
Boston Celtics dominate Houston Rockets with relentless defense and elite performances from Derrick White and Payton Pritchard. Can this gritty win redefine the Celtics’ ceiling for the season? SI's John Karalis highlights the Celtics’ standout victory despite missing Jaylen Brown and key roster pieces, thanks to double-big lineups and elite defensive execution versus a favored Rockets squad. Ron Harper Jr. and Baylor Scheierman impress in expanded roles, while Derrick White’s 28 points and third-quarter takeover electrify the offense. Discussions include Joe Mazzulla’s case for Coach of the Year, Boston’s rebounding edge, and the significance of role players outperforming their contracts in the second apron era. With the trade deadline looming, the episode explores roster upgrades, buyout options, and the impact of rising G League stars. Can the Celtics sustain this momentum as they target postseason dominance?
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That was some of the best defense I have seen. Incredible play from the role players. Ron Harper what a game from Derrick White. So much to talk about in maybe the best win of the season. Locked on selfish pot. Home of the winner, baby. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here in the Lockdown Podcast Network. Where is your team every day? Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday plus bonus podcasts like when they play the Miami Heat on Friday. So you'll get a bonus podcast for your Saturday pleasure. So make sure you're subscribed. Wherever you get your podcast, watch the show on YouTube and get into the comments section. Share your thoughts with me. If you're new to the show, I'm John Corrales. I'm a beat writer covering the Celtics for Sports illustrated Celtics on SI. I've been doing this job for about 20 years now, this podcast for 10 and I've written a couple books about the team. This I, I, I'm gonna try not to gush too much about this game but and I get a little bit of crap from other Lockdown hosts how often I say well this is the best win of the season. Well no, that was the best win of the season. Some some game has to be the best win of the season. And if another one comes along and beats it, then that becomes the new best game of the season. Best win of the season and I think this one might be it. No Jalen Brown, hamstring, knee, wrist, all that stuff. Good to get him a break. No Sam Houser, right thumb sprain. Okay, I didn't see that happen, but whatever. Anthony Simon's trade still not official, so obviously no Vucevich. The back to back the There were all the reasons for the Celtics to kind of not play well in this game and all they did was go into Houston and go up by 30 almost in the fourth quarter. So later on I'll talk about the role players, Specifically Ron Harper Jr. And Baylor Scheireman who did a great job. I'll talk about Derek White and Peyton Pritchard. Pritchard was born to play that six man role. Derek White steps up when you need him. But I've got to start with the defense. That is the absolute beginning, middle and end for this team. It's defense and the offensive rebounds that before we even get to the individual players, those two elements were how the Celtics won this game. The defense is the start. The first quarter was 18 to 17. It looked like a college game. Tons of misses, a little helter skelter and just beating the crap out of one another. 18 to 17 is very much a college score after 12 minutes. But the defense that was played by both teams, they came out and played really tough. Houston is not a good offensive team. They're, they're, they're a little, I think, I think their whole thing is it doesn't matter if you miss shots because they're so good at offensive rebounding that they'll just go in there and put back misses. But that I think ends up just hurting them on nights when they can't get the offensive rebounds. And the Celtics started out big, big. Key to this was going double big. They started Shireman, but they started Luca Garza and Demish Kada together. So and then they started Ron Harper. So Harper Harper Jr. Derek White, Baylor Scheireman, Luca Garza, Nimius Kaeda. Think about this just for a second before I even continue this. Listen to the names I just said. How did that team beat the Houston Rockets who came into the season as one of the contenders? Ron Harper Jr. Two way player. Derrick White obviously is good. Baylor Scheireman, second year player, up and down, don't know what he, what he's ultimately going to be. Luca Garza, scrap heap Minnesota Namishkada scrap heap Sacramento and last year was unplayable and these guys came in and just beat the Houston Rockets with physicality, effort and the I, I, I can't, I can't even begin to express how shocking. Not, not that they won. It's not that they won because surprising things happen. Like, gotta be honest with ourselves here. Houston may have just thought they're going to go and be able to do whatever and score however they want. They