of those shots that you say you don't have to take those, I understand why you would say that, but you have to take them so you can bend that defense. It's just that on some nights, it's just not going to fall. They feel good, they look good, they're not bad shots. They just don't fall. That happens sometimes. But Jalen was incredible. Getting to the rim, finishing strong. He got to the line seven times. You might argue that he could have gotten to the line 12, 13, 14 times and, and this could have been a bit of a different game, but 29 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. The 10 rebounds are big because, you know, the Celtics rebounding issues. So ultimately a weird kind of way to get to 29 points. For Jalen. The dichotomy between what he made and what he didn't was pretty stark, but, you know, good for him. Just a couple of other individuals here. Namish Keda, I gotta shout him out. Uh, he, he had some offensive moves like, like, I don't know, put the ball on the floor, driving from the top of the key. Sure, why not? Getting in there, dunking, getting fouled. He, he's been showing a, a couple of moves recently, A couple of, couple of nice little footwork post moves. So. And then Katie's defense, I think was, was a big part of helping kind of turn things around a little bit. So nice night for him. Pritchard in the fourth quarter. Jalen Brown filed out. You know what? Since. Since Jayla Brown filed out. Let me, Let me just. This is the begging people not to do thing that I was talking about. I'll just leave it at. I'll. I'll bring it up now. Joe Missoula was asked about the challenge on the sixth foul, which I disagree with the evaluation from the refs. I thought that was an offensive foul or if you want to say it was a no call, you can say it was a no call. They said that Jaylen Brown didn't establish legal guarding position. I, I disagree. But look, they're the pros and you know, if they say it, then that's what it is. So I, even though I disagree, I think the Celtics bench disagreed and that's why they challenged. Also, you didn't want. It was worth the shot at that point. Sorry, if you heard me knock my mic there. It was worth the shot because it was a six foul and at that point it was what, an eight point game, ten point game, something like that, where it wouldn't. It wasn't a killer to lose that challenge or. But you still wanted to try to win it and it was close enough where you took it was worth the shot. And so Bill Kennedy officiating and he gets the call and we all. It's the big thing now. Like, it's been a thing for a while, but all of a sudden, now it's gaining some traction all of a sudden. So Joe Missoula, after the game was asked about the challenge and he said, oh, we just wanted to hear Bill Kennedy make a call. He does a great job with those. We just wanted to hear. We were going to challenge it anyway. We didn't. It's regardless of what we thought. Basically saying, you know, just giving. And, and I've already seen, I've already seen a headline out there that says Joe Maula used the timeout just to hear Bill Kennedy recite the challenge or, or announce a challenge. Please, I'm begging. This is the begging. I am begging everybody out there that writes headlines that do not take Joe Missoula seriously. Please, please don't embarrass yourself by taking Joe Missoula seriously. He. I know it doesn't sound like it, it's hard to pick up, but he was not serious. He was joking. Joe Missoula would never, ever, ever, ever call a timeout and in challenge just to hear Bill Kennedy do it. What Joe Missoula Is. Is saying. Is with that is saying, why is everyone just like, he thinks that. He thinks it's stupid. He thinks that whole thing is stupid. And I'm joking around. Like, I want Bill Kennedy to be my voice on ways. Can. Can I pay him to be the voice on ways and make the announcements? You know, upon review, the turn you about to make is not available. Like that. Like, come on. It'd be fun. It probably gets sick of it after a couple of days, but it would be fun. I would pay five bucks for that. But Joe Mazzulla finds the whole discussion about Bill Kennedy's challenges stupid. He does not enjoy them. I know for a fact he does not enjoy them. So do. Do not take him seriously. Please, please, please. You can. I'm not saying. Don't use the headline. It's. Sure, it's. It could be a. Like Joe Missoula jokes about Bill Kennedy. Yeah, absolutely. That's the headline. But don't say, oh, my God, he called a timeout just to hear Bill Kennedy. Oh, my God. No, that's not what happened. Okay. He's joking. Please, please, just. It's. I don't know. It's gonna be one of those irrational things that drives me crazy. Let's wrap up the show when I come back. The again. Water finding its level with the shooting and other individual performances with. We'll wrap up the show when I come back. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online and more personal info and more places that could expose you more to identity theft. But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our US Based restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with lifelong save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com Special offer terms apply. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen. Every day you check out lockdown NBA lockdown NBA game night. Game night. Seven nights a week, covering every game in the association. So everything's covered. You want to. If you missed everything, if you missed the night, just pop that show on. Half an hour later, you're caught up on everything that's going on. So on your way to work, you listen to lockdown Celtics. On your way home from work, you listen to locked on NBA game night. You get caught up or at lunch or getting ready, whatever you want to do, it's there and locked on NBA covers all the big stories, big storylines. Okay, other individual performances. First, let me Let me give you some stats before we do that. Courtesy of Sean Grandy. This he tweeted this out. The Celtics are now 16 and 0 when scoring 117 points or more. So that's a. That's a benchmark to look for. They're 15. And oh, when they shoot 47%, they're 17. And oh, when averaging 1.2 points per possession. That's good. And 11. Zero when making 17 plus three pointers. They hit all four of those markers Thursday at Sacramento. So if you see any of those things, just jot these down. Not while you're driving. Just replay this or look up Sean Grandy's Twitter Sean Grandy PBP and he'll have a 16.01scoring 117. 