
Boston Celtics survive double overtime thriller as rookies Hugo Gonzalez and Amari Williams deliver game-saving heroics against the Brooklyn Nets. Can Joe Mazzulla’s clutch timeout management and the Celtics’ resilience power them through an exhausting schedule? Celtics On SI's John Karalis breaks down the wild swings of the Celtics-Nets showdown, featuring Payton Pritchard’s hot shooting, Sam Hauser’s early surge, and Jaylen Brown’s triple-double despite hamstring tightness. Key topics include the rookies’ impact, missed reads, defensive lapses, and second-chance points nearly costing Boston the game. Discussion covers Mazzulla’s strategic moves, the pressure of upcoming road battles, and the Celtics’ position in the Eastern Conference standings. Will fatigue and injuries derail their momentum, especially with challenges looming against the Chicago Bulls and questions about Brown's health?
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Now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast, the Celtics had it, they lost it and then they got it back again. And the biggest play of this game is not the one that you're thinking of.
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Lock on Celtics pod. Home of the winners, baby.
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Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast network where it is your team every day. Your team's the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday, plus bonus podcasts on the weekends when they play like this one. So subscribe. Watch the show on YouTube and get into the comment section if you're new to the show. I'm John Corrales. I'm a beat writer covering the Celtics for Sports Illustrated on Celtics on SI. I have been covering the team for about 20 years now. I have been doing this podcast for 10 and I've written a couple of books about the team. Today's bonus podcast is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for 20 off your first purchase of tickets. Tickets to anything. Maybe tickets to a Celtics game later on. We'll get into Jalen Brown's triple double. We'll get into Peyton Pritchard and Sam Houser, who Pritchard had a great game. Sam Houser had another really solid game like all around solid game. But this was not a crisp one. We'll talk about like just the flow and why I'm a little worried about tomorrow. It should be obvious about that one. But let's just right at the top, let's get right to it because this was an incredible the highs, the lows. This was just every emotion. If you're invested in the Celtics, this had everything, I mean everything. So it was not a great game. The Celtics didn't look crisp at all. They went back and forth. They started out in a big run, they gave up a big run and it was kind of even. And then at the end of the game it was like, hey, here they go. The Celtics didn't look great, but they're, they're up 10 with three minutes to go. They went on a 13 to three run. Felt good, right put, put a bad team away down the stretch. Just got to finish this off. And they didn't. They, they went on a 133 run and they immediately gave up a 133 run because they couldn't rebound. The last eight points the Nets scored were all second chance points. They were all controllable stuff. They overreacted defensively. They let Claxton go two, three times for put back dunks. It was horrible, terrible, terrible execution. And at that point it was like wow, this team doesn't look great and doesn't look like they deserve to win this game going to overtime. And it was lost. This game was over. But I think The we have two elements here. My first two bullet points. If you're watching on YouTube, the rookies save. And Joe Missoula, who really did. I mean, there may be some questions about his substitutions, but this was like trying to push buttons. The, The. The overtime, the timeout management was incredible, and his decision making on putting Hugo Gonzalez in at the end was incredible. But it all goes hand in hand because the Celtics were down. What is it? Down 4? Down. Down 5. And Luca Garza had filed out. Namish K. Had filed out. Luca played well. Luca played pretty well in this game, but was committing the files. But he was. He was doing a great job, getting down low, finishing off passes, keeping. Keeping possessions alive. Just Luca Garza stuff. Namishkeda was, you know, okay in this game, but he had. He was under the weather, so he was pro. He was battling a lot of that. And he probably statistically could have done a lot better if the Celtics early on had actually used him more. They. They kind of like, there was a lot of. Kind of missed. There were a lot of missed reads. When I say this is not a crisp game, there were a lot of missed reads. There were a lot of transition, bad transition baskets that they allowed. So Keda played better than the two of three. The six points and five rebounds would show. He probably could have had