
Boston Celtics eye pivotal stretch: Can Joe Mazzulla’s coaching spark a surge up the Eastern Conference standings? With players like Jordan Walsh and Luka Garza stepping up, expectations are high for a crucial road trip against the Pacers, Trail Blazers, Jazz, Kings, and Clippers. John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal spotlights the Celtics’ lineup depth, smart rotations, and locker room unity, questioning whether Mazzulla deserves NBA Coach of the Year buzz. Essential topics include upcoming matchups, Boston’s margin for error, and how Derrick White and Payton Pritchard are elevating the team. Can the Celtics avoid the play-in and cement themselves in the top six? Don’t miss this sharp analysis of Boston’s momentum and future prospects.
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John Corrales
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John Corrales
The Celtics have a chance to do some real damage in the next couple of weeks. And we have to continue the conversation about Joe Missoula's coaching. It's happening right now in the Lockdown Celtics podcast, huh?
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John Corrales
Hey, welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics 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. I got bonus podcasts coming up over the weekends when they play during the holidays. Yeah, sure, why not? So make sure you're subscribed wherever you get your podcast. Watch the show on YouTube, get into the comment section, share your thoughts with me. I'm John Corrales, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've been doing a version of this job for about 20 years now. I've been doing this podcast for 10, and I've also written a couple of books about the Celtics. This is the number one Boston Celtics podcast in the world. It is also on the number one sports podcast network on the world. Thank you every dayers, the people who are with me every single day, for making that possible. Without you, none of this happens. Today's show is brought to you by fanduel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com to place your NFL Live bets all season long. Lots to get to a variety of topics coming up on today's podcast to get you started for the week. If you're listening on Monday morning on your way to work, whatever you're doing later on, we'll get into Jordan Walsh. I got to give him credit for something. And Jalen Brown, who is just hilarious. I'll spend the second segment talking about Joe Missoula's coaching, but I wanted to start with this important stretch that's coming up for the Boston Celtics because as of right now, they are 17 and 11 and in third place. And I, I'm not sitting here thinking, like, there's going to be any sort of crazy move in the playoffs. I'm not trying to make this into like, wow, the Celtics have the potential to make some noise. But also, hey, they, they're playing this this season. They're trying to win games. They're. Brad Stevens said, we're not putting a ceiling on this team. These guys are out there working hard. They have a chance to get some wins and get some deserved credit. Patriots just won a wild game against the Baltimore Ravens. The Celtics need to keep Pace if they're going to keep it in the front of mind in Boston sports. And they have an opportunity here to actually do some real damage. They have a chance to pile up a few wins again. They are at 17 and 11, third in the east, five games out of first. Pistons are legit. The Knicks are legit. Then after that, it's just kind of a wild mismosh. You got the Sixers making some noise. Orlando trying to make some noise here, trying to get to where they were expected to be. You have, obviously, Toronto, who is struggling right now. The Cavs, who are apparently frauds. Miami, who's fallen back down to Earth. Atlanta at.500. They've lost three in a row. Trey Young is back. Of course, they've lost a bunch of games. Chicago, Milwaukee, there's none of this after Detroit. In New York, I don't expect the Celtics to be the third seed. But also there's a whole lot of like, well, why not? Going on here. And I'm not under any delusions. This is going to be a fun season. Wherever. Whatever happens this season is gravy. I'm not saying that when Jason Tatum comes back, which I do expect him to come back, I'm not saying that he's gonna help them make any sort of run, but there's also like a non zero chance, right? There's like a 10 chance that he comes back early enough where he, you know, gets back up to speed and becomes some version of himself and can play 15, 20 minutes in a playoff game. You're like, well, 15, 20 minutes of 75% of Jason Tatum is still really good and better than, you know, certain minutes from certain players, you know, so why not? And they can go a long way in the next couple of weeks on this road trip that's coming up, starting with this home game, first of all, against the Indiana Pacers. They play the Pacers on Monday, third game in four nights. It's never easy. The Pacers are struggling a bit this season. They are the second worst team in the NBA. 6 and 22. The Sacramento Kings, who are playing as we speak and losing to the Houston Rockets. But it's close, so I'll keep an eye on this, as you know, as I continue to make my point. But the Pacers have lost four in a row heading into Boston, so that could be. Should be a win. They take three days off, they go to Indiana, they start a road trip. This is. It's not easy going on a road trip, a long road trip. But Portland, not a pushover but winnable game. Utah, not a pushover. We've seen that. Not a winner, but also a winnable game. Then you get Sacramento a winnable game. The Clippers a winnable game that entire road trip. I'm not saying the Celtics are going to go on a six game winning streak, but if they play well, if they put it together and they, they play above the competition, which is below them. All of these teams are below the Celtics, Indiana, Portland, Utah, Sacramento, the Clippers, they're all below the Celtics. This is an