FRUSTRATION: Boston Celtics & Jaylen Brown UPSET After Painful Loss

Summary

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Locked On Celtics – "FRUSTRATION: Boston Celtics & Jaylen Brown UPSET After Painful Loss"

Host: John Karalis | Locked On Podcast Network
Date: December 30, 2025

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Main Theme / Purpose

This episode dissects the Boston Celtics’ narrow and frustrating loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. John Karalis dives deep into the emotional fallout—especially Jaylen Brown’s clear on-court frustration—using the defeat as a lens to analyze the team’s raised expectations, chemistry issues, and margin for error. The podcast also highlights individual performances (notably Brown’s record-tying streak) and rotation concerns for the Celtics' wings.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: An Unexpected and Frustrating Loss

• Celtics lose to Portland: A game many expected Boston to win easily, the episode sets the tone that this loss felt "different" because of the team’s higher standards this season.
  • “It's the most frustrated I've ever seen Jaylen Brown.” (01:43)

2. Jaylen Brown's Frustration Boils Over

• On-court Blowup with Derek White: Brown was openly frustrated, blaming Derek White for staying too long on a screen leading to a turnover.
  • “He looks at Derek White and he waves his arm. Big, demonstrative, like, waves his arm, like, really pissed off.” (04:10)
• Aftermath: Derek White took blame post-game; Brown was “still upset, pissed off” in his postgame comments.
  • “He flat out said, I was pissed off. But that level of frustration is kind of new.” (08:00)
• Significance: Karalis views this moment as evidence that the team’s internal standards and pressure have elevated.

3. Raised Expectations & Margins for Error

• Fans and Team Both Frustrated: This loss felt significant because fans now expect Boston to win ugly games.
  • “Earlier this season, a loss like this, I'd be like, ah, learning experience, not a big deal. But the Celtics have raised the bar.” (08:31)
• Execution vs. “Winning Time”: The Celtics repeatedly got close but couldn’t “get past the hump.” Simple mistakes, poor chemistry, and missed open shots doomed them in key moments.

4. Play Analysis: Missed Opportunities and Execution Issues

• Miscommunication and Turnovers: Several late-game plays illustrated the team’s poor chemistry:
  • On a key out-of-bounds play, Jalen cut the wrong way, leading to a turnover.
  • In the last 1:45, Boston took only one shot due to four turnovers.
    • “You got to get up more than one shot in, in a minute and 45 seconds.” (21:34)
• Three-Point Shooting: The Celtics lost by 6, but were outscored by 15 at the 3PT line (Blazers 18/51, Celtics 13/44).
  • “You lose a game by six where you get outscored by 15 at the three point line... that's it.” (11:00)

5. Portland’s Physicality and Specific Challenges

• Donovan Clingan's Impact: Clingan dominated the offensive boards, keeping Portland alive.
  • “Clingan comes in... and it’s just offensive rebound, offensive rebound, offensive rebound.” (15:08)
  • Celtics allowed 15 offensive rebounds (Clingan had 7), making it hard to secure stops.
• Turnover Battle: Boston forced 21 turnovers but converted these into just 20 points; gave up 18 off their own 19 turnovers.

6. Wing Rotation Challenges and Celtics University

• Wing Performance Woes: Josh Minot benched for second straight game; Jordan Walsh struggled with fouls and decision-making.
  • “Jordan Walsh gets into foul trouble early again… less than 10 minutes.” (27:44)
• Hugo Gonzalez a Bright Spot: Performing well, but still a 19-year-old learning pro basketball.
• Celtics University Concept: Brown and coach Missoula have both described the season as “Celtics University”—emphasizing ongoing learning curves.
  • “Sometimes you gotta talk to people and kind of wake them up, like… wake up Josh, like joking. But I was like, why did you say Josh?” (29:53)

7. Jaylen Brown’s Historic Scoring Streak

• Ties Larry Bird for 30-Point Games Streak: Brown tallied his ninth straight 30-point game, equaling Bird’s franchise record.
  • “He matches Larry Bird for most consecutive 30 point games in Celtics history.” (36:50)
  • Also, his 18th 30-point outing—already double last season’s total.
• All-NBA and MVP Buzz: Karalis argues Brown is building a strong All-NBA and third-place MVP case.
  • “I continue to be really impressed by Jaylen Brown and what he's been able to accomplish, so kudos to him. Congrats to him.” (39:59)

8. Contextual Challenges: Road Trip & Fatigue

• Schedule Difficulties: Boston’s longest road trip and cross-country travel, played a role in lack of sharpness and “execution slippage.”