a few more assists than the three that he had and a few more than the six points that he had if they had just found him in a normal short role when the team is doubling, like scout was talking about throughout the game. But I don't know if you remember like a few games ago, like a few weeks ago at this point, maybe a month where Jalen got blissed. I forget what it was off the top of my head. And Nene set a pick, and then it just kind of ran away. And I was like, nene has to be in the short role in that spot. And he just brain fart. And it was a turnover that. That Jalen committed and whatever people got on me about that. But there Nene was in the short role. It's doing exactly what he's supposed to do. And the Celtics missed him. And those are. Those are the things, like when he does things like that. Well, you got to hit him. So anyway, that's a side note. When I say not crisp, that's what happened. So Neemi was, you know, he fouled out, Luca filed out. They go small for a little bit. Then Amari Williams comes in and they run a play with the Celtics down, down five. At the. the end of the overtime, it was. I'm trying to get the play by play. So I get the exact minutes, but this is all convoluted. Sam Houser throws the touchdown pass that gets to Amari, who just immediately flings it over to Peyton Pritchard. And Pritchard hits a three pointer. The Celtics had one time out and. And it was 7.7seconds left. And the. I think a lot of people would have just called the timeout. And they. The Celtics did not. So Pritchard pulls up. Yeah, it was 117, 112 with 7.9 left. Zaire Williams hits two free throws. They don't call a timeout. They had one left. And they execute that play without calling timeout. That. That was the biggest play of this game because it allowed the next big play, which was also, I guess you could say tied for the biggest play of the game because it was the Hugo Gonzalez three that tied it and sent it into second overtime. That doesn't happen without that perfect execution, without calling the timeout. Joe has one timeout left. They don't call it because they know they need two baskets. So they need to execute at least one play without a timeout. So try that one and see. And they did. They knew what play they wanted to call and. And they get it to Amari. He gets it over perfectly. Pritchard hits the. The three pointer. They. The. The Nets call their timeout. Traore, who scalp could just never get that name right. It was just crazy. It was like five minutes of him saying, how do you say that name again? Like somebody write this down phonetically for scalp. I get it. You don't know how to pronounce the name. No problem. Like, how many times you gonna ask before somebody writes it down? Traore. Traore. Trey. Tra. No. Traore went out there and hit the free throw, but missed the second one. And that's when the Celtics called the timeout. So the execution of the first touchdown play allows them to keep the timeout they needed to miss. Free throw. They got it. Then they call a timeout. Then Joe has Amari on the floor. It was Baylor inbounding with Amari on the floor. So that's two Jalen Pritchard and Anthony. And then so Amari comes out Joe at the last, like, split second, sub. Sub. Sub recognizes what they're doing. It's a zone there. And. And Michael Porter Jr. Explained it afterwards. They were kind of like creating an umbrella around the three point line. The sub comes in and it's kind of screws things up. They. The. The Nets start to get confused. They Start going. A few guys are zoning up, a few guys are. A couple of guys are thinking it's man, they run the play. Baylor finds Ugo in the, in the left corner. Boom. Three pointer. Amazing. Like a lot of people had said, I've. I've never seen a guy come in at the last second like just in time and then get the game tying three pointer like that. So that was incredible. And then in the overtime it was Amare again. Amare comes in, gets the. And one beautiful relocation. Reads Peyton Pritchard's drive perfectly. Relocates to give him an outlet. Exactly what a big is supposed to do. Perfect play, gets it, finishes the play. Three point play. And that gives the Celtics a, a four point lead after I think it was a four point lead. Then with like 40 seconds left, the Nets drive. Amari gets a block, keeps it at a four point game. And then by the time they get back down, even If Michael Porter Jr. Had hit that shot, it would have been. I don't think they would have had enough time to win this thing. So Amari gets a huge block shot because that would have cut it to 2 with 40 something seconds left. 40, 30 something seconds left. And that would have been plenty of time. Who knows what, what would have happened at that point. So just incredible. And there's, there was a tip in, in the beginning, at the beginning of the overtime that Gonzalez had like Ugo was just. Every time he was in, he did something positive. When I sit here and I start gushing about Ugo Gonzalez, like this is not going to stop me at all. This is just going to make me say see. See. I'm like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme. Like pointing to see, that's, that's it right there. So ugo was great. 