
Celtics stumble against Pistons: rebounding the Achilles' heel John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal breaks down Boston's 119-113 loss to Detroit, highlighting glaring issues on the glass. The analysis covers the Celtics' struggle with offensive rebounds, potential defensive adjustments, and Hugo Gonzalez's promising first start. Karalis dissects Jaylen Brown's 41-point performance, questioning if it's enough given the team's current challenges. He explores the "unfair ask" placed on Brown and other key players as Boston searches for its first win of the season. Tune in for expert insights on the Celtics' early struggles and the path to turning their season around.
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John Corrales
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John Corrales
More of the same plaguing the Boston Celtics, but there's actually a good thing in the middle of all of this Bad rebounding and Ugo Gonzalez starts. That was great. We're talking about it right now in the Lockdown Celtics Podcast. Huh? Yuck.
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John Corrales
Corralis.
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John Corrales
Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics Podcast right here in the Lockdown Podcast Network where it's your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics. I talk about them every Monday through Friday, plus bonus podcasts on the weekends. Which means I'm about to go on a, I think 13 straight day string of podcasting because they play Friday and Saturday next weekend, so make sure you're subscribed. The show is free, so it's Everywhere. It's on YouTube. Get into the comment section there. Share your thoughts with your fellow everydayers, people who are with me on a daily basis. I'm John Corrales, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've been covering the team for about 20 years now, and I've written a couple of books about the team. Today's show is brought to you by gametime. Download Game Time app, Create an account, use the code Locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Celtics lose Again to the this time it's the Detroit Pistons. 119, 113. Later on I'll talk about Jalen Brown's game. He dropped 41, but he himself admitted not enough. That's coming up later on second segment will be all about Ugo Gonzalez, who got the start. We'll talk about that in a second segment. I was about to start on. I'm so anxious to talk about it, but let's just start with this. More of the same. That's the headline of this game. More of the same. The Celtics allowed 18 offensive rebounds. They gave up 30, 30 second chance points in this game. The, the offensive rebounding that they're allowing is like I've said before, we knew it was going to be a problem, but once again over the top. How big of a problem it Is to allow 40 was like 45%, 46% of the off available defensive rebounds or available rebounds to go to your opponent is an obscene number. To let your opponent, once again, second game in a row, rebound almost half their misses, there's just no way you can come out of that. There's no way you can win games by allowing that many second chances because you're giving the other team all of these extra shots. And this is the good thing that I'm talking about in the, in the midst of all of this horrible, horrible rebounding. The good thing is you're forcing a lot of misses. You can't give up a million offensive rebounds if you're not forcing the other team to miss a lot of shots. So this is bad. This is, this rebounding bit is bad. But they are so close to being okay. And I know that's like maybe I'm shoehorning an optimistic view into a very negative element to this, this season. But we don't need the Celtics to be a great rebounding team. They are not going to be. We know what they're made of. We know that Namishkeda is the only big with any size, that Chris Boucher and Luca Garza and Xavier Tillman, who didn't even play in this game, which sucks because he's from Detroit and his, you know, he had 40 people there at the game. I, I don't know. It feels like that. I don't know. I don't know why he didn't play. This is the second game in a row where a different person didn't play. And I'm like, why, why couldn't you have had Tillman in against like Isaiah Stewart? Why couldn't have he gotten in there and played some minutes there? But regardless, the, the Celtics, we know, are not going to be a good defensive rebounding team right now. They are an abjectly horrible rebounding team. The worst rebounding team we've seen. The only way it could be a worse rebounding team is if I, at my current state and health, go out there and try. I. That, that's, that's how bad it is. But they don't need to be good. They just need to be better. And they, they need to be better at a lot of things. Like they are forcing turnovers, but they're, they're, they're not taking advantage of that too. So Joe Missoula after the game says, we need to grab the rebounds. Those, those late, the timely ones, right? It's, it's, it's like the old Shaquille o' Neal thing