9. Bigger Picture Takeaways

• It’s a “Good” Frustration: The pain comes from the team’s own success—they now expect to win games like these.
  • “It's a compliment to tell the Celtics that a loss like this is frustrating because that means I expect them to win. You’ve created this expectation.” (41:17)
• Looking Forward: The team needs to clean up execution, especially from role players and wings, to avoid these “avoidable” losses.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------| | 01:43 | "It's the most frustrated I've ever seen, Jaylen Brown. And I'll tell you why..." | John Karalis | | 04:10 | “He looks at Derek White and he waves his arm. Big, demonstrative, like, waves his arm, like, really pissed off.” | John Karalis | | 08:31 | “Earlier this season, a loss like this, I'd be like, ah, learning experience, not a big deal. But the Celtics have raised the bar.” | John Karalis | | 11:00 | "You lose a game by six where you get outscored by 15 at the three point line... that's it." | John Karalis | | 15:08 | "Clingan comes in... and it’s just offensive rebound, offensive rebound, offensive rebound." | John Karalis | | 21:34 | “You got to get up more than one shot in, in a minute and 45 seconds.” | John Karalis | | 29:53 | “Sometimes you gotta talk to people and kind of wake them up, like… wake up Josh, like joking. But I was like, why did you say Josh?” | John Karalis | | 36:50 | “He matches Larry Bird for most consecutive 30 point games in. In Celtics history.” | John Karalis | | 39:59 | “I continue to be really impressed by Jaylen Brown and what he's been able to accomplish, so kudos to him. Congrats to him.” | John Karalis | | 41:17 | “It’s a compliment to tell the Celtics that a loss like this is frustrating because that means I expect them to win.” | John Karalis |

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 01:43 — Setting the tone: Jaylen Brown's visible frustration; why the loss stings
• 04:10 — On-court dispute between Brown and Derek White, and postgame fallout
• 11:00 — Three-point shooting analysis, crunch time failures
• 15:08 — Donovan Clingan and Portland’s offensive rebounding edge
• 21:34 — Boston’s poor late-game execution and costly turnovers
• 27:44 — Wing rotation issues: Minot, Walsh, and the “Celtics University” idea
• 36:50 — Jaylen Brown ties Larry Bird for 30-point game streak
• 39:59 — Brown’s career season, All-NBA & MVP candidacy
• 41:17 — The meaning of “good” frustration for the Celtics

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Overall Flow & Takeaway

John Karalis’ episode is candid, analytical, and reflects the heightened emotional stakes for both the team and Boston’s fan base. While rehashing the loss and exposing cracks in the Celtics’ armor, Karalis peppers the show with context and optimism—recognizing that sky-high standards are, in fact, a credit to this year’s squad. He gives listeners both catharsis and perspective: this kind of frustration is a byproduct of genuine championship aspirations.

For those who missed the episode:

• The loss to Portland was painful not just for the scoreboard, but for how visibly it rattled Jaylen Brown and exposed issues in execution and player roles.
• The Celtics’ wings are in flux, the margin for error is razor thin, and rotation questions persist—but Brown’s individual brilliance and the team’s ceiling remain incredibly high.
• The team must clean up details and maintain chemistry to meet—and surpass—the bar they’ve set, starting with the next stop on their daunting road trip.

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Transcript

[John Corrales]

Foreign. Your team every day. Guys.

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Of course he did.

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[John Corrales]

It's the most frustrated I've ever seen, Jaylen Brown. And I'll tell you why it's okay for you to be frustrated with this loss right now on the Locked on Celtics podcast.

[Podcast Co-host/Advertiser Voice]

Huh?