opportunity for the Celtics to pile up, you know, give them a loss or two, maybe four and two, five and one. Can they go six, zero? You should never expect a team to go on a. Well, they've already won two in a row. So an eight game winning streak. This Celtics team, an eight game winning streak, unlikely. But also again, why not? I'm going to do my like why not Minot type of thing. This is. They have a chance. You should beat the Pacers twice. Even if you split Portland and Utah and split Sacramento and the clippers, somehow you're 4 and 2 and you come out of this road trip at 21 and 13. That's. That would be really, really good. Really nice. And then you head into Chicago, Denver, Toronto, San Antonio at home. Tough, tough. The potential, you know, tough stretch there. Indiana on the road, Miami on the road after a couple of days off, Atlanta, Detroit, things level off. You'll have your winnable games. You're not so winnable games. So these next couple of weeks heading into the first week of January have the potential to be where the Celtics pile up enough wins where they can really not guarantee but make it very likely that they are going to stay out of the plan. Again, look at the standings and who they have, who they're competing against. Washington, Indiana, Brooklyn, Charlotte, those teams are all going to be out of it. Milwaukee, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Cleveland, Toronto again. I expect the Cavs to climb a bit, but by how much there's I think Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee, you're going to end up being in that play in mix. Boston can. Toronto to Boston can get themselves into the top six with. They can really make that happen. Partly with this stretch. Like this is the equivalent of clutch moments happen anywhere in the game, right? Clutch stretches happen. Can happen in December. Going 6, 0 again, unlikely, but why not? And being 23 and 11 would be a monster stretch. Again, an eight game winning streak, unlikely, but would be a monster stretch. And that gives them some leeway. It gives them. It actually gives them a little bit of margin for error. So they can have a couple of tough losses like they just had against Milwaukee and Detroit, and they can, they can sustain those losses and still be in a good spot. So I have, I'll, I'll give the Celtics this much credit here. They've played well enough where I have higher expectations for them. Now I think they that all six of these games are extraordinarily winnable and anything less than 4 and 2 would be like a little bit of a disappointment considering how well they've played. So of course that, you know, there's health and all that stuff. But assuming that there's health, I would be disappointed at something less than 4 and 2. They've set the expectations and I expect them to live up to it. Joe Missoula has set the expectations. He has got these guys playing at a level where I'm thinking, yeah, there's, I downplay it because I know that the talent level isn't that high. But I also understand the Eastern Conference. There's a lot of that outside of Detroit, outside of New York, there's a lot of that same kind of dynamic happening there. So Joe Missoula, he's got these guys going. Where is the conversation? I've said this before on the podcast. I'm going to do it again. Where is the conversation for Joe Missoula, Coach of the Year? That is next. Today's show is brought to you by Robin Hood. Nobody knows your money goals better than you. 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John Corrales
Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Thanks for being an everydayer now level up become part of the everyday the everydayer club which gives you access to ad free audio gives you a the access to the Locked on Everydayer club discord server which is a group chat for listeners of the show and you get even more so you go to lockdownceltics.supercast.com lockdown celtics supercast.com check it out $5 a month $50 for the year. So if you pay pay up front you get two months free. So check it out lockdown celtics supercast.com to get started Joe Missoula still remains, I believe under discussed in terms of where the Celtics are, his role in this, how good a coach he is. This, you know, in, in his performance as a coach this season. I guess now I do think he's improved. We go back to his, you know, first season in the timeout strategy and no one's mentioned a thing about that since. I think he has grown as a coach. He's grown. I know he's grown even with us in the media. He has evolved in his kind of, I think mindset understanding a little bit better about how to get the best out of these guys. And this year I know that people came into the season thinking, all right, Joe got, you know, Joe won a championship, but look at the stacked team that he was given. Of course he was going to win a championship, which is a crap argument. But I understand that he did have a stacked team and that team, regardless of who was the coach, should have been considered a contender. But you still have to be good enough as a coach to get that group to the finish line. But all right, people want to discredit that. Last year people use that as a strike against him. This year should be a, a point in his favor because I know people came into the season thinking, well, let's see if he can coach these guys up, then I'll give him some credit. And here he is, here he is coaching these guys up. Obviously Jaylen Brown is having a tremendous season and Peyton Pritchard has had some really good stretches. Derek White is Derek White and he's had some really good stretches especially lately. But looking of all of the different contributions that have been that we've seen from the Celtics, Joe has had his guys ready for the moment. It's very easy to fracture a locker room when guys aren't playing and guys are getting not only varied playing time, but they're watching their competition like get their minutes. This is an extraordinarily sensitive, potentially sensitive part of the the season for these guys and