4 of 4, 2 of 2 from 3 at 10 points, 6 re 7 rebounds. Just was in there for. Everything he did was positive in 18 and a half minutes. Amari Williams plays five minutes and they're like the five most impactful minutes. In fact, in five minutes he was a plus seven, which was second only to Jalen. So that was crazy. So. And also shout out Ron Harper for being a plus seven in, in six, almost seven minutes. That was earlier in the game. The rookies came in, made a huge impact. Joe Missoula, timeout management. Remember when he sucked at timeouts? Remember that? So that's, that's how the Celtics won this game. I'm gonna come back. We'll, we'll kind of. This is, this is a bonus podcast. So it's going to be a little bit shorter, two segments. We'll come back and wrap it up with the other guys, Pritchard, Hauser, Jalen Brown, who had big games in their own right in different ways. So that's all coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Game Time. Man, it would have been incredible to be in the building in the Barclays center for that. If you go back and listen to the Ugo Gonzalez three pointer, watch that video again. Think about how many people use the Game Time app to get in there that were Celtics fans because that sounded like the TD Garden and not Barclays Center. I'm sure a lot of those Celtics fans use the Game Time app to get in because it's fast, it's simple and no guesswork. Browsing the app is straightforward, intuitive. The tickets, you just find those in a few taps. You can see the view from your seat right from your phone. 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Maybe those odds. Some fun odds were available at NBA Happy Hour, which would have been on Friday afternoon, Fridays from 6 to 7:30pm Eastern. NBA Happy Hour, which is your official pregame. You got boosts, you got bonuses, you got all kinds of surprises on the app. So open up that FanDuel app, go sign up and check it out every week, every Friday, right before tip off from 6 to 7:30pm Eastern. The timing is perfect right before the weekend starts, so go check it out on the FanDuel app. See what's dropping during NBA Happy Hour every Friday from 6 to 7:30pm Eastern. When you sign up, it'll ask you to set a limit, set a budget. Whatever you would normally spend, whatever you want to spend on a night out, that's what you would probably set as your disposable income. That's your limit. That's your budget. Gamble responsibly. FanDuel wants to help you do that. And if you hit a cold streak, you get cut off. No problem. Come back when you get paid again or whatever and go have some fun on the FanDuel app. Check out NBA Happy Hour at the Official Sportsbook partner of the NBA. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen. Every day. Go check out Lockdown NBA Locked on NBA Game Night, which I host game night on Wednesdays with Jake Madison covering every game seven days a week. We cover the rotating hosts. We cover the NBA over at Lockdown NBA Game night. And thank you for being an everydayer with me every Monday through Friday. Plus these bonus podcasts. If you're with me. If you're an everydayer, love it. If you're not, please become one when you subscribe. And if you want to join the Everydayer Club for five bucks a month, you get ad free audio compatible with all of your podcasting apps. You get access to our Discord server. You get merchandise drops. It's all there. Join the Everydayer Club five bucks a month. Or if you want to pay upfront, 50 bucks a year, you get two months off. So check it out. Lockdown celtics.supercast.com lockdownceltics.supercast.com so this game was basically a, an exercise in just holding on, finding a way to get through the, the tough stretches, the second quarter stretch where the Celtics just sucked, couldn't hit the thing. The fourth quarter, you, you, that, that end of the fourth quarter was just a complete collapse. But doing enough to at least keep it at overtime and doing enough in the overtime. Finding a way. This, this was just hang on until you find a way. And I thought, I honestly thought that hanging on finding a way was like accomplished at the three minute mark, the Celtics. Look, I, I, I've said this. If you're a regular listener, if you are an everydayer, you probably heard me say this at one point during one of these shows. I, I had no high expectation for this because the Celtics have been on this road trip. As I've said, the, the, that home game, I don't care that they played it in Boston. That Is that was a road game at home. They hit the road on Sunday, the 11th, went to Indiana, they had a couple days off before hitting Miami, then Atlanta, then Detroit. Then, okay, yeah, you