[John Corrales]

Yup. Beam town be ever ready. It's the seas. Who else could it be? What they gonna say now screaming like J.T. corralis we kept the madness every game, every practice prime time Depp and D White on the sideline Ren and J's 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 bonus podcasts when they play on weekends, a Friday or a Saturday night. So make sure you subscribed. The show is available everywhere. It's free. It's on YouTube. It's the number one Celtics podcast in the world on the number one sports podcasting network in the world. So thank you every day. There's people who are with me all of these days for being, for making the show what it is. If you're new to the show, I'm John Corrales. I'm a 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 written a couple of books about the team. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Before tip off, check the FanDuel app and see what's dropping during NBA Happy hour every Friday between 6 and 7:30pm Eastern. Ooh, mystery. All right, Celtics lose to the Portland Trailblazers, which, you know, shout out to Brian Scalabrine. He called it on the, on the broadcast where he's like, you know, they got in late. They, you know, it's, it's still a tough turnaround. He didn't like the setup. He didn't, it's something that a former NBA player just going through that flight and going through everything, he kind of called it that this was going to be a less than pretty game. And he was, he was right on the money. Later on, we'll get into Jalen Brown catching Larry Bird in terms of 30 point games. Interesting second straight DNP for Josh Minot. I'll get into him. Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, that stuff's coming up later too. Donovan Clingan of just killing the Celtics on the offensive rebounds, all of that stuff. We got to start at the top where this was a very frustrating loss. Actually, I know how frustrating a loss it is when my wife texts me from upstairs because she's watching the game. I'm down here watching the game, you know, making my notes and working and she's upstairs watching the game at the end saying, man, they had so many chances to win that. So she was frustrated. Jalen Brown, more frustrated than ever seen him. And it bugged me a little bit because I've never seen him that demonstrative towards another player. I've never seen him do what he did to Derek White and It's kind of confusing because. Okay, it's a couple minutes to go. I forget exactly how my. This was. The. This is the one with maybe. Yeah, a couple minutes to go. Derek White sets a screen and hangs in the screen for too long. Apparently, they double Jalen. He kind of falls backwards. He turns the ball over. He ends up fouling somebody. And at the end of the play, he looks at Derek White and he waves his arm. Big, demonstrative, like, waves his arm, like, really pissed off. And then I tweeted it out on the Portland broadcast. The camera flips right at that time, and you see Derek coming down, like, with. You know, shrugging, like, what. What do you. What do you want? And scale said that, you know, you could tell what Jalen wanted was when you set the screen, just set it and go, just clear out. I. All I want is the switch. You don't have to hang out. I want to isolate the switch they're doubling, give me the opportunity to kind of make my move and not have them double me, so. Which is a fine thing to say and a fine thing to be like, you know, go to Derek after the. You know, after the play, like, walk over to him and be like, this is you. You need to get out of there, because this is what I want to do. Very simple thing for him to do. The big wave, I mean, that was like, wow. Jalen is very clearly frustrated. He was pissed off. I. I feel like he was. You know, he had that big. That big second quarter, and Tamani Kamara was. Was guarding him, and they were talking a lot of. Talking a lot of smack between the two of them, and I feel like he kind of got caught up in that. I feel like he was having, like, he had 27 points at halftime. Felt like this was going to be like, I'm doing this myself, type of game, because nothing else was really working for the Celtics. Nothing big enough where you got a ton of support for. For Jalen. You know, you'd think that a game in Portland, you'd get a typical performance from Peyton Pritchard, but he was kind of like a net. He's plus two, but that's you. Pritchard, 3 of 10, 3 of 8 from 3. Never quite got going. Nine points, five rebounds, five assists. That's nice, but, like, the five and five, but you expect that he was going to score like, 20 in this game. Derek White, 5 of 