played, they played their typical tough defense. It's not that they went out there and just were lazy, but I don't think they were just, I don't think they were fully engaged offensively. They're already a bad offensive team, but I don't think they were fully engaged. I think they might have thought, hey, no Jalen, no Sam, no Anthony Simons, slash Vucevic, we got this. So the Celtics winning wasn't out of the question. I didn't expect it on a back to back, so, but hey, it happens. We've seen it happen to Boston, but it's how they won, how much they won by how easily that, that second half, just how easily they pulled away. So yeah, the Celtics were on point with everything defensively. They, I've never seen Keda and Garza, especially Garza. Garza is not known for being a big, big time defender and he played Shingoon really, really well. He made it tough on Shingoon, Keda. They were both kind of poking the ball free. Garza poked the ball free from Shingoon a couple of times and now you got two steals and, and there were a couple where I think Shangun got it back. But active hands. Keita was poking the ball free. They were the shifts, the help, the this. When they switched, everything that the Celtics did defensively was on point, they were locked in. And I thought, hey, maybe at halftime this is going to be tough. The, you know, on a back to back halftime, I've talked about this before can be a little perilous. Let's say you've come out with the energy, you're tired, but you say, okay, we're going to come out, we're going to play hard. And you come out and play hard and then halftime comes and you sit and you're just like, okay, boy, am I tired. I am beat. And then it gets tough. In the second half, the Celtics pulled away. In the third quarter, they pulled away, they broke it open. So the way they played Ron Harper, who I'll talk about a little bit more later, but he comes in starts and Gets the Kevin Durant assignment and plays Durant really well. And this is the part where I'm like, was Durant fully, fully engaged? 15 points, 4 of 11 shooting 11 shots for Kevin Durant.04 from 3. Got to the line seven times, but he was non existent. Kevin, I forgot for a while here like, oh yeah, Kevin Durant played in this game. Harper did a great job. The Celtics did a great job. And on top of it all, the Rockets have not been a great three point shooting team. They mentioned it on the broadcast. Since the January 1st, they've kind of been terrible. And the Celtics did. You know the, the typical thing defensively where you put, you start Luca Garza on Shingoon and then you have Keda, you just put him on Amen Thompson and let him roam. And Thompson's not going to burn you from three. And it worked. And the. I don't think the Rockets really did much to adjust. They're just kind of like we're gonna, we're just gonna keep hoping that we hit threes and keep hoping that Shingoon can carry us. And Shingoon didn't. 13 points on 5 of 12 shooting. The job Garza did on him. Again, you don't expect a defensive effort like that from Garza. And then you turn around and get to the offensive rebounding where The Celtics had 20 offensive rebounds. Crashing the glass now Keita getting in there. Seven offensive rebounds. Talk about chomping glass. 19 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass, three from Luca Garza. They combined for 10. The Rockets had 12. This is what the, this is the whole thing that the Rockets are their whole identity is yeah, we'll miss some shots. We'll just go get the putbacks. And I know because they're missing Steven Stephen Adams. That really hurts them. He's the, the best. Beside him and Jalen Durham, they're the best offensive rebounders in the, in the league. So that hurts them. But they still have that identity. But the. For the Celtics to win that battle, eight more offensive rebounds. They 12 more second chance points. You can just stop at that stat. If, if you look at a box score and you say The Celtics had eight more offensive rebounds than the Rockets and 12 more second chance points. Every Rockets fan would look at be like, oh dude, that we lost that game. Right. Right on top of them shooting 41 1/2% and no one scoring more than 15 points, holding Kevin Durant to 15 points. And the just the overall offense looking as bad as it did. But just statistically those numbers you can read those out loud to just about anybody who watches the NBA and go, oh, yeah, the Rockets kind of stunk it up, didn't they? But the effort. The effort was there for 48 minutes. These guys. The Celtics went in there with a purpose. This team just. I can't remember the last stinker. Just flat out no energy. I mean, there was one, I guess there was one fairly recently. Oh, wait, there was one recently where they stunk. Oh, I know which one it was. I'm gonna look it up real quick because it's gonna drive me crazy. It was the rare. There was a rare one. You're probably saying it out loud. Lost to was the Chicago loss, where they just kind of