come home, but you have one day. So it's a road game where you don't stay in a hotel, right? It's a road game where all of your stuff exists, but it's same, same cadence, same everything. Land in Boston, go find your bed, get some sleep, wake up, go. Your shoot around is in a familiar place. Your game is in a familiar place. But then after that game, boom, you're back out the door. So it really was a road game. You travel from Detroit, we're going to Boston, we're going to Brooklyn and Chicago. So this has been a two week long road trip. They, they will get home. Hopefully they get home on Sunday the 25th. And somewhere between Chicago and Boston, there's a path of being able to fly. I'm assuming they're going to fly right after the game Saturday night and try to get here before all the craziness happens with the weather. I don't know. You know, I should look to see where Portland is coming from because I don't know, are they going to be able to get in? I don't know if the weather is supposed to be as bad as they say. Is Monday's game in jeopardy? Well, all right, well, we'll deal with that. I just looked at the schedule. It's first responders night. So are the first responders gonna be. You're gonna be busy with all the mayhem out on the streets. We'll see about that. First things first, I, I didn't have high hopes about this game. I knew it was going to be sloppy. I knew it was going to be kind of gross. The fact that it was almost like lucky that, that, that Neemi got sick because he was under the weather. Amari Williams said after the game that they, they called him up, they called him from Maine. He was at shoot around at Portland in the morning and then got on a plane and flew to New York so he could be with the team at night because Nemi wasn't feeling great and there was a possibility that he wasn't going to play. So Amari was active and good thing he was active. But the whole game was just kind of gross. And so Pritchard, 32 points, four rebounds, three assists. He shot well from the field. 13 of 24. He was 6 of 11, played 40 minutes. He had a stretch early on where he was missing everything, just missing all the layups, that was just kind of terrible. He could have had a bigger game. Although if he had had a better game earlier with the and made all of his laps, maybe they don't go to overtime. Regardless, he was good early and kind of helped the Celtics stay afloat. Sam Houser was great early and helped the Celtics stay afloat. I thought if there was one criticism I had during the game it was that Sam didn't get the ball enough. Like he ended up taking 12 shots and was 5 of 10 from 3. But he, this could have been a 10 three pointer game for him. He, I thought he had it going early and he. They the Celtics kind of missed, when I say missed a lot of reads. Like there was one where Shireman got the ball on the left wing and had an easy swing over to Sam. I was like that, you got to make that pass because Sam's kind of open. And then the next time down, Sam takes a really contested three. And I'm like, I'm not going to say both of those were Baylor's fault because that three, he didn't make Sam take that three. But when you're a shooter and you're open and you're feeling good, you're feeling like, I know if I take this shot, I'm open, I know I'm going to make it. Sam doesn't swing the ball. I mean Baylor doesn't swing the ball. So Sam's like, oh, okay, next time down, Sam gets it and he's like, I'm not even thinking about anything else. I'm shooting and somebody was there and that is Sam's fault. But also the lack of the ball movement and the right reads led to some to that shot. And I think that that leads to broken plays because players just naturally kind of fall into the. I don't know if I'm going to get this ball again. I want to shoot. I feel good. Let me shoot. And so now you got two broken plays instead of one. So those types of plays were happening throughout. The Celtics were falling asleep. They were giving up a ton of transition. They were not offensive. They were not getting defensive rebounds. Even when they had one of their bigs on the floor. It would just, it was not the, the prettiest game. But Sam I thought played played great. I thought Peyton played great. Simons, Anthony Simons played really well. Just didn't hit shots. But I thought he did a pretty decent job. In fact, he was, he was a plus 6. He scored 10 points, but it was only 4 of 16 shooting. If he had, if he had gotten some, some shots to fall, it would have been good. But I don't think he played poorly. And that brings me to Jalen Brown. We're gonna end the show on Jalen Brown, who played 45 minutes and 40 seconds and after the game said, I didn't have my normal burst. I've been dealing with some hamstring tightness. Well, right away that tells me Jalen Brown out. Hamstring tightness is probably going to be on the injury report on Saturday, so need to kind of watch for that.