16, shooting 2 of 10 from 3. Pritchard was 3 of 8 from 3. So it's 5 of 18. That's not good enough. You know, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists for him. Also 5 steals for Derek, which was really nice. But you didn't get the typical support. You didn't get the performances you thought from certain guys. So it felt like Jalen's gonna have to go do it himself. That level of frustration that he couldn't kind of, like, live up to his trash talk earlier, it felt like that. That kind of, I think, boiled over. So I. Obviously, you never. You never want to see two teammates kind of get into it like that. After the game, Derek was like, nope, it's all my fault. You know, he. He took it, owned it, whatever. I didn't see what Jalen said. I saw some quotes hanging around. I'm not in Portland on this trip, so kind of relying on the stuff that I see. And it. You know, Jalen clearly. Clearly was still, you know, upset, pissed off when he was, you know, talking post game. You could tell in the quotes, I mean, because he flat out said, I was pissed off. But that level of frustration is. Is kind of like, new. And for you, for me, for. For Celtics fans that were watching, getting frustrated. Like, my wife was getting frustrated. You normally. You know, I think earlier this season, a loss like this, I'd be like, ah, you know, what? Learning experience, not a big deal. But the Celtics have raised the bar. They've. They've raised the expectations. They. They kind of made us feel like, no. They. They win a lot of these games like this. Something comes up where you. You win these tight games or you figure something out or somebody in the team has a moment. Is it Jalen? Is it Derek? Is it Peyton? It's been Ugo sometimes. It's been Jordan sometimes Sam Houser. One of these guys, like, one of these guys, Anthony Simons, who was okay but, like, you know, didn't do much. One of these guys, you would expect to kind of step up and. And kind of bail you out at the end, and it just never happened. They always got close and could never get past that. That hump, you know, there was a play where this one was about four minutes to go. Namish kits. It's a pick for Jalen Brown. They double Jalen, and Neemi just kind of, like, runs and gets out of the way. You could hear Joe Missoula in the background. No, you could hear that. And Mimi kind of looks around, and Jalen at this point, like, jumps and passes to a spot where Nemi Eskata should be. He just didn't recognize it. He didn't recognize in Real time. That, that was a short roll situation and he needed to be in a certain spot and like, that would have been a way to break down what the Blazers were doing. The situation with Jalen and Derek would have been an opportunity like you get, you get the ball to Derek in that spot or you, you take away their opportunity to double. Maybe Jalen just cooks. There are a lot of these chances that they had, they had open three pointers that they just didn't hit. So I mean, some of this is absolutely shooting variants. They shot 18. The, the Blazers were 18 of 51. The Celtics were 13 of 44. So you lose a game by six where you get outscored by 15 at the three point line. That's, you know, you could sit, you could sit there and just be like, that's, that's it. But the Celtics kind of like this, this messy finish, these, these frustrating little mistakes. They, they kept getting close and then they were like that last thing. They needed a shot. The right read the being on the same page. The, the out of bounds play where Jalen looked like he was curling to the basket. I thought he was curling to the basket. Derrick White thought he was curling to the basket, but he ended up continuing like he was going to go to the corner and Derek threw a pass that was going towards the basket and he was like, you know, frustrated because everything called for that play that just looked like the play to make. So I feel like that was where Jalen was wrong there. Just one thing after another of, okay, this guy's not on the same page as this guy. This guy's not reading the play the same way this guy is. You get to 80% of the execution and that final 20% is just not enough to win this game. The Blazers did a good job. They adjusted. They blitzed Jalen, they got the ball out of his hands. Donovan clinging, went in there and was destroying them on the boards. We'll get to that. We'll get to the rest of the individual performances when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Fridays already feel different during basketball season and FanDuel is making them even better. 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[John Corrales]