where he's like, I don't make my free throws, but I make them when they count. Right? You don't grab a lot of defensive rebounds, but at the end of the game, the Celtics should be grabbing those like the, the last three, four minutes of the game. Celtics cut it down to three, come down, get a stop. Technically not a stop, but they force a miss and offensive rebound, put back, they're down four, come down, force a miss, offensive rebound, put back, come down, they're down five, still within, you know, striking distance, force a mission, give up a rebound that turns into points. They do that twice, down five, even when the shooting is bad and the shooting continues to be bad. Right. Derek White, 3 of 11. Peyton Pritchard, 2 of 8 from 3 overall, 3 point shooting, 33.3%. And that's with Jalen Brown going 5 of 9. They can't give up those offensive rebounds. It's one thing to give up the offensive rebounds early in the game, down the stretch. And I don't know if this has to be a philosophical change. I do think there's one little philosophical tweet tweak that they need to make in their ability to challenge shots. Jalen Brown, Derrick White, guys that like to challenge shots and get blocks, I think they need to pivot to taking charges because they go up to block shots and no one behind them is able to box out and get rebounds. A lot of these offensive rebounds end up coming off of challenging shots in the paint. And I just think that philosophically they may have to start taking charges. They may have to start stepping up and saying, you know what, if we're going to take a foul, if there's going to be a potential for a basket, I'd rather take my chances, honestly. Stop the clock if they're gonna. If you want to make them earn it. If you want to get a, a bang bang play, fine. You put them on the line maybe, sure. But you might get the stop. You might be more likely to get the stop if you're getting a charge. Derrick White used to be a big charge taker and he got away from it because he's a great shot blocker. Jaylen Brown's not a big charge taker. He's taken them in the past, but he's not. He wants. He's. He's an athletic guy. He can jump. He can block shots too, when he needs to, but maybe he needs to get in there and take charges. Other guys maybe need to take charges. I think a pivot to taking charges can actually help them stop giving up some of these offensive rebounds, especially as. As teams start to drive hard on them. I think, I think that could be a pivot because again, down the stretch, they, they shot poorly. They, they gave up a ton of rebounds earlier. They gave up a ton of second chances. Like I said, 30 second chance points. Instead of challenging those shots, maybe you take a couple of charges and that negates a couple of those offensive rebounds. That, that is my only, my only solution here because they need some kind of solution other than buckle down all five. Guys. Guys rebound. I know Brian Scalabrine in the broadcast was, you know, jokingly harping on that, but you, you really need everybody. You really need everybody. And Jalen Brown said it again, I need to rebound better. But it's more of the same. And that has to change. Just, it has to change enough so they can avoid these kinds of losses. I knew that they were going to start terribly. I've said on this podcast. I've gotten a lot of crap in the comments about saying that they have the potential to start 2 and 5, 1 and 6, oh and 7 on this opening schedule. And here they are. 03 and it doesn't look great. But the, the simple changes are finding a way to get at least a few of those defensive rebounds and finding a way to turn these turnovers into points. The Celtics had 12 turnovers for 13 points. The Pistons had 16 turnovers for 13 points. The Celtics are forcing more turnovers than they give up, but they're losing the. That, that battle. I wrote about this on Boston Sports Journal. This stat is, is actually pretty bad. The Celtics are forcing more turnovers per game than last year. Four more turnovers per game. 16.7 last year. The best in the league, forced 17 per game. So they're right there. They are turning the ball over 13 times in the early going best in the NBA. So you're getting three or four more turnovers per game. However, Celtics opponents are scoring, are scoring 17.7 points per game off turnovers. And the Celtics are averaging 14.3 turnovers per game. So you're the, on average, you're forcing three or four more turnovers per game, but you're, you're losing that battle, points wise, by three or so, three or four. How is that possible? You can't do that. You cannot do that. The Celtics have to turn those turnovers into points. So bad shooting. Sure. And I'll get to that in a second. I'll come back and talk about that, actually. But if you're forcing the turnovers, you gotta cash in. You gotta cash in a few timely rebounds. Right? Just three rebounds instead of 30 second chance points, 25 second chance points, 20 second chance points, and then a few more points off turnovers. And this entire thing is different after the game. Peyton Pritchard said, people talk about this differently. If we're 2 and 1 and they easily could be 2 and 1, they could be 3, 0, honestly, if a few things change. But realistically, realistically, they could at least have one win here either this game, any. Pick one, pick one. They could have won at least one of these games. Just a couple of timely rebounds and cashing in on the points off turnovers, shooting issues, I'm not as worried about. I'll talk about that. And Ugo Gonzalez starts. Let's get into the positive stuff when we come back. Today's show is brought to you by Monarch Money. 