extraordinarily sensitive, potentially setup, Jordan, Walsh, Josh, Josh, Minot, Ugo, Gonzalez all have a claim for certain minutes on the wing. And Josh had his run at it at the beginning of the season. Jordan's getting his run at it now. Ugo is getting his run at it from time to time. You have Luca Garza in the mix, who is competing for a backup big spot and is all of these guys are in. In spots minus Hugo Gonzalez, who's a rookie and clearly, I think a big part of the Celtics future. But Garza, Minot, Walsh all came into the season as big question marks potentially, you know, moving on from. From these guys if it doesn't work out. Minot had talked about his. The desperation that he. He's approaching. It is like his NBA life is on the line. Garza knowing like this could be his last chance for a while if it doesn't work out. So the all of these guys have a reason to. To be somewhat selfish into kind of root against a teammate. But the entire locker room seems to be pretty united. There doesn't seem to be any animosity. I'm not saying that there aren't moments where some of that exists and comes through, but they're strong enough where they can handle that stuff in house, which is important. A lot of locker room stuff tends to leak to the media when guys don't trust each other, when they don't feel like the team has their back, when they feel like they're kind of getting screwed out of certain situations. The Celtics, from top to bottom, it's started with the Wick Grossbeck ownership group. It transfers over to the Bill Chisholm ownership group. It goes to the front office, Brad Stevens, who took the reins from Danny Ainge, who built a strong foundation. And all of those guys, many holdovers goes down to the coaching staff, Joe Missoula, all the assistants, all the player development guys. The entire organization is so united that even if something comes up, which let me just say, by the way, just because I haven't found out about it and you haven't found out about it, it's a basketball team. Things always come up. There's always some sniping, there's always some yelling. There's always a little bit of like, jawing back and forth from here, here, there. Right. I have some. Some of my closest friends, people who I love like brothers. I've been, you know, pissed off at them, and we've had our moments on the court in practices, whatever. But if you. If you don't have that love for each other or if you don't trust the organization, if you don't trust other guys in that locker room, that stuff gets out. Joe Missoula has been adamant about making sure the entire organization is aligned. Everybody's on the same page. He has these guys ready to play every minute. Four DMPs, no problem. Luca Garza, come on in, change the game with nine rebounds. He doesn't care. And is it a tough spot for him? Yes. All of these guys, you know, Josh Minot talked about being given $20. Get it. Getting it taken away, which is uncomfortable. But he's cool. Like, he. He has one of the. Maybe the best attitude out of everybody. Like, Josh is. Josh and I actually kind of like, bust each other a little bit. We have that kind of, like, we've developed a little bit of that kind of rapport already. But he has that kind of, like, playful attitude. He's. He's a ball buster. He loves to kind of like, be that person, and that's kind of like an infectious attitude. He handles his situation with a great mindset, and that's with Joe, like, bearing down on him when he makes mistakes. And that's, you know, Luca Garza, who's fighting for the backup center role, is watching now. Minot all of a sudden slide in and get minutes there at small ball 5. And Walsh and Gonzalez do that, but they all handle it really, really well. So a testament to the front office, but a testament to Joe Missoula, who keeps the whole thing going, who sets the tone in practice, who sets the tone with everybody and says, this is what we need. Every night's going to be different, and if you don't play, it's nothing personal. He has set that standard. He has set that for the entire team. And guys have learned that this is. He's. He's true to his word. For some reason, he decided, and I don't even know why he decided, hey, this game against the Raptors needs some Luca Garza out of nowhere. Now, Joe might. Will make mistakes, obviously makes mistakes, but the fact that he's got all of these guys, a deep roster, playing 12 and 13 guys, it's not normal. That's not how things normally go in the NBA. We talk about 8, 9, 10, maybe he's going 11, 12, 13. Everybody has a chance of playing every night. I have no idea how the Pacers game is going to go on Monday night because could be anything, could be foul trouble, could be somebody's still sick, could be anything. Missoula deserves the credit for how he has prepared his team, gotten them to this point, 17 and 11. He deserves the appropriate amount of credit for being the coach that he is and getting these guys to play above their heads as a team. With all of these changes and everything now there's a lot of credit to go around. The players have, obviously, you know, Jalen's having an all NBA season. These other guys are having great seasons or, you know, have moved into, moved out of their slumps. So everybody, there's a lot of credit to go around. But you look at Boston Celtics at 17, 11, third in the east and playing the way they're playing. Joe Missoula deserves more credit than he is getting. We're gonna come back. I'll give Jordan Walsh more credit than like the credit that he deserves for that Raptors game because I, I didn't know what he was dealing with. And then I'll wrap it up with Jaylen Brown and just how funny. Just, just a funny. He's funny now. That's all coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. You saw that if you saw the Patriots beat the, the Ravens, that that game was back and forth. And that's what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. 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Mrs. Claus
Thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree, Zoe.