Thank you for making Locked on Celtics your first listen every day. Lockdown Celtics is the number one Celtics podcast on the number one sports podcast network around and now you can become an everydayer by going to Everyday Club member every day or club member by going to lockdown celtics supercast.com for five bucks a month you get ad free audio. You get exclusive access to our Discord server, you get merch drops, you get all of that stuff. Five bucks a month, 50 bucks for the year. Locked on Celtics supercast.com so check that out. I think it'd be fun. So Clingan comes in the you know, he said we knew before the game, we knew coming in that they don't they're not a great defensive rebounding team. You know, Shocker, right? So Clingan comes in, this game starts out like the Celtics are going to cruise the first couple minutes. It's like oh man, this is going to be so easy. And then Clingham comes in and it's just offensive rebound, offensive rebound, offensive rebound, second chance, second chance. And like the Celtics did a good job on their own by doing like they they had 12 offensive rebounds but they gave up 15 again. The Celtics do something right, but then something else is wrong. That doesn't get them the rest of the way where they need to be second chance points. The Celtics had 21, but they gave up 19. You're like, you get 21 second chance points. You gotta, you gotta find a way to limit the other team. You gotta win that margin by a fair amount. So clean comes in, they get a bunch of second chances. That keeps the Blazers alive. Turnovers. The Blazers very turnover prone. Wrote before the game on Boston Sports Journal, Denny Abdia can be turnover prone. He turned it over five times. They turned it over 21. The Celtics only got 20 points out of that. When the team turns it over 21 times, you got, you gotta get into like the mid-20s, you gotta get five more points, six more points, like 21 turnovers. Have to turn into more baskets than that. You just have too many opportunities there. The Celtics have to cash in on those opportunities. But the Celtics turned it over 19 times and they, they allowed 18 points of off of those turnovers. So instead of capitalizing, you say, okay, you still get 20 points off of turnovers. You give up 18. So it's like, okay, you're a plus two there. You're only a plus two on the second chance points. Okay, plus four, that's fine. But you're again, you're minus 15 from the three point shooting. So I know clingan is like the third, is third in the league as far as offensive rebounds per game. He's second in the league by two in total offensive rebounds to Rudy Gobert. He's, he's a little bit of a machine, but it doesn't have to be. What do you have, seven offensive rebounds? It doesn't have to be seven offensive rebounds. Could be four. You, there's got to be a way to not lose him so much that you, you know, seven like you, you can't, you can't grab like two, three more. Again, you lost by six. So limit one of their second chances. Protect the ball a couple of times, right? Joe loves to talk about. Joe Missoula loves to talk about. These games always come down to five or six plays and it's a six point loss. The, you know, two offensive rebounds, two turnovers and one made three pointer from Boston from Sam Houser, who missed a bunch of open ones and was one of five from three. So you knock off, you know, two turnovers and they score 14 points. You get one more three pointer. Now that's a seven point swing. Now you get, you know, you add these all up and you can have like 10, 11, 12 points on these plays. You're like, oh, six point loss. Could have been a six point win. You hit a couple of shots, you shoot a normal percentage from 3. Now, now it's a 16 point win. So it's right there. So because the Celtics have set their expectations that you expect them to beat teams like Portland, even though Portland's tough. Denny Abdi is tough, Shaden Sharp is tough. You know, these guys can, can do some damage. Caleb Love goes 4 of 10 from 3. Joe after the game says, you know, there are a couple in transition. If you just get out to that, you prevent a couple of those. All of these little things, right? 