
Boston Celtics rally past Miami Heat as Anfernee Simons makes history off the bench—should Jayson Tatum take notes on late-game decision making? John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal breaks down the Celtics’ wild 119-114 comeback, spotlighting Anfernee Simons’ record-setting 39 points and the clutch fourth-quarter adjustments that saved Boston after a disastrous start. Key discussions include Jaylen Brown’s bounce-back third quarter, Derrick White’s defensive impact despite a cold shooting night, and how Joe Mazzulla’s rotation choices shaped the rally. The episode also explores the bench’s critical second-chance points, Payton Pritchard’s struggles, and why Tatum’s willingness to let hot teammates cook could be pivotal for Boston’s championship hopes. Is Simons too valuable to move at the trade deadline? Can the Celtics sustain this new offensive rhythm as they chase the No. 1 seed? Don’t miss Karalis’s expert insights into Boston’s evolving identity and what this showdown reveals...
Loading summary
A
Foreign podcast network your team every day. This is Jake from Lock Dawn. When the game's on the line, the best know when to pass because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T Mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits plan features in Texas and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. Anthony Simon saves the Celtics by making history and why Jason Tatum should be paying very close attention to what happened in that fourth quarter. Right now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast, it's locked on Celtics pod, home of the winners. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics PO 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 the weekends they've got a Saturday night game in Atlanta. I will be at State Farm arena giving you a podcast from State Farm arena. Hopefully somewhere. So make sure you subscribe where you get your podcast. Watch the show on YouTube. Enjoy it. Have some fun with me. I'm John Corrales, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I have been doing this podcast for 10 years. I've been covering the team for 20 and I've written a couple books about the team as well. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. It's Friday night, so open up the FanDuel app at 6pm Eastern from 6 to 7:30. You get NBA Happy hour with a bunch of specials dropping. So make sure you do that on the FanDuel app. All right. Boston Celtics beat the Miami heat beat by five, which is surprising to me. A 119, 114 win because the way this game started. Oh awful, awful. If you missed it, just, just watch the last 10 minutes or watch whenever Anthony Simons was in later on. I'll tell you why Jayson Tatum should be paying very close attention to how the fourth quarter went. We'll get into individual performances. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Peyton Pritchard, a variety of different individual performances. They're not the only ones I'll get to. But we'll start with the story of the game, which is the just God awful beginning. Anthony Simons making history and second chance points. Those were the things that saved the Celtics. The. The Celtics fell behind by 19. That first quarter was, I mean, just. I can't even begin to accurately describe it without violating a bunch of rules and making you probably swerve off the road. It's just if I. The joke would be for me to start talking and bleeping out all of the things be one long tone of all the things of. To describe how bad the Celtics looked, which is surprising to me. I guess it shouldn't be because it's two nights in Miami that Miami flu is a real thing. I would not be surprised if the Celtics found their way to a good time last night. And hey, that's. That's how it goes right this. They would not be the first team, they would not be the last. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I don't know. I wasn't there, so I don't know. But it sure looked like it. It sure looked like they were out. It sure looked like they came in the not feeling right. Not. Not looking like themselves because they turned the ball over like crazy. They couldn't hit shots. Jaylen Brown looked like he was still asleep. It was. It was awful. So the Celtics fell behind by 19. And then Anthony Simons comes in this. This wasn't just, oh, wow, Anthony got hot. 18 point, fourth quarter, which is what he had. It was a 39 point game where every time he checked in, he was bailing the Celtics out. It really was like, first quarter, he comes in. Celtics were down 19. Cut it eventually down to 11. Celtics fall behind a little bit more. Get it down to 10 at halftime. Celtics get down a little bit in the third quarter. It goes up to like 15 or 16 or whatever. It. Here comes Anthony, let's get it back down to 10. It was very much like a dad just helping a kid ride a bike or learn how to ice skate or something, where the Celtics were just wobbly and falling over themselves. And Simons have to come in like, no, no, no, we're just going to prop you up a little bit. And then at the end he was just like, you know what? We're just going To I'm just going to do this. Or maybe it's more like a science project where the whole thing which is, oh, we're going to make a solar system and we're not going to argue about whether Pluto is or isn't a planet. We're going to just do this. Oh, you dropped that. Okay, no problem. I'm going to help you put this. And then at the end it's like, you know what? I'm done. This thing is due tomorrow. I'm going to put this thing together. We're just going to put your name on it. You're going to get an A. Thank you. Goodbye. That's kind of how, that's my analogy for this game. Anthony just did everything. He got super hot in this game. He was, let's see what he shoot from 3. 