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NBA is five days a week in the afternoons covering the big stories. Big story for the Celtics is Ugo Gonzalez. I'll get to him in a second. I did want to touch on the shooting Issues because Peyton Pritchard did talk about that. He shot 2 of 8. Pritchard is 3 of 11. So 5 of 19 is not good between those two. Jalen was 5 of 9 from 3. Anthony Simons was 2 of 7. That. That's okay. Hauser was 2 of 5. 40%. So. So basically White and Pritchard are the two guys. And, and Pritchard talked about how he's adjusting to being a starter. And he said it is an adjustment. You warm up differently. You, you get into the flow of the game differently. And I do think that there's something there that is challenging Peyton Pritchard. Does that mean he shouldn't be a starter? I don't think so. I think this is. It also doesn't mean that he should be a starter. We're not, we're not in a big enough sample size yet where we can make a determination. Peyton should start. Shouldn't start. I think he's getting used to the daily kind of flow of that. It's one thing to be like, I'm a bench guy, but every once in a while, oh, I get forced into the starting lineup. That's no problem. I like it. Great knowing that you're a starter. Just, it's a different mentality and so much of what happens in a game is mental that you just to have that different mentality going in and saying, I'm a starter, I'm warming up at a different time. My, my job is different. You don't, you don't just play the same exact way. Team needs you to do different things. It is a little bit of a challenge. But look, Pritchard still had 21 points, 10 rebounds. 10 rebounds to lead the Celtics. Peyton Pritchard, that's, that's exactly what the Celtics need. They just need better rebounding from everybody else. 4 assists, 8 of 16 overall shooting. He attacked Duncan Robinson mercilessly. I thought inside the arc he was great. I thought Pritchard actually played a pretty good game, but he just didn't shoot well. If he makes one more shot, it becomes a little bit of a different story, but maybe two. But regardless, he's in a slump. I'm not worried about guys in shooting slumps. Pritchard, White, Sam Houser, who again was two of five. Those are the guys that you just trust right over the course of time. Their history tells you things even out. So we can't take three game samples. You can take a three game sample from any point in these guys careers and say, well, this three games tells me that this guy's the best shooter ever. And this three game sample tells me he's the worst shooter ever. This, this stretch, I'm not worried about that. So much of this shooting stuff will normalize. There will be games where Pritchard and White shoot 6 of 8, 7 of 10, and we'll be like, oh, wow, what a hot shooting night from these guys. And that will even things out. It will level off. I'm not worried about the shooting, and it would be great if the shooting kind of caught up now. It's one of the things that really sucks about this team is everything's going wrong. I think they have stretches. Like I said, the first quarter of this game was great. They look great for most of the first quarter. If they were shooting well, it could mask some of the stuff, but also in other ways, it's kind of. You can say it's kind of good that the shooting is like, everything is going wrong because you can see in stark reality, okay, wow, look at, look at everything that. Look at all of these blemishes. This is not great. And it forces you to kind of come to grips with, okay, this is not a great team. This is a mediocre team. Right? I said 44 wins. And, you know, a couple of wins down the other way, you're. You're a.500 team. And it allows Joe to do things like, hey, you know what? I'm rewarding Hugo Gonzalez because the energy, the effort is there and I'm not worried about the shooting. This isn't about winning these early games. It's about the incremental progress. So shout out to Ugo for putting forth the effort against the Knicks, where Joe says, you know what? I need everybody to see that when you play this way, with the right intentions, the right way, you're gonna get, you're gonna get rewarded. Hugo gets rewarded with a start. Now, I've said here and online and I at Boston Sports Journal, I think Hugo Gonzalez is going to be a starter for this team eventually. Now, he did start this game and I took advantage of me saying, I think he's going to be a starter. And I kind of tweeted that out everywhere. But I do think that this is going to be his regular role at some point. Now, I don't know. He might not play against New Orleans. He might play. Sam Cassell said, we're going to use him against the other team's best player, which you can't use them against Zion Williamson or I don't know. Or can they? Or can they? Maybe they do. I don't know. But I like the fact that he was rewarded and I like the fact that he paid off immediate dividends. He had two steals a block. They came early. He had the, that immediate energy. They matched him up with, with Cade Cunningham early on. I thought that was great. Now they moved on to Josh Minot, who did also. He did great. 