5 possessions, 6 possession possessions, 7 possessions, you start rearranging the points and you have a Celtics blow it on your hands, right? They could have very easily in this game, the way it was going, turned around and blown the, the Blazers out if they'd done a few things differently. But because they couldn't make those plays, the Blazers hung around and next thing you know, you're executing poorly down the stretch. You're turning the ball over four times in the last minute and eight seconds. The Celtics only took one shot. They took one shot in the last minute 45. That's. You got to get up more than one shot in, in a minute and 45 seconds. You have plenty of time to get two, three shots, four shots up in that stretch to only put up one because of all the turnovers. So that poor shooting and all of that stuff, it all adds up. So yeah, I think you can infer from my tone that I'm, I'm calling this a frustrating loss. Does it matter much? No. Because if the Celtics learn from this and talk through whatever they need to talk through and turn around and go to Utah and win and, you know, close out the trip with three wins. Utah, Sacramento, the Clippers maybe. But I don't know, the Clippers going to be tough because I just. Kawhi scored 50, 55. Kawhi's back, he's scoring 50 something. It's like vintage Kawhi all of a sudden. But that's. And look, let me just as I have another like, side note. If you play the Clippers and Kawhi has one of those games and you lose, that's okay, you know, but that's what makes this game so frustrating. These winnable games for the Celtics, who again, do not have a strong margin for error. And we saw that in this game. You can't have all of these things happen and still expect the Celtics to win. Can't turn the ball over, can't shoot like crap, can't let Donovan cling and kill you on the offensive rebounds. You can't have Sam House like all of these things, the portion, all that, you can't have all of them. You could have a couple of them maybe, but the margin for error is so thin. You can't have all of that and expect to win. But if you do clean some of that up and you win this game, that allows for the. Oh, the Clippers are starting to figure things out. Or Kawhi is having a healthy stretch and, you know, he might miss 50 games this season, but you caught him on the, you know, two week stretch where he's, you know, MVP Kawhi and he, he beats you himself. Okay, if that happens, that happens, right? If you lose to another team, you play, you play well and you lose. All right, fine, go. You watch film, you figure out what, what do you do? Like, how do you fix what you need to fix and you move on, right? You play well and you lose. You can deal with that because sometimes the other team is just better. When you play like crap and you lose or you make stupid mistakes and you lose, where two guys who've won a championship together are suddenly not on the same page and kind of like sniping at one another on the court. When you lose like that now you're like, man, this, this, this is not fun. This is actually frustrating. I'm actually like a little upset by this because of the way it went. And these guys have proven that they're better than this. So, you know, it's a compliment. It is a compliment. Where, yeah, you guys, you guys have set the expectation, right? Jalen Brown, Derek, all these guys, you've set the expectation that you win games. They're 19 and 12 now. 19 and 12, they're in a good spot. They're on a 50 something win pace. That's. I expect better. I just expect better. But when I come back, part of why they couldn't get to better is, is because of these wings. This is an interesting thing. And then the ultimate wing in Celtics history, Larry Bird has company. Jaylen Brown. We'll talk about that when we come back. 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 2 right in the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple card owners subject to eligibility. Savings and Apple card by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch Member FDIC terms and [e-mail] Guys, thanks for.