7 of 16. So 13 of 28 overall, the 39 points is the most scored by a Celtic off the bench in history. So that, that's obviously anytime you can do something historic for the Celtics, that was that, that really great. So Simons comes in and you know, six of six from the line. He had, you know, a couple free throws at the end to, to ice the game. Four rebounds, four assists. And here's the thing with, with Simons, Joe Missoula is so great with this because you literally, this was an offensive explosion. He, he helped the Celtics, he saved them. This was absolutely. Without Anthony Simons, this would have been, honestly, it might have been a 40 point loss. This was. They had no answers from Bam out of bio early on. Bam was just destroying the Mishkeda. Then Garza came in. He was destroying Garza and I was like, can we maybe try Jordan Walsh on him? Can you try somebody else on him and just maybe prevent him from getting off the dribble and destroying you? They had no answers. But for Norm Powell, they, they just couldn't. It was, it was terrible. So without Simons, they would have lost by who knows how much. It would have been over at halftime. But Joe Missoula is like, hey, yeah, the, the scoring is great, but his defense, oh, his defense, you know, he had a steal. He had that steal was so great. And you know, the rebounding was, you know, in traffic and that was so good and blah, blah, blah. Like Joe Missoula absolutely refuses to credit to, to, to praise Anthony Simons without mentioning the defense. And he does the same thing with Sam Houser actually. He, he just will not let anybody be one sided on, on, you know, in their assessment of Simons and He does have a bit of a point. Like Simons has improved his, his defense and, and has been, you know, has been less of a one dimensional player than he has in the past. So. But Simons was just incredible and, and was like the main reason why the Celtics were able to, to stay in this game. But also. Not just the only reason though, the main reason, but not the only reason. Celtics 31, seven in second chance points. And honestly I didn't go back and total them up, but a lot of Simon's shots were second chances. Like the reason why the Celtics were up to 31 on their second chance points. There were 10 of 15 on second chance opportunities because Simons was, was hitting a lot of these shots. Like Simon's got a bunch of second chances and I think ultimately the, the efforts by Jordan Walsh, by Luca Garza, Ugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheiman got in there for an offensive rebound. Yet everybody except for, everybody except for Anthony Simons had an at least one offensive rebound. Those second chances were critical, critical, critical to the Celtics because some you don't get a lot of those opportunities. Anthony simons doesn't get 28 shots. If the, the second chances weren't there and the Celtics don't win that margin, right? They had 91 shots overall. You have four more shots to make. Two more than the Miami Heat. They were 41 of 91. The Heat were 39 of 87. The Celtics 13 of 39 from three. Miami 15 of 42. Now their, their shooting early really looked like it was going to destroy the Celtics. First quarter was 6 of 12 for Miami. And if it wasn't for Simons coming in for that, you know, 11 points. Like look at the first quarter. Jalen Brown one of four, three points. Sam Houser had the first four points like he had. It was a 43 lead for the Celtics. Funny, Hauser was responsible for both leads. He had the two points, the two baskets to make it four, three. And then he hit the three pointer on a pass from Simons which you know, when I, when we come back, we'll talk about like the, the gravity of Simons before we get to the individual performances. Because it was the gravity of Simons that allowed Sam to hit that, that three pointer to take the lead. But the Celtics got kind of nothing in, in that first quarter from their starters. But it was 11 points from Simons, five from Luca Garza. That gravity was, was great and it made Miami do something that I, I didn't expect them to do and they maybe shouldn't have Done. But they had no choice. We'll talk about that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by DoorDash. The the season is heating up. We're about halfway through it. Door Dash has a way to keep fans in their bag the whole way through. Whether you're watching the highlights, the tunnel fits, or just your favorite player. DoorDash makes the entire season more fun because every player has their bag. With DoorDash, fans have one too. Door Dash keeps your snacks stocked, your gear fresh, and your watch party vibes absolutely on point. There are nights where your team stresses you out, like the first quarter of this game, and maybe you were Door dashing so you can get some dessert right away to get you through that first game. First half of the game, but then the late night Anthony Simons explosion hits, and suddenly you need some chips. Well, DoorDash is built exactly for that. And if the group chat says pull up DoorDash, make sure you show up prepared. You can get snacks. You can get a phone charger for the friend that's always asking to borrow yours from tip off to overtime. Stay in your bag and order on Door Dash. Get snacks, drinks, gear, whatever gets you through the season delivered right to your door. DoorDash in your bag all season long.