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Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for delivery, I. While I'm here, while I'm here. Before I get back to Jalen, I have no expectations for this Saturday game. We're gonna watch it. We'll all watch it together. But if you got plans, don't cancel your plans for a Celtics game. Listen to the podcast later. I'll fill you in. It's probably not going to go well. It's. That might be because it's a bonus podcast. I don't have to do the full half hour. I can. That might be a 10 minute show where it's like, okay, Celtics sucked and we're moving on. They could easily win this game too. Like I'm not saying like it's guarantee they're going to lose, but after a double overtime, it's their third game in four nights. It's that two week stretch on the road. It's four games this week. It's everything is working against them. Derrick Rose gets his, his jersey retired, his number retired. Tons of energy in that building Tomorrow night. It's going to be crazy. The Bulls are going to be hyped. I don't think the Celtics kind of stand a chance, but that's why they play the games. I've thought that before and the Celtics have played well, so. But I'm just reserved. I'm saying I have zero expectations after a double overtime game. Jalen, 45 and a half minutes. Peyton 40 minutes. Now. Derek didn't play. Derek didn't play. They gave him a rest day. That was nice. So he'll have the bulk of the responsibility. I would be surprised if Jalen doesn't play. If Jalen plays. But he did have a triple double. 27 points, 12 assists, 10, 10 rebounds. The 12 assists were huge because he did a great job with all the double teams and the blitzing and maybe the of. Of all the stats. 2712 assists, 10 rebounds, two turnovers. That's it. Two turnovers. That's huge. So just two turnovers for Jalen is a big deal because, you know, he still has a little bit of a turnover problem on top of everything. And he didn't shoot well. 9 of 27 from the field, 5 of 10 from the free throw, free throw line. He has those weird kind of bad free throw shooting nights. Every once in a while he was 4 of 10 from 3, so 40% is good. But everything else, he just didn't play. He didn't shoot well. But good job accepting the double teams. Good job getting off of the ball, not forcing too much. And the Celtics made enough of the plays. They did enough. They put up 109 shots, which is really good. 51 of them were three pointers, but that means 58 of them were two pointers. The, the free throw shooting has to get better. The missing those in the fourth quarter again. Game could have been over in the fourth quarter with some made free throws and with like one or two rebounds. Like that's all, that's. That's all that it was. But shout out to, shout out to Ugo for having the stones to hit that shot. Shout out to Amari, who started out his day in Maine, finished it in Brooklyn and was a huge part of the win. Shout out to Joe Mazzulla for, for hitting those buttons and managing the timeouts and understanding how much time you really have. And even like 10 seconds on the clock is time for multiple shots and you don't just burn your timeouts. I know plenty of coaches, most of the coaches would have called a timeout in those situations. And Joe just trusted his team and they. It worked perfectly. So a nice win. Brooklyn had a lot of motivation after getting smacked around by the New York Knicks and they, you know, that screen, the screener play that they were the same thing that Michael Porter Jr. Crushed them on the last time they played, they ran that same thing over and over and over again. And the Celtics maybe finally at the end, snit, like did enough in the last couple of plays to stop it, slow it down. But it was just demoralizing to see them. Oh, here we go again. Same play. There we go again. See the coaches on the sidelines all jumping up and making the same motion, like, you got to go over this and whatever. Like that. That was so bad. They have to fix that stuff. But to their credit, and I'm going to wrap it up with this, the X's and O's. Jaylen Brown said this. The X's, O's are the X's and O's. But this team is defined by playing hard. And they do. They always play hard. They very rarely dog it. They very rarely mail anything in. In fact, sometimes maybe they play too hard and it's like, give these guys a day off. But excuse me, but they played great. I mean, they played hard. They didn't play great. They played hard. And they gotta win. Get them where you can get them. And now the Celtics move to 28 and 16. Like I said, the, the, the Chicago game is what it is. But for now, the Celtics are in second place ahead of the third place Toronto Raptors. The Knicks sliding down to fourth in the East. They didn't play, but Toronto won. And they're a half game ahead of the Knicks. Celtics sitting there in second place still tomorrow night, Chicago, I will have a bonus podcast after that. I can't tell you how long it's going to be. I can't tell you if it's going to be. The game's going to be worth much discussion. Maybe it's going to be an an hour long podcast or it's going to be like a super excited podcast because they defy expectations or my expectations. Or maybe it's going to be a 10 minute podcast of okay, they sucked. This guy sucked. That guy sucked. That guy sucked. We're done here. We'll talk tomorrow. Like it could be either one of those. Either way, subscribe to the show wherever you subscribe. You can watch the show on YouTube and now I would love it if you shared the podcast. Spread the word. 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.