10 points in 14 minutes. He had a stretch where he had like a couple of steals, a three, a basket, a foul. A funny celebration with Nish K where Kada bumped him and he went flying the other way and he was even laughing about it. So you, you have these different guys that you can go to. But I love that Ugo got to start and it seems like he's going to get a lot of time in the NBA. I don't, like I've said before, I don't care what the Celtics determine his, his developmental path to be. If they said, hey, you know what, we want him to play in Maine and get 35 minutes a game, totally fine with that. If they said we're happy with him getting the 18 minutes a game or whatever it is in Boston playing a more limited role, great. Whatever it is the Celtics want to do with him is fine with me. It seems like he's going to get more time in Boston, but I can certainly hear the argument that, hey, the role in Boston for the Boston Celtics is going to be more limited to defense and, and a supporting role. We want to see him grow offensively and be a ball handler and a passer and a playmaker on top of everything else. So we're going to send him to Maine where he can do that. It's totally fine with me. In fact, I would love to see it. But whatever it is, I'm happy that he got the start. I'm happy that things are paying off. A kid that young getting this kind of recognition and succeeding, at least somewhat, is a big positive. So even though the Celtics lost, I find the Hugo Gonzalez story from the past couple of nights great. And I think that's great. Jaylen Brown had 41. He said it's still not enough. The the expectations on Jalen are coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. We are knee deep in the NFL. We're knee deep in the NBA, and there's no better place to get into the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of a game or if you want to ride the hot hand and see. Like Jalen Brown in this game, FanDuel has live bets from everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at big at a bigger payout. Keeps getting it keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. 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John Corrales
Thanks for making Locked On Celtics your first listen every day. Check out Lockdown NBA. I'm sorry, Lockdown Fantasy Basketball. I already told you about Locked on NBA Lockdown Fantasy Basketball with Josh Lloyd. Your league is competitive. You want to win it. You don't know who to add or drop on any given night. Maybe you haven't paid attention. If you listen to Josh, he's going to help you win your league because he's going to tell you get rid of this guy, pick up this guy, and that those are the little moves that are going to help you win your league. Let's get back to the game here. Let's just go through the box score a little bit. Neemi was okay. I thought he had some good moments, including that steal and dunk. That's always fun. Derrick White okay, Like I said, shooting wise, not great, but a little bit of a Little bit of a slow start, I would say, for, for Derrick White, but I, I trust him. Anthony Simons had a few moments, but a minus 1312 points on 5 of 13 shooting the bench. Sam Houser moved to the bench. That might be a better role for him. I, I need Sam Houser to get more shots. Luca Garza came back from the concussion, played 13 minutes. Josh Minot, as I said, was, was really good in his 14 minutes. A spark plug. I like him and Gonzalez are going to be the spark plugs and I like that. Nothing much from Baylor, Scheireman or Chris Boucher. Surprised I didn't see Xavier Tillman as I said before, but Jalen Brown was the big story as far as scoring 41 points, a 12 of 25 from the field, 12 of 15 from the line, 5 of 9 from 3. This is a, a superstar line. 41 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 12 of 25 shooting, getting to the line 15 times. It's all great stuff, all great stuff from Jaylen Brown. And yet somehow it's not enough. And that's the unfair ask that is is being made of Jaylen Brown. He said after the game, again, I need to rebound better. He understands. He gets it. This isn't just Jalen Brown the scorer. This isn't just Jalen Brown going out 41 points on 12 of 25 and 5 of 9 and 12 of 15. You might be like, did my job. I don't care what the rest of you got to do. That's not what they need from Jaylen Brown. They need more distribution. They need more awareness. They need more rebounding. They need him to be there boxing out. It is again, an unfair ask of any player. They are asking him to