B
So everyone's deploying AI agents now, right? They're automating tasks, handling workflows, and making decisions. But here's the thing. Sometimes they mess up. They delete the wrong files, make changes you didn't authorize, or just go off script.
A
And.
B
And when that happens, you're stuck trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Unless you're using Rubrik Agent Cloud. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that allows you to monitor, govern, and rewind AI agents. One platform to help you unleash more agents faster without the risk it's running in the background the whole time, watching what's happening, making sure things stay on track. You get full visibility. You can set guardrails so agents don't go rogue. And if something breaks, you just roll it back like Undo, but for AI and the rewind happens fast. We're talking minutes, not hours or days. Rubrik Agent Cloud gives you that safety net when you're experimenting with AI so one mistake doesn't tank your whole operation. Companies like hospitals and banks are using Rubrik Agent Cloud because they can't afford to have AI agents making mistakes with sensitive data. It's the only way to get real control without slowing down innovation. If your business relies On AI agents you need the ability to monitor, govern and rewind their actions. Right now my listeners get exclusive early access to Rubrik agent cloud head to rubrik.com that's R U B R I K.com rubric.com thank you for making Lockdown.
A
Celtics your first listen every day and the number one Celtics podcast in the world, in the universe, in the known whatever. I don't know what else to say but I will say that the lockdown podcast networks number one sports podcast network around as well and that's because of you, the everydayer. I would love you had love to have you join the Everydayers club. You get ad free audio, you get access to our Discord server where there's in game chats, there's merchandise drops, there's a whole lot happening on the Everydayers club. So check that out. Lockdown Celtics supercast.com Lockdown celtics.supercast.com Five bucks a month or 50 bucks for the year. You get a couple months free. So go check that out. All right, let's get back to the conversation. You know what made Simons so effective and especially in the stretch in that fourth quarter was how Miami kind of had no choice but to sell out and try to blitz him, try to attack him. Now Simons had 18 points in the fourth quarter but he had two assists and there may be another hockey assist or two in there as well because they were blitzing him and by blitzing him all of a sudden now Simons is giving the ball up and you have Hauser, Jalen Brown, Derek White all on the floor. So you're asking sign, you're asking your defense to go into rotation and to have to now run around where Jayla Brown has the ball, Hauser has the ball open for a shot. He like one of the assists. I know there's one hockey assist in there because it was the swing to Hauser who swung it over to Jalen Brown for a three pointer in that fourth quarter. So that's at least one that I remember. The, the blitzing was necessary but also it put them in an impossible spot because now Boston's best shooter is wide open and their best player is wide open and their best fourth quarter player is wide open and they were able to take advantage of that. Fouls just moving the ball, finishing it was, it was all because Simons was just on fire and Miami had no choice but to sell out. So good, good for, good for Simons for like what? Just at this point I'm, I'm, I'm Leaning heavily towards the don't trade him camp. I don't know what's going to happen at the deadline. We're less than three weeks from the deadline. It's February 5th. I don't know what kind of move is out there, but do not trade Anthony Simons just to trade him. Do not dump him for salary, do not dump him for cash, tax relief, none of that stuff. You're here, you're in it. Let this guy, let this guy cook. And, and I hope that he can be this comfortable in the six man role forever and can learn how to play with Jason Tatum and all of that. So I'm excited for the potential here. I think, I think the Celtics might have actually stumbled onto something if they can get them at the right price. There's the potential for him to be, like, really, really important. All right, so Jalen, as we move into individual performances. Jalen Brown's first half was just, I mean, I, I, I'm not even gonna harp on it. It was bad. It was, it was just bad. He had four turnovers in the first half and he had five. So he had one in the second half, none in the fourth quarter. The Celtics didn't turn it over at all in the fourth quarter. So nice recovery for Boston, who had 13 turnovers for 18 Miami points. Cleaning that up at the end was important and a big part of why they were able to, to make this comeback. Hey, a clutch win, by the way. Clutch win for the Boston Celtics. That important to get those clutch wins and, and win this thing kind of going away. The no turnovers thing was huge. Jalen, he said it after the game. I was a little sluggish, a step slow. You know, there. You can't lie, can't hide it. He was, and I don't know why, he didn't say why, but I will give him the