stunk. That was. That might have been it. Or the one. No, the one. It was Atlanta. Atlanta at home. Atlanta. That was the one. So. But rare, this. The Celtics team just goes out there and works hard. Joe Missoula. Someone tweeted this at me. And you know what? There's validity to it. Joe Missoula won the coach of the year with this game. With this. With this win tonight. I don't think he did win coach of the year with this win. But, man, if you're making the case, that one is front and center. Hey, everybody, look at what Joe Missoula got these guys to do. I mean, prove me wrong. Right? That's. Prove me wrong. What? It just incredible. This. This whole first 12 minutes is just me kind of gushing and not knowing what to say other than, boy, the Celtics were good in this game. Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, were incredible. Let's talk about their games when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by. Indeed. You know, hiring isn't just about finding someone who's willing to take your job. You got to find the right person with the right background to help your business move forward. This isn't just, hey, I'm desperate. Please, somebody. No, you. You have needs for your job. I've been there. My dad has owned businesses and hired people. I've been a hiring manager. You need to find quality candidates because just hoping the right person stumbles across your desk, the right resume stumbles across your desk. It's not going to cut it anymore. You get too much going on. That's why you need indeed, indeed sponsored jobs. That's the move. 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If a TurboTax expert didn't file for you last year, you just have to file by February 28, take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit turbotax.com local to book your appointment today. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. You know, we have a little gift for you. The everydayers who want to join the everydayer club. We have a special code just for you Celtics fans. It's not. It's not a generic. No, the code is Vucevich V U C E V I C Vucevich. You get a free month. A free month if you redeem this by February 9th. So you have another week practically Almost to redeem the code Vucevich to join our everydayers club that gets you free ad, free audio available on every podcast thing, major podcasting app, access to our Discord server, and a whole lot more. So use the code Vucevich. I'm going to drop the link into the show notes, but it's at lockdown celtics supercast.com lockdown celtics.supercast.com I'll drop the link with the auto with the coupon already there. So just click the link and it'll automatically apply it. It's five bucks a month. It's 50 bucks for the year. You can get a free month with the code Vucevich. Derek White, just when he's, it's when you need him, when you absolutely need Derek White, he's there. Maybe when he's playing next to Jaylen Brown, maybe in, you know, situations, maybe other situations. He has some cold shooting nights. But man, when you need him, when it's time to step up, Derrick White just finds a way to deliver 28 points, 6 of 14 from 3, 10 of 25 overall. Still struggling a little bit with his shot there, but eight assists and the third quarter was, was all him. And he hit some tough, tough shots in that third quarter that was all star level. Derrick White off the dribble stuff. I mean, this is, this has been a tough kind of stretch for, for D. White this season. He's, he's playing a whole new way. But this game was the absolute, like almost basically pinnacle if you maybe hit a couple more shots, but the absolute kind of pinnacle of what you want Derrick White to be. It's always weird when he has this great game, no block shots. I thought he had a block shot in there somewhere, but he does all the other little things anyway, the stuff that doesn't even show up on the, on the box score, but he came in with a purpose. There was a stretch there in the second quarter. So again, the first quarter was 1817. It was just a back and forth, I mean, slugfest. Rocky and Apollo just beating the crap out of each other. And then a little separation in the second quarter. Derek White and Peyton Pritchard. Pritchard had 27 in this game. In the second quarter, they each had nine. They, they each shot three for six. And then in the third quarter when the Celtics really pulled away and the Celtics outscored the Rockets by 15, D. White went in there, shot 4 of 7 from 3 and hit some tough shots, tough fadeaways. Had 14 points in the quarter and really delivered the Celtics the separation to get them up over 20. I'm just surprised that the Celtics were able to, to get that, extend that lead. But the Rockets, they, they didn't want to call the timeouts. They wanted to try to figure it out on their own. And the Celtics just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. So much so that Ime Udoka ended up getting ejected. Alperin Shingoon ended up getting ejected. I think, think. I