15.01scoring 47% when shooting 47%. 17 and oh, when averaging 1.2 points per possession. That's not the easiest stat to find, but Sean has it an 11. 01 making 17 plus 3 pointers. It's not bad. The. The water finding its level. Thing is, it's so hard not to overreact to when a team is shooting the way the Kings were shooting in the first quarter. But they were over 10 from 4 in the. From. From 3 in the fourth quarter. There's no four pointers. Sorry if Antoine Walker was listening just now and he got excited that four pointers just came. No, sorry, Antoine. There's no such thing as a four. There's still only threes. So they were oh, of 10 from three in the fourth quarter. And it's just kind of like you have to stay the course and trust that the guys that you're allowing the three, those three pointers are going to take it and that eventually water will find its level. That eventually precious Achua will miss a few. That Russell Westbrook will miss a few. I know that he's shooting or came into the game shooting 36% and that he was out shooting a bunch of good shooters and all that, but you do have to trust that eventually some of that's going to go away. And it did. But you also have to defend and, and make them think. And that's. That's the line where the Celtics have to find because their defense is geared towards packing the paint. Number one, first and foremost, they're going to. They're going to protect the paint. So on drives, whenever, if a guy's driving, let's just say, from the left wing into the paint, it's just going to mean a bunch of resistance. And that right corner three is going to be wide open. And the Celtics have to be aware of who's in that right corner three. And whether it's going to be somebody that you close out hard and try to run off the line, or if it's somebody that you just give a good challenge to. But don't let that person deck it, drive and, and put you into even worse rotation than you're in. This is just the constant push and pull of this Celtics team. You know, they're going to shoot three pointers, teams are going to get open three pointers and it's, it's the same kind of formula every game. Don't give up too many offensive rebounds, don't give up too many wide open looks without a challenge. And don't give up those shots to the wrong people. Know who you're supposed to challenge, have how you're supposed to challenge them, what you're supposed to do defensively. Stick to those principles. And it's tough because you have to turn, identify. You're like, it's like one of those, you know, itchy and scratchy robots that's trying to identify a friendly. And you're like, oh, you know, like the, the vision goes black and white. There's a red box up there and you go challenge. And then this one green light. He can shoot that. That's kind of like what the Celtics have to be defensively and just trust that at some point you won't get like Dylan Brooks like he did last was last season where he went off and you're like, well, Dylan Brooks just hit eight, nine, three pointers on you. What are you going to do? Like, sometimes that's going to happen to you and you're going to lose a game in the regular season. You just hope you don't do that or you hope he doesn't go full Caleb Martin and do that to you over an entire playoff series, which doesn't make any sense and still doesn't make any sense. But that's, that's where the Celtics defense is, is always going to be this work in progress. And, and the defense is not always that great anyway, but that's, that's their challenge. So it worked out in this one against the Kings. We'll see how it works out later on. The last thing I'm going to mention here, and I haven't mentioned it yet, is Jordan Walsh, who played the first. He started, played five minutes, and then never got back in the game. And after the game, Joe Mazzulla was like, it's not anything that he's doing wrong. We just have a bunch of different guys that could do like, different things. And we decided to go with Sam Houser and, and all of that. And this. We. If you missed yesterday's show, that's what all of this discussion was. Jordan Walsh, Josh Minot, who was a DNP again, three straight games now, DNP coach's decision for him, which is just still shocking to me, and Joe will say the same thing. I, I personally haven't had the opportunity to ask Joe about this yet, but it's. He. I know the answer. It's going to be like, this is. It's not anything that he's doing. He's working hard and so on and so forth. We're, we're fine. We have a formula right now that's working and we're sticking to that. And on any night, at any moment, Josh is going to, is going to come in and he's going to have to perform the same way he's, he's been asked to perform. And it'll be, I'm sure it'll be a day at some point in January here, there, there will be a day where Josh gets in the game and he plays well, and then all of the questions like, how do you stay ready? Did you know you were going to get DNPs? Do you know all of that stuff? And he's going to give his answers and it's going to be the same kind of routine that we always do. But it's just kind of wild to see. Jordan Walsh starts and plays five minutes. You don't see that very often. That's an extreme example. I've seen guys start and then have not have great games, get benched and all that, and then it goes away. But to have him start and play five