Santa
This thing weighs a ton.
Elf Drew Ski
Drew ski, lift with your legs, man.
John Corrales
Santa.
Santa (child)
Santa, did you get my letter?
Santa
He's talking to you, bridges.
Elf Drew Ski
I'm not.
Mrs. Claus
Of course he did.
Elf Drew Ski
Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew ski here. He handles the nice list.
Santa
An elf. I'm sorry. 6 3. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T mobile. You can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies, right, Mrs. Claus?
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I'm Mrs. Claus much younger sister. And AT T mobile, there's no trade in needed when you switch. So you can keep your old phone.
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Or give it as a gift.
Mrs. Claus
And the best part, you can make the switch to T mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes.
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Guys, my side of the tree is slipping.
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John Corrales
Visit t mobile.com thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. For your second listen you can make locked on NBA game night your second listen. Locked NBA game nights got you covered every game, every night, seven nights a week. Lockdown NBA also has all the big storylines covered on the same feed in the afternoons. So two podcasts on the same feed. Get that where you got this one. It's free and available everywhere you find your podcast. I want to give Jordan Walsh a little credit before we end up end of the show. It turns out that he was sick after the game. I did the podcast yesterday before I heard Joe Missoula explained that Jordan Walsh was sick. And then afterwards it came out that Jordan took himself out of the game, that he tried to play. The celtics wanted him to play. He tried to play through the illness. Whatever's going around in that locker room. He came out in the second quarter was not himself. He Looked, he just didn't look good. And in yesterday's podcast, as you say, it was a bad game for Jordan, Walsh kind of blew it off. And, but, you know, I, I don't remember what I said, but I'm sure there was always, like, there's always this. When somebody like Jordan or Josh or Ugo has a bad game, you start to think like, is this the beginning of maybe something's changing here. And so I thought, in the interest of being fair, I wanted to make sure that it was known that he was sick, that he took himself out of the game. And I give him credit for that. I, I, I don't know how some people react to it, but I give him credit. If you gotta have enough confidence, say, look, I don't feel good. I suck right now. I'm sick. I, I'm sluggish. I can't, I'm just, I can't do it. So you take yourself out of the game. And I know there's like warrior mentality and all that stuff, but also realism, right? You gotta, you gotta understand is, is it better for somebody else to come in and play? These minutes, we all celebrate sacrifice for the betterment of the team. This is sacrifice for the betterment of the team. Took himself out. He wasn't feeling great. And so I'm giving, I'm giving Jordan Walsh the appropriate amount of credit, I think, for having that, that understanding, not trying to be a hero when he knew that guys behind him had had his back again. That goes to the Joe Missoula coaching, setting up and understanding that, hey, I don't have to, I don't have to do this. I can, I can, I can back out. And everybody understands that that's not me quitting. It's just, hey, look, I don't feel good. These guys are playing better. Let them play so good on him. Let's end it with Jalen Brown, who is, is endorsing a hair care product, a hair growing thing, if I'm sure people might have seen it by now. If you want to follow his social media, I'm not going to say here because they're not a sponsor of this show, but I just think it's hilarious that Jalen said, you know, after all of the, his hair paint rubbing off on other players, has decided to turn that into an endorsement opportunity. Tells People magazine as part of his endorsement media tour that these guys should feel honored that the residue of a champion has gotten on them, which is a hilarious thing to say. I did not have on my bingo Card that this season would include Jason Tatum pushing painkillers and Jalen Brown pushing baldness cures. I did not expect that to be what these guys were endorsing this season. So credit to Jalen Brown, man. Turning. Turning something into an opportunity. There. That's. Look, my. My baldness cure is a razor. There's no cure for my baldness. There's. Just embrace it. Embrace it. Although I did shave my head before the thinning became an issue. And very much like the Seinfeld episode where the guy was bald and then he grew his hair back. He's like, oh, my God, I'm balding. Yeah, I. I shaved my head a long time ago, and that's. All of a sudden now I'm like, oh, yeah, this is like, I can't grow it all back anymore. That's okay. I. At this point, I'm just like. Just all go away. Just all fall out. You're just gonna save me time. I'm tired of shaving. What's left? Just go away, Jalen. Embrace it. But now you've turned this into a financial opportunity. Good for you. Any razor sponsors want to hook. You know, hook me up. Let's. There's an opportunity here on the show. I guess I look. You gotta. You'll look. Man, this is. Times is tough. Kind of make your money where you can. Everything's expensive now. That's the show. This show is free. Unless you want to join the everydayer club. You get ad free audio access to our Discord server. Merchandise access to, like, exclusive merchandise. So that's five bucks a month if you want to do it. 50 bucks for the year. You can do that. So that's@lockdownceltics.supercast.com. if you want to keep the free. The free version. Listen to a couple of ads. Happy to have that. That's on YouTube as well. You can watch it there. Get into the comments section, share your thoughts with your fellow everydayers, and then share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Here on the Lockdown Podcast network is your team every day.