credit of the third quarter. He was, he had 15 points, 4 of 10 shooting. Got to the line seven times. All seven. Made all seven free throws. There's all the free throws the Celtics took in the third quarter. That was a big, that was a big thing because the, the Heat were able to build their lead up again to 15. And the Celtics got it back down to 10. Heading into the fourth quarter, it was, you know, up 19, back to 11, up 14, up 16, back to 10, up 15, back to 10. This the Celtics to their credit were. They never let it get away from them almost. It was this close in the first quarter, but they didn't let it get away from them, which Is important. So Jalen's third quarter was great. Now I'm going to get to his fourth quarter. In the next segment, a little bit of a tease. Derrick White did not have the best game of his life as far as shooting. Only took seven shots, only had eight points, no three pointers. His streak of 77 games, by far the longest streak in Celtics history. 77 games with a made three pointer. That streak came to an end in this game. So offensively you're like eh, eight points, but five of six, five assists, six rebounds, two block shots. One of them on Norm Powell late in the game. A big block there. He did enough of the other things that he ended up being a big positive. Like the starters were bad, right? Jaylen was a minus 10. They won this game by five. Jalen was a minus 10. Hower was plus one. K was minus one. Pritchard was minus 20. Just side note, tough one for Pritchard, right? This was. But Joe did the right thing and sat him the whole fourth quarter. Simons had it going and he just said, you know what, Peyton, you're just, you're gonna have to sit this one out. And Peyton will bounce back. Like I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in Atlanta and in Detroit. I will be there for both of those games. So. But Pritchard just, He did have eight assists, but it was a minus 20. They won by five and he was a minus 20. But Derek, numbers don't scream out at you, but he was a plus 12. A plus 12. You had Ugo. Gonzalez is a plus 19. Ugo just comes in there and makes positive things happen. Anthony Simons plus 18 and then Derrick White plus 12. So D. White finds his way to, to making a positive impact again. Luca Garza was, was big, I thought. Luca, you know, he did what he does, right? He goes in, he sets, picks and he frees guys up and he forces the defense to adjust. And then he gets down there and finishes. He's not going to finish many lobs or anything like that, but he gets there and gets the layups or he puts himself in position because he, his screens force the defense in, you know, to make decisions. And sometimes you're not making the right decisions and two guys go to one and there's. There's a little bit of chaos. And he is great at like navigating the chaos. And like, you know what, I'm just going to slide down here and somebody's going to take the shot and I'm just going to be here for the Tip in. And when you know Luca Garza's on the floor, if you're Derrick White or Peyton Pritchard or Jalen Brown, you can just say, you know what? I'm just going to take this shot. I'm going to take this shot, and it's going to be tough, but I know these two guys are on me. If I take this shot, maybe a couple of these guys challenge it. I got. I got Luca Garza down there. He's going to clean this up. It's almost like the Kobe assist where, like, yeah, I'm going to take the shot, I'm going to miss, and he's going to clean it up, and we're going to. We're going to be fine. There's this kind of, like, mental thing where I know I've got the best offensive rebounder around here. I'm just going to put it up on the rim and see if it's. If it's a tough shot that goes in, it goes in. But if it doesn't, the defense is overreacted to me taking the shot, and I got my guy down there. That's going to clean it up and we're going to be fine. So that. That's kind of like a little underrated impact that Garza has out there. So the bench was obviously phenomenal. The bench points are going to be a little out of whack because of Simons having 39. But even without Simons, what's that? 17 points to, like, the. The. He had 15, 21. So even without Simons, it was 21 to 17, which is fine. Like, I'd never expect the Celtics bench to outscore anybody. But then Simons, you throw. Oh, by the way, Simons had 39, and the bench numbers just go crazy. But great job by the bench. And. And with Miami being shorthanded the bench, I knew the bench needed to step up, and they did. And you make up for a tough night for Peyton Pritchard. So. Okay, Jason Tatum, were you paying attention to what happened in the fourth quarter? I'll tell you why it was important when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Fridays are already different here during basketball season, and FanDuel is making them even better. Every Friday night before the game tips off, FanDuel is giving you a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. This is the Friday show. So Friday night at 6pm Eastern time, open up the FanDuel app and you're going to get to NBA Happy Hour, which gives you all sorts of boosts, bonuses, surprises, you never know what you're going to get over there. So you open up the FanDuel