and then just sit the rest of the night, it's crazy. He wasn't in any foul trouble. He was just. I, I'm gonna go rewatch those five minutes and see exactly why he didn't play. But you went with Sam Houser and his, his, his shooting kind of bent the different, the, the defense a different way. And Garza comes in and you. First thing he does is hit a three and then he starts finishing around the rim and Simons gets going. So you play him a little bit extra. He played 30 minutes, so it just. Sometimes it's circumstances and you go, okay, this is working. And that's the other thing. These guys have to be ready for the. Like, I remember Tom saying it a couple nights ago. You just Got to be ready. Like you very easily can get 3, 4 straight DNPs in this in on this Celtics team. And then all of a sudden you start or you get called in the first quarter and you play 30 minutes, you just got to be ready. If you're not ready for that opportunity, then you're not going to get that next one. So it's just kind of wild to see. It is. I don't know what else to say about that. It's just kind of wild to see Hugo Gonzalez is a plus 20 off the bench in 18 and a half minutes. Just comes in and does all the right things except dunk the ball, which was funny because Joe Missoula called the user or lose a timeout. So it was a meaningless timeout at that point. He's going to lose it anyway. For if you don't know what the user to lose, it is three after three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, we get below three minutes. You, you only get two timeouts. So if at the 3:30 mark you have four timeouts, at 259, you're going to have two whether you use them or not. So you might as well use at least one of them at that point. Get your guys arrest. So Joe did that and then he can see him being very demonstrate, you know, demonstrative, telling Hugo, you got to dunk the ball. He ended up getting a miss there and anyway. But Ugo, Ugo is part of the future and so he's going to keep getting his minutes. The Walsh Minot thing, I'm so fascinated to see how that is going to work out. All right, so that's the Friday show. No podcast. Friday night I'm going to take one day off from podcasting because then Saturday night the Celtics play the Clippers. So I have a podcast after that game. So make sure you're subscribed to the show. A bonus podcast six, seven days a week, whatever it is. So check it out wherever you get your podcast. The show's free, it's available everywhere. If you want to pay $5 and get the ads taken out of the show. So you haven't just an ad free audio experience. Become an everydayer. Join the Everydayer club@lockdown celtics.supercast.com you get the ad free audio feed. You get access to the Discord server, you get merchandise drops, all of that stuff. So check that out there. And now I would love it if you share the podcast and tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast here. On the lockdown podcast network. 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Episode: Boston Celtics RALLY as Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, bench DELIVER
Date: January 2, 2026
Host: John Karalis
This episode recaps the Boston Celtics' 120-106 comeback win over the Sacramento Kings, spotlighting the team's initial struggles, a dominant bench performance, and the standout showings by Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. John Karalis breaks down how the Celtics overcame a sluggish start, the tactical adjustments, and what the win reveals about their approach this season. Also covered are moments of levity, coaching philosophy, and rotation decisions, all delivered with Karalis’s knowledgeable, direct, and often wry style.
On the Early Struggles:
“Outlier shooting is outlier shooting... The Celtics need to be better in first quarters. You can't get away with that.” (04:00) — John Karalis
Assessing the Bench:
“Clutch play doesn’t just happen in the fourth quarter. Anthony Simons in that second quarter with the 14 points is just as important as Derrick White’s 14 points in the fourth.” (11:45) — John Karalis
Regarding Jaylen Brown’s Shot Selection:
“You have to take some of those threes, those early offense threes. You have to take them so the defense respects you and then you can get a blow by or you can set a high pick and roll and have a lot more space to work with.” (24:12) — John Karalis
Coach Mazzulla’s Comment and Media Caution:
“Please, I'm begging...do not take Joe Missoula seriously. Please, please don't embarrass yourself...” (30:15) — John Karalis
| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------|-------------| | Episode/main theme intro | 00:00–02:00 | | First quarter struggles & reaction | 02:00–05:30 | | Kings’ hot start, Celtics' defense recap | 03:30–06:00 | | Bench starts rally—Simons, Garza impact | 07:30–13:30 | | Sam Hauser’s hot shooting discussed | 13:10–14:00 | | Derrick White’s “tale of two halves” | 17:30–20:40 | | Jaylen Brown’s night, shot selection logic | 21:30–25:30 | | Ref challenge/joke media warning | 27:40–31:30 | | Key stats—winning benchmarks | 32:05–34:00 | | Defensive trade-offs & ‘water finds level’ | 36:30–39:00 | | Walsh, Minott, rotation decisions | 40:00–43:45 | | Hugo Gonzalez’s inside play & Joe’s timeout | 44:10–45:00 |
John Karalis's breakdown highlights both tactical and intangible factors driving the Celtics’ success: resilience after slow starts, the importance of timely contributions from the bench, evolving philosophies about shot selection, and the readiness of role players. He underscores the importance of not overreacting to singular events—hot shooting or officiating quirks—and reminds listeners (especially the media) to not take all coach remarks at face value.
Fans invested in the Celtics’ journey will find this episode an essential, balanced, and entertaining recap—offering both granular analysis and macro-level team insights.
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