[Podcast Co-host/Advertiser Voice]

Helping me carry my Christmas tree.

[John Corrales]

Zoe. This thing weighs a ton. Drewy, live with your legs, man. Santa.

[Podcast Co-host/Advertiser Voice]

Santa, did you get my letter?

[John Corrales]

He's talking to you, Bridges. I'm not.

[Podcast Co-host/Advertiser Voice]

Of course he did.

[John Corrales]

Right, Santa, you know my elf Drewski here, he handles the nice list. And elf, I'm six' three. 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.

[John Corrales]

Or give it as a gift.

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Visit t mobile.com thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Go check out Lockdown NBA game night. It's on the Lockdown NBA feed. Two podcasts on that feed. Lockdown NBA drops in the afternoons. Covers all the big stories in the league. Game night covers every game, every night, seven nights a week. I'm actually going to do the Tuesday show. The Tuesday show? Yeah, because I normally do Wednesdays with Jake. I'm doing the Tuesday show because the Celtics plan Tuesday night so I can't do the Wednesday show. Either way, check me out on Lockdown NBA game night. Would love to have you there as we cover the entire league. Wherever you found this podcast, that's so that's where you find that podcast. So one of the the reasons why the Celtics margin for error is, you know, thin is just because of the team makeup and this kind of revolving wing rotation is an interesting kind of side note to how this, how, how this game is going. How this, these recent stretches, this recent stretch of games has gone. Josh Minot, where you been? All of a sudden he's two DNPs. Did not play. Coach's decision. Josh Minot. We just did a show a month and a half ago about is Josh. My not going to end up being too expensive to keep. Now he's getting DNPs. What? Jordan Walsh gets into foul trouble early again. Fouls too much, plays less than 10 minutes. Hugo Gonzalez comes in, he gets 30 minutes and he's great. Like he's been really good. But he's also still 19. He's still learning the NBA. I am so high on, on Gonzalez, but also this is a guy who didn't play much in the last game. This is, this is or two, two games ago. He's still, he's still a 19 year old rookie learning the NBA. That's not always like his maturity and all of that stuff but like that's, that's always going to be a, a risk. You're going to have moments where he makes a bad decision because he's, you know, night. A mature 19 year old is still a 19 year old. So I don't know what's going on with Josh. It was funny because Jalen was talking about the Celtics University concept. Like this season is Celtics University and they're, you know, they're learning a lot of stuff and all there's, there's been stuff written about it. Quotes are out there that Jalen and Joe see it at Celtics University and they're trying to figure out how to learn certain things in certain amounts of time and so on and so forth. And so Jalen was saying, yeah, sometimes you gotta, you know, talk to people and kind of wake them up like. And he said, wake up Josh, like joking. But I was like, why, why did you say Josh? Because Josh seems to, his role seems to be diminishing here. So kind of interesting that you said Josh to me. I don't know what's going on with Minot, but I know that the shot seems to have gone away a little bit. The, the magic, the defense, all of that stuff has seemed to, seems to have gone away a little bit. Not sure why the Jordan Walsh thing is coming back down to earth a little bit. And so now it's Ugo's turn. But in these stretches where the Celtics have won, it's been a lot of Jordan getting, you know, making plays, getting out there making plays. But like I said, remember when I said on the podcast that it'd be. I think this was a mailbag from two, three weeks ago where I said, jordan needs to work with Sam Cassell and Derek White and Peyton Pritchard so we can learn some point guard skills when he. When he gets a steal and is out leading the break. How do you. How do you run a three on one, a three on two? What tricks are there? You know, learn that stuff. And that one of his three fouls, an offensive foul, it was a three on one, I believe. And instead of giving it up to Jaylen Brown, he's driving down the lane, right. Jalen is on his right side and the spacing is not great. Derek is further up. So they're running a three on one, and it's in a very thin area of the floor. So a point guard in that moment would be like, okay, I have to bring the defender out with me. I have to go from that slot area further out to the wing so I can. Now, now this guy has to make a decision. At that point. He could guard three guys at once. Because even if the. The pass was made to Jalen, the defender just had to just do this slide over a little bit and he would get to it. Wouldn't take a lot of effort. So. So a point guard, a guy who learned point guard skills, would say, I have to create the space by moving over. And if you're not coming with me, then now I know I've got an opening for myself and I can attack. And then maybe there's a dump off there, but that would also inform the other guy to kind of hang back because now I have a one on one opportunity, and so I might need a dump off or there's an offensive rebound opportunity. And these point guards are doing everything I just said in like half a second. But instead of. Instead of giving it to Jalen Brown and then him going out or him doing that, he just keeps it and he tries to make a move and it's an offensive foul. So that kind of stuff is happening. So Jordan is not getting the same playing time, he's not getting the same opportunity, and he's not making the most of those opportunities. So the players, the types of. The types of performances the Celtics are getting aren't quite the. The, like, the magical type of performances that they've been getting. So it's. It's a. It's an interesting kind of, you know, is this a turning point? Is this more isolated? It's now 31 games and we're, we're inching very close to the halfway point of the season. We're getting to now first. This is the longest road trip of the season. This is the first extended. You're flying across the country, lots of time, zone changes. You're playing at a time it doesn't feel like that time and you know, it's all screwed up. And now you're going from Portland to Utah. That's not the easiest flight. It's, you know, you get, you get. I'm sorry, I'm getting distracted by a