app at 6pm Eastern. You got about an hour and a half to kind of cruise through and figure out, really think about it because the boost, the bonuses, the surprises, you never know what is going to give you your best chance at maybe getting a nice little payout on that night. So gives you just a little extra energy on Friday nights without overthinking it. So before tip off 6:36 to 7:30pm Eastern, check out what's dropping at NBA Happy Hour. Now you're also going to get the prompt on the FanDuel app to set your limit, set your budget. Please do that. Whatever you would normally spend on a night out, right? That that's your disposable income. That's what you can afford to lose. So just think of it as spending it on your night out. If you hit a cold streak, if you were Jaylen Brown in the first half of this game, then hey, FanDuel will read it, stop it and say, okay, you're cut off, you're gambling responsibly. Come back next time when you've replenished your funds and we'll try it again. Not a big deal. So make sure you're gambling responsibly and then check out NBA Happy hour only on FanDuel, the official sportsbook partner of the NBA. With Sylvania, seeing better while driving at night starts with you because headlight bulbs dim over time and can lose up to 50ft of visibility before burnout. That's why you shouldn't wait. Upgrade your drive with brighter lights for better visibility on the road ahead. Sylvania's step by step installation video guides make it easier than ever to take control of your nighttime clarity, all without a trip to the mechanic. So before a burnout darkens your day, upgrade to Sylvania and see better tonight. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics the first listen. Your first listen. Every day check out Lockdown NBA and Lockdown NBA Game night, two shows on the same feed. I do game night on Wednesdays with Jake Madison. We're covering every game in the league that night. So that's a seven day a week podcast, all the games, everything you need to know. And then the afternoons, they cover all the big storylines. So you have the nitty gritty, you have the big picture stuff, all of it all in one feed. So check it out. So I think that Jason Tatum, I mean he was There he was watching it. I think, I think this is an important kind of thing for Tatum to pay attention to in this game. Because in the fourth quarter, Jalen Brown checked back in. He had tough first half. He had the big third quarter. Simons is going off. And I think it's important that Jalen didn't try to force anything in this fourth quarter. He didn't try to big time Simons. They didn't say, I'm the guy, it's my turn. Set picks for me, give me the Tyler Hero matchup and let me cook. No, in fact, he played off the ball. He set up in the corner. He was two passes away. He came up on a one. There was one play in particular where Jalen had the ball on the right side and I forget who is who his matchup was, but he looked and he saw that hero was already matched up on Simons. So Jaylen was just like, here you go, boop, little drop off and I'm going to get out of your way. Really important for him to do that. And, you know, after the game he was asked about it and he, you know, the question was like, you know, how. How was it? Basically, how was it kind of giving up, you know, taking. Taking a step back and letting somebody else cook, which he did. I forget what game it was. Where was it the Knicks, where Jalen let Jordan Walsh kind of cook and they ended up winning that game. And Jalen says, I've done it my whole career. I've played alongside Jason Tatum. So, you know, that's nothing new, which I couldn't tell. Was there some shade in there? I don't know, it's hard to say. But he's right. He plays. Been playing next to Jason Tatum his whole career and it's just like, okay, I gotta step aside and let. Let somebody else cook. But to do it when you are the number one option, this is what Jason should be watching. Because Jalen has earned plenty, plenty of opportunity to go cook in that situation. To be like, okay, this was Great, you've scored 30. I'm going to close this out. That's what superstars do. I'm going to close this out now. And for him to set the picks and to give up the matchup and to, you know, set up in a corner and space the floor, Jason's going to have to do that. Jason. I hope that Jason is in that frame of mind where he understands, like, hey, if Jalen is the one that's cooking like this, if Jalen's the one that's that's got it going and is shooting 50% from the field and I'm the one that's shooting 30 something percent. Even though Jason has earned all the confidence in the world and you know, you don't stop shooting because the next one's the one that's going to go in, in that situation. If Jalen's the one that's cooking, if Jalen's the one that's got going on like Anthony Simons and Jason is in that Jalen role from, from this game, like Jason is going to have to be the one. So you know what? I will set the picks for you. I have Tyler hero on me. Instead of just being like, I'm going to cook, give me the ball. I've got the matchup. He needs to be like, you know what, Jason? Jalen. You know what, Jalen, I'm going to give you this matchup. You've had it going all night