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Episode Title: Boston Celtics READY to SURGE? | Joe Mazzulla deserves MORE credit!
Host: John Karalis (Boston Sports Journal)
Date: December 22, 2025
This episode dives into a key upcoming stretch for the Boston Celtics, analyzing how a favorable schedule could allow them to solidify their playoff positioning. Host John Karalis highlights Joe Mazzulla’s underappreciated growth as head coach and stresses the collective resilience and unity within the team. Later segments provide credit to rookie Jordan Walsh for his self-awareness and professionalism, and end with a lighthearted look at Jalen Brown’s off-court endorsements.
“There’s a nonzero chance...like a 10% chance that [Tatum] comes back early enough...even 15–20 minutes of 75% of Jason Tatum is still really good.” (05:30)
“All of these teams are below the Celtics...This is an opportunity for the Celtics to pile up [wins]...maybe 4-2, 5-1...can they go 6-0? You should never expect a team [to do that]...But also, again, why not?” (07:45)
“These next couple of weeks...have the potential to be where the Celtics pile up enough wins where they can really...make it very likely that they are going to stay out of the play-in.” (09:40)
“There’s Milwaukee, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Cleveland, Toronto…all jammed in there. Boston can get themselves into the top six.” (10:20)
“No one’s mentioned a thing about [timeouts] since. I think he has grown as a coach.” (14:10)
“It’s very easy to fracture a locker room when guys aren’t playing...but the entire locker room seems to be pretty united. There doesn’t seem to be any animosity.” (16:30)
“A lot of locker room stuff tends to leak to the media [if] guys don’t trust each other...Joe Missoula has been adamant about making sure the entire organization is aligned.” (18:15)
“He has these guys ready to play every minute. Four DNPs—no problem. Luca Garza, come on in, change the game with nine rebounds. He doesn’t care [about comfort zone].” (20:45)
“He sets the tone in practice...Every night’s gonna be different, and if you don’t play, it’s nothing personal.” (22:00)
“Joe Missoula deserves more credit than he is getting…He is getting these guys to play above their heads as a team, with all of these changes and everything.” (24:35)
“I give him credit. If you–you gotta have enough confidence: ‘Look, I don’t feel good…Let them play.’ So, good on him.” (27:35)
“He told People Magazine...these guys should feel honored that the residue of a champion has gotten on them, which is a hilarious thing to say.” (30:00)
“Anything less than 4-2 would be like a little bit of a disappointment, considering how well they've played...Joe Missoula has set the expectations.” (12:10)
“People want to discredit last year because of the stacked roster…But you still have to be good enough as a coach to get that group to the finish line. And this year he’s coaching these guys up.” (14:30)
“The entire organization is so united that even if something comes up...they can handle that stuff in house, which is important.” (19:01)
“This is sacrifice for the betterment of the team. Took himself out...not trying to be a hero when he knew guys behind him had his back.” (27:48)
“These guys should feel honored that the residue of a champion has gotten on them.” (30:00)
John Karalis maintains an insightful, conversational, and witty tone throughout. He mixes sharp basketball analysis with a personable approach, including direct anecdotes and jokes. The episode is rich with both basketball X’s and O’s and behind-the-scenes chemistry discussions, making it engaging for casual fans and diehards alike.
Summary:
This episode looks at a crucial window for the Celtics to surge in the standings, highlights the overlooked excellence of Joe Mazzulla’s coaching, and celebrates team-first player attitudes—wrapping up with humor about Jalen Brown’s off-court ventures. If you missed the episode, this recap hits all the highlights, memorable moments, and narrative arcs.