do more. They might be asking him to do more than any player in the league. Like a team asking Jalen, like no team is asking their star player to be all of the things that the Celtics are going to need Jalen Brown to be if they're going to win these games. Maybe they don't care about winning these games necessarily. Maybe it's. Maybe they need the, you know, Jalen to, to take a step back and say, hey, let these guys fail so they can learn how to walk, you know, but for the Celtics to be good, Jalen needs to get in there. He needs to be a rebounder. He needs to be more of a distributor, but he needs to be more of a communicator defense, you know, on defense, like getting guys in position. He just needs to be. He kind of needs to be A little bit of everything. And that's tough because he's not done that. He's not a backline defender that's used to calling out coverages, but he's going to have to do that. He is not a point guard that is used to monitoring every defensive kind of adjustment and saying, oh, when they do this adjustment, these are. The guys are going to be available. Right? That's something that you have to. When you're a point guard, when you're an elite point guard, when you're a playmaker and a tone setter, you have to be aware of, okay, this is, this is how they're covering the pick and rolls. When they do this, we've got this guy and I got to be aware when I see that I gotta do, I gotta do this. Some players can just process that right away. Some players might be a little bit slower. Jalen needs to just become the guy that processes all of that right away this season anyway. Again, it's a lot. It is a lot. My, my feeling, and I've said this before on the podcast, my feeling is that if he, if he does kind of half of this stuff that the Celtics are asking him to do or need him to do, then it'll be his best season ever. He, he could have the exact same statistics last year, but have developed all of the awareness and all the stuff that I'm talking about. And I would say absolutely Jalen Brown's best season and that would make him an all NBA player. I, I think he's capable of doing more. I do think he's capable of rebounding better. And obviously, I mean, he said the rebounding is the thing. And on the surface, the rebounding is the thing. So he needs to get in there more. Everybody needs to get in there more. Whoever's starting Ugo. 18 minutes, one defensive rebound not good enough. And I haven't even looked at the film to say that whether he's been in position to do that, but that it's still unfairly saying it's not good enough. Everything that we're asking these guys to do is unfair. It's patently unfair to ask them to do more, but they have to do more if they're going to win these games. They have to play above their heads. They have to be greater than the sum of their parts. They have to kind of Indiana Pacers this thing. They can't play like they did last year. They can't be last in pace. They have to be in the top 10 in pace. And right now they're at the bottom in pace still. They have to be winning. Transition opportunities. Fast break points in this game, 21 to 14, Detroit, that cannot happen. Points in the paint, 50 to 40 Detroit, cannot happen. If you're getting out in transition, those are going to be layups. You're getting more points in the paint. Second chance points, obviously a problem, but the Celtics, they. You're asked to do a lot as a member of the Boston Celtics. Everybody's being asked to do more than they. Then maybe we even think they're capable of. But that's the ask. And we'll see. I think, I think it's a big ask, but you make the ask because if they can all kind of get a few steps closer to that, they're going to start winning a few of these games. So we'll see. They've got the Pelicans on a back to back there. They've traveled. So. But the early start, it's not as bad, but it's still, you know, back to back. And I don't even know if Jalen's going to play. He wants to play, but that hamstring is stiff and he said he might not. And if he doesn't, that's going to be a problem. Then you've got a tough stretch ahead. Still, I still think, I still think it's going to be a long time before we see the Celtics win a game. Now, once they do start winning games, they could pile up a couple, two, three, four in a row. We'll see. But tough start and it, it's not a surprise. But they, they, they, they have it. They have something within their reach. They just got to clean up the stuff, the stuff that we've been asking them to clean up. I will be here. Like I said, I'm doing 13 podcasts in a row. 13 days of podcasting in a row. No days off. Because they plan the weekend next weekend, Friday and Saturday. So I will be here. The shows are all free. They're available Everywhere. They're on YouTube. Get into the comments section there. Would love to see you see you. Join the rest of the everydayers who are also with me every Monday through Friday and in these bonus podcasts. And then please share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Hey, here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, it's your team. Every day.