noise, an altitude change. So there's, there's a lot of things that are happening on this road trip that there, that are happening for the first time. So I'm very curious to see how these guys are going to react and push through. You need Jordan Walsh, you need Josh Minot, you need Hugo Gonzalez, you need them to be whenever, whatever minutes they get, they have to be really good minutes because the Celtics aren't going to be able to shoot their way out of everything all the time. And if you have a night where Jalen and Derek are having brain farts, then who's going to step up and save them like that? Somebody. Somebody has to do that. And so these moments here are. I'm very curious to see how they progress. Now, Brown did make some history and he didn't want to talk about it after the game, but it's his ninth straight 30 point game. He matches Larry Bird for most consecutive 30 point games in. In Celtics history. It's not just that, it's. He, he's had what, that's nine straight. So 11 of his last 12 have been 30 point games. His. I have it right here. He has, he had 37 in this game. It's 12 out of 13, his 18th 30 point game of the season. So that's twice what he had last year. Last year he had nine. This year he's at 18. And his best most 30 point games in the season was 22. And he did that in the 22, 23 season. So we're 31 games in and he's already got eight. He needs three more to match his career best in 30 point games in a season. I would expect for that to happen at some point. And Jalen is getting very, very close to averaging 30 points a game. Like averaging 30 points. He's averaging 29.7, which I don't know where that puts him in the league. Actually. Let's, let's take a quick ride over to the the leaders and see 29.7 puts. Well, see the. That would put him sixth. Kind of depends. ESPN did not update their st. But so Luke is averaging 33.7 and so Jalen is three points, four points behind him. So he's right there. He's one of the top. This is an updated so 5, 6, 7 scorers in the league. It's incredible. That's incredible. So he's going to. He's going to certainly pass his total. He'll probably. Who knows what he's going to get to. We're at 30 games, 31 games. He's missed one. Right. And so to already have 18 more than half. So what's he going to have this year? 30 something, 40 games where he. He has 30 points. That would be incredible. So shout out to Jalen, who's having an absolute monster season. I, I don't see how. I don't see how he doesn't make an all NBA team at this point, like already. And look, the dude got his chance to be the number one guy and he's killing it. He's putting his name next to Larry Bird. The. The proof is right there, man. Like, no matter what anybody has said, no matter what I have said or anything like that, every time he gets an opportunity, he makes the most of it. Even in a game where he didn't have the best finish. Okay, that happens. Happens to everybody. I'm, you know, I continue to be really impressed by Jalen Brown and what he's been able to accomplish, so kudos to him. Congrats to him. Whenever you write your name next to Larry Bird in the Celtics history, in the Celtics record book, you're good. Not many people get to do that, especially with something so sustained. And Larry Bird did that during an MVP season. So I, I don't know if, If Jalen's gonna get an mvp, but you know what? You start the season out saying, oh, he deserves consideration. Now you get to the. Well, he's got to be in the conversation. I, I think obviously Jokic. I think Jokic is the best player in the league. So he's probably like, right now, I would vote for him as my mvp. But you look at these guys, it's like Luca, Yeah, Luca can get votes. He'll. He'll obviously get votes. But the Lakers are a little bit disappointing right now. Sga. Sure. But he won it last year. He's going to win it again. I don't know. You got Maxi Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson. I put Jalen above All of those guys. As far as MVP goes, Maxi has a case because of how good he's been. And you know, the, the Sixers have like some, you know, they've made some noise because, because of him, but the Celtics have made a lot of noise and third in the east because of Jalen. Like, Jalen's been the guy. So I would probably, I would probably have Jalen third in MVP voting right now, which would be incredible. Who knows how the season goes, but shout out to Jalen for having incredible, just incredible start to the season. So once again, frustrating loss. A lot of things go wrong and okay, they're going to learn from it. It's not like I'm not, like, crying over the loss, but it's still frustrating. It's still frustrating and it should be frustrating. And I'll repeat myself. It's a compliment to tell the Celtics that a loss like this is frustrating because that means I expect them to win. So that's. That's on them. You. You've created this expectation. I am living. I'm. I'm holding you to that. So see if they can figure it out in Utah. Another tough one, man. It's. It's going to be tough, so they're gonna have to play hard. They're gonna have a lot of the same issues, so we'll see how it goes. But I'll be here. I'll have a post game pod for that. We got podcasts all week. They. They play on Friday. Is that right? They play Utah Tuesday. They play Sacramento Thursday. So, no, they don't play Friday. They play the, The Clippers on Saturday. Saturday's a 10:30 game. So I, I'm actually probably just gonna wait and do the podcast on Sunday and just make that the Monday show. And because that's. By the time I go to bed, it's going to be Sunday anyway, so. I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. You'll have all the podcasts you want. All the podcasts you need. There's plenty. The weekend after God, they play on Friday and Saturday at home. I'll have podcasts after that for sure. So just tons and tons of podcasts are all free. If you want to pay five bucks a month for the everydayer club, you get ad free audio, so you can do that. Lockdown Celtics supercast.com check that out and I would love it if you shared the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It's your team every day, Calling all sightseers and selfie takers. Welcome to Texas, where a day at our hiking trails will lead to a lifetime of memories and family road trips become family legends where thrill seekers make a splash into spring fed pools and picky eaters will clean their plates. 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