think Alperence and Goon said a magic word to a female ref and that you. I wasn't clear. It wasn't quite clear on the under reading the lips because he was turning his. His head when I saw the replay. But I feel pretty good that he said the magic word. Not the, the magic word, but he said a magic word that got him the ejection. Very frustrated Rockets team and Derrick White was part of that frustration. You know, he's just so reliable. He's so reliable. I, I have the utmost. I want Derrick White to stick around in Boston, retire in Boston, move to Boston, don't go back to Colorado, stick around, be part of the team. I just, I, I just have the highest regard for Derrick White. He's just a pure Hooper man, that dude. It's. It's not, it's not just, you know, like Jalen is super talented and he works hard. Jayson Tatum, super, super talented and he works hard. And obviously Derek White is talented, but he just, man, he's just a pure basketball player. He worked hard to develop all of this stuff. There's just. He's. He could play in any era, any style of basketball. I, what am I going to say? I, I think, I think the world of Derrick White and he, you know, coming in and playing the way he played in this game was huge. And then Peyton PRITCHARD with the 27 off the bench two, two games now in a row, off the bench out of necessity for sure. Because you need to have another ball handler, another scorer. Because look at the bench. Pritchard, Walsh, Minot, Gonzalez, that, that bench. You need somebody on the bench to kind of captain that. So Pritchard. But he's, he's born to play that role, that six man role because he's such a good ISO scorer. He's so good in those moments. He can come out there and just take control of the game and against second units, but against anybody, he generally, I think he handles that situation so, so great. I like him as a starter. I love him as a six man. And you know, early in this game I was like Geez, this is going to be a tough offensive night because the Celtics were running their offense and the kickouts were to Jordan Walsh and to Josh Minot and to Ugo Gonzalez and, you know, Baylor Shireman and Baylor, who I'm gonna, you know, talk about in a, in this, in this next segment, did hit a few shots, but Jordan didn't, Minot didn't, Ugo didn't. There's a lot of misses from some of those guys. And it was Pritchard and White that, that took over the, the offense to, to get the Celtics that separation. So on top of the defense, which was spectacular, on top of the offensive rebounding which won them the game, the, you know, you get the Derrick White, Peyton Pritchard kind of combination of incredible scoring and there you go. But the role players you did get role Play. Ron Harper Jr. Baylor Shireman, Ugo, Gonzalez, a little bit. We can call Luca Garza, I guess, a role player. The contributions there were off the charts as well. I'll talk about that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Hey, Super Bowl 60 is here, and it's Last Call for Football on FanDuel. One more Sunday. This Sunday. One last kickoff, Last chance to get in on the action before the NFL season officially calls it over. That didn't make any sense, but it's over after the Patriots win the Super Bowl. Did I reveal something? Yes. I think the Celtics, the Patriots going to win the Super Bowl. It's Super Bowl 60. Why not? I know where my money's going. Where's yours going to go? Are you backing the favorite? Are you riding with the underdog? You're building one more same game parlay. This is where predictions turn into plays, stats turn into storylines, and every snap feels bigger. So why not cap off the season and make Super Bowl 60 even more exciting? From kickoff to final whistle, if you're a new customer, you bet five bucks. You get $200 in bonus bets if you win. So make it count. Make it a good one. 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Get started. Thank you for making Locked on Celtics the number one Celtics podcast in the world and Locked on the number one sports podcasting network in the world. Why not check out lockdown Patriots locked on Seahawks. We're talking about the Super Bowl. Go check them out. Locked on NFL. We got everything covered. Check out Lockdown Rockets. I know Jackson Gatlin is going to be a little upset about how this game goes. Go, go rub it in. Go flood their comments and talk some smack because you know what would have happened if they would have won this game? They would have been in my comments. So go have some fun over there. Whatever it is. We've got a podcast for every team, every major pro sport, so the leagues check it out. Whatever you're looking for, good chance we got it. Ron Harper it sucks that I'm 25 minutes into the podcast talking a little more at length about Ron Harper, but there's been so many things in this game. Harper played 35 minutes this season and comes in here and nearly doubles it at 33. But the job that he did on Kevin Durant, again, I don't think that Kevin