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Host: John Karalis (Boston Sports Journal)
Date: October 27, 2025
John Karalis dives into the persistent rebounding woes plaguing the Boston Celtics after their 119-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons, marking their third straight defeat to start the season. Amidst the frustration, Karalis finds optimism in the energetic debut start of rookie Ugo Gonzalez. He breaks down the ongoing issues undermining Boston’s early campaign, discusses possible solutions, and highlights the evolving roles of key players like Jalen Brown. The episode mixes sharp critique with measured optimism, focusing on team development and incremental progress rather than solely wins and losses.
“They need some kind of solution other than ‘buckle down, all five guys rebound.’...I think a pivot to taking charges can actually help them stop giving up some of these offensive rebounds.”
— John Karalis (10:45)
“People talk about this differently if we’re 2–1, and they easily could be 2–1...Pick one. They could have won at least one of these games. Just a couple of timely rebounds and cashing in on the points off turnovers…”
— John Karalis paraphrasing Peyton Pritchard (16:20)
"So much of what happens in a game is mental...This stretch, I'm not worried about that. So much shooting stuff will normalize." (20:45)
“A kid that young getting this kind of recognition and succeeding, at least somewhat, is a big positive. So even though the Celtics lost, I find the Hugo Gonzalez story...great.”
— John Karalis (27:10)
“If he does kind of half of this stuff the Celtics need him to do, then it’ll be his best season ever...and that would make him an All-NBA player.”
— John Karalis (31:40)
“They are an abjectly horrible rebounding team. The worst we've seen.”
John Karalis, 04:22
“You really need everybody. Jalen Brown said, ‘I need to rebound better.’ But it's more of the same. And that has to change.”
John Karalis, 07:19
“If you’re forcing the turnovers, you gotta cash in. Just three rebounds instead of 30 second chance points...”
John Karalis, 15:10
“So much of what happens in a game is mental...I’m not worried about the shooting. This isn’t about winning these early games; it’s about incremental progress.”
John Karalis, 20:45
“A kid that young getting this kind of recognition and succeeding, at least somewhat, is a big positive. So even though the Celtics lost, I find the Hugo Gonzalez story...great.”
John Karalis, 27:10
“That’s the unfair ask that is being made of Jalen Brown...No team is asking their star player to be all of the things the Celtics need Jalen Brown to be.”
John Karalis, 30:13
Boston’s 0–3 start isn’t surprising given its major flaws—especially on the glass and in converting turnovers. While the pressure on Jalen Brown and the supporting cast is arguably unfair, the path forward is clear: improve attention to detail, distribute responsibilities, and keep rewarding players (like Ugo Gonzalez) who bring energy and hustle. John Karalis finds cautious optimism in the team’s evident effort and the recognition of foundational problems early in the year. Whether the Celtics can improve in these key areas will define their season’s narrative.
Next Game: Boston faces the Pelicans on a back-to-back. Jalen Brown’s hamstring status is in doubt.
Final Note: Karalis will continue his marathon of daily podcasts—“No days off”—to keep fans up to speed during this crucial early stretch.