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And California and for delivery.
Date: January 24, 2026
Host: John Karalis
In this exhilarating bonus episode, John Karalis breaks down a wild Celtics win—one that showcased the best and worst of the team in a double overtime thriller against the Brooklyn Nets. Karalis celebrates stunning rookie performances and head coach Joe Mazzulla’s masterful in-game adjustments, particularly his late-game timeout management and substitutions. The episode dives deeply into the exhilarating highs, concerning lows, and hard-earned lessons from a game that “had everything” for Celtics fans.
Opening Thoughts (02:04–03:39):
The Collapse:
Peyton Pritchard (20:05–22:28):
Sam Hauser:
Jalen Brown (23:44–25:25):
| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------| | 02:33 | “Every emotion. If you’re invested in the Celtics, this had everything, I mean everything.” | John Karalis | | 03:36 | “Terrible, terrible execution… they let Claxton go two, three times for putback dunks.” | John Karalis | | 08:35 | “The biggest play of the game is not the one you’re thinking of… The execution of that first touchdown play allows them to keep the timeout they needed.” | Karalis | | 13:28 | “I’ve never seen a guy come in at the last second like just in time and then get the game tying 3-pointer like that. So that was incredible.” | Karalis | | 16:02 | “Every time he was in, he did something positive… I’m like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme—pointing: ‘see, that’s it right there.’” | Karalis | | 18:22 | “Joe Missoula, timeout management—remember when he sucked at timeouts? Remember that?” | Karalis | | 24:48 | “I didn’t have my normal burst. I’ve been dealing with some hamstring tightness.” | (via Jalen Brown reported by Karalis) | | 25:01 | “Maybe of all the stats… 12 assists, 2 turnovers. That’s huge.” | Karalis | | 28:32 | “Shout out to Ugo for having the stones to hit that shot. Shout out to Amari, who started out his day in Maine, finished it in Brooklyn and was a huge part of the win.” | Karalis |
Tone: Candid, passionate, energetic, with moments of exasperation and joy—classic Karalis style. Fans are treated to insider perspective, tough criticisms, and well-deserved praise.
Takeaway:
This Celtics victory, though ugly at times, was defined by guts: the guts of young players seizing the moment, and the savvy of a coach who trusted his team and made the right calls under extreme pressure. The team's commitment to playing hard, no matter the circumstances, stands out—even when execution falls short and fatigue sets in.
“The X’s and O’s are the X’s and O’s. But this team is defined by playing hard. And they do. They always play hard.” (Karalis paraphrasing Jalen, 29:58)
Despite injuries, schedule fatigue, road woes, and the near-implosion in regulation, the Celtics’ blend of promising rookie contributions and smart, adaptive coaching proved enough to pull out an improbable win. The journey may not be pretty, but as Karalis sums it up:
“Get them where you can get them.”
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