long. I am going to step aside and let you finish this job that you started. Jason's going to have to do that because I don't think he's. He's always been willing to do that. And I think now the season that Jalen has had, it's important that this, this dynamic is what happens moving forward. So to me, I'm hoping that Jason looked at this situation, looked at how Jalen was handling the situation and when that comes up, whenever, if it's later this season or next season or whatever, I hope that Jason kind of is like, yeah, you know what? I am, I'm willing to. I'll go, I'll go set up in the corner and you know, maybe, maybe Jalen gets double teamed and somebody sets a pin down for Jason and he comes up and catches the ball in the move and he gets the score anyway. But letting Jalen be the primary guy more often now, now that, now that Jason's been out, now that Jalen has earned it, now that we see exactly all of the stuff Jalen is capable of, I want to see a little bit more even distribution based on how the game is going. I want to see a little bit more kind of like free flowing. No problem. We're going to. We're going to go this way. We're going to go. This is the jail and finish episode. So that's, that's what I hope that Jason takes away from this. Celtics come out of this with a. An incredible win, outscoring Miami 15 points in the fourth quarter, all thanks to Anthony Simons. And now the Celtics are in second place again. They wow, look at this. The okay, the Detroit Pistons won the Knicks play tonight. No, they, no, they're just. The knicks have lost two in a row and now the Celtics are 25 and 15. So there they are four and a half games behind Detroit. They've got a game against Detroit coming up on Monday, MLK Day, so that's going to be a fun one. The Celtics, even with a little bit of a swoon, six and four in their last 10, coming off three and three losses in four games, they're still right there. So great stuff. I will be in Atlanta on Saturday, so if you're in Atlanta, come say hi. But next podcast will be from Atlanta after the Celtics Hawks game and then the podcast after that will be from Detroit's two podcasts from Detroit and back on the schedule. So it's a Monday through Friday show with bonus podcasts when they play on weekends. Shows free. It's available everywhere. If you want to pay five bucks a month to get it ad free. Join the everydayers club@lockdownceltics.super cast.com and then now I would love for you to share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Here in the Lockdown Podcast Network, it's your team every day. Locked On.
B
Listeners asked for more and now you can get it with the Everydayer club. For just $5 a month, you'll get every episode ad free, plus access to our members only discord exclusive audio from Locked On Sports today and other perks you won't find anywhere else. If you never miss a show, this is the next step. Join the Everydayer club today@lockedonpodcast.com everydayerclub or visit the link in the show notes. That's lockedonpodcast.com everydayerclub part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day.
Episode Title: HISTORY: Celtics' Anfernee Simons RESCUES Boston in Miami—Why Jayson Tatum Needs to Pay Attention
Host: John Karalis (Boston Sports Journal)
Date: January 16, 2026
John Karalis breaks down the Boston Celtics' 119-114 come-from-behind victory over the Miami Heat, focusing on a historic performance by Anfernee Simons, the team’s struggles and subsequent resilience, and why Jayson Tatum should be watching lessons from this game, especially concerning team dynamics in crunch time.
Celtics fell behind by 19 points in the first quarter as turnovers and poor shooting plagued the starters.
Karalis jokes about the notorious "Miami flu," implying the team may not have been at their best physically or mentally after a night in Miami.
“That first quarter was, I mean, just. I can't even begin to accurately describe it without violating a bunch of rules and making you probably swerve off the road.” (05:10)
Jalen Brown looked sluggish:
“Jaylen Brown looked like he was still asleep. It was awful.” (06:04)
Simons scored 39 points off the bench, a franchise record for the Celtics.
He also tallied 18 points in the fourth quarter alone, repeatedly rescuing the Celtics from double-digit deficits.
Simons’ shooting:
Joe Mazzulla’s comments: Always credits Simons’ defense and all-around effort, not just offense.
Karalis underscores a key lesson for Tatum: when another Celtic (like Simons or sometimes Brown) is “hot” late, the star doesn’t need to force the offense or reclaim the moment for himself.
Big Picture: The Celtics have more pathways to win—superstars must recognize and empower whoever is cooking, rather than defaulting to old habits.
This was a night about resilience and team gravity, Anfernee Simons’ historic offensive outburst, and the recognition that the Celtics’ path to success involves adaptability—not just stars taking over, but everyone, including Tatum and Brown, reading the moment and making the right play. Karalis emphasizes the importance of learning from games like this to build a team prepared for deep playoff runs and tough situations, where sharing the spotlight might be the smartest path forward.