was out there with the killer mentality. I think Durant, it's the beginning of February, all star break is around the corner. Probably thought that they could cruise through this. So we've seen it before. But Harper, with his length, with his size, I think if you, you forget a little bit about how much, how, how much size Harper, when you see him standing next to Kevin Durant, you're like, man, Harper has got some length. He's got some, some beef, you know, on those bones, man. He go out there and you know, knock you around a little bit. So he played great defense. But then on top of it, he hit some shots, hit that big put back dunk we talked about. It's like I had a whole lane right there. My eyes lit up, bounced off perfectly, came in. That was a beautiful, just nice smooth follow dunk. That was really Good. But Harper 48 I mean, 4 of 8, 3 of 7 from 3. Look, can you imagine if he dropped 48, 11 points for him, a plus 16, the nine rebounds, three assists. Just a great overall game. Now I don't know what's, what's next for, for Harper, but he's had a great, a great G League season. He's in the rising stars game as one of the G League representatives. He has, I mean, good lineage. His father, Ron Harper was a hell of a player. I mean his brother Dylan is a hell of a player. There's, you know, and just because of that doesn't mean that Ron Harper Jr. Is going to be a great player. But there's, there's basketball in that blood, man. And you know, I'm, I'm curious. I'm just curious. He, he plays well in the G League and it's translating right now a little bit to the NBA. He's performing, he's performed well in his minutes. He's an interesting guy to kind of keep an eye on because you know, it's, it's, he's on a two way deal. The Celtics are, are going to probably trade Chris Boucher away before the trade deadline. And again, as I, as I say the word trade, I have to open up Twitter to make sure that I'm not missing a, a trade that that's happened and it's going to make me re record the whole thing. As of right now, nope, no trades. So still waiting on the. Oh, wait. Oh. Jonathan Kaminga and buddy heel to the Hawks for Christophs Porzingis. Well, that one's a new one. Golden State warriors are moving Porzingis. Okay, interesting. That's breaking news. Jonathan Kaminga to the Hawks. Ah, kp. Oh, well, hey, it's Golden. Golden State hasn't come to town. Maybe I'll get to talk to KP yet. You know, I went to Atlanta to talk to him and he was hurt. Then I went, you know, the Hawks came here and he was hurt. Now he went to Golden State. Golden State hasn't come to town, so maybe we'll get to talk to him at some point anyway. All right. But as, as of right now, there's still no, there's still no Chris Boucher trade, which is the whole point of what I was going to Twitter to see. I love these little live. You get to see everything happen. I'm not cutting this out. I want you. This is all stream of consciousness stuff. There is an opportunity for a buyout and there is an opportunity to upgrade somebody. So is it, is Is Ron Harper potentially upgraded? Is maybe Amari. Could he be upgraded? I don't know. There's potential there and, but regardless, Harper has, has certainly earned a closer look. I don't know where it goes, but he's earned a closer look. And Baylor Scheireman gotta give him, you know, a big shout out too because 15 points, 10 rebounds. 10 rebounds is a career high. His previous Career High was 75 of 10 shooting 3 of 8 from 3 hit timely threes, he hit momentum threes, getting in there, grabbing the rebounds, making passes, four assists, playing good defense, hustling. Baylor has, has played well in his, in his added time is his increased workload. Another guy that is interesting, Brad Stevens is, is getting these wins all over the place. Shireman looks like a win. Harper looks like a potential win here. My Gonzalez looks like a win. Minot has fallen off and he played seven minutes and didn't look great but he won them some games earlier this season. So still count that as a win. When you pick up a guy that another team cut and wasn't playing and he comes in and does anything positive for you, that's still a win. Jordan Walsh is a win. He played okay in this game so. And, and I think there's something there for Jordan moving forward. He has that potential. There's still something there and he's still young. There are wins all over this roster for Brad Stevens. It's going to make next year's team incredibly interesting. We know that Jason Tatum is going to be coming back at some point. I don't know what the deal is with Vucevich, what the long term plan is. We're going to try to figure that out. But these little role players, guys here and there that can step in and make a contribution, they're so, so, so important in the second apron era because they're on cheap contracts and they play, they outperform their deals. Every guy who outperforms his deal in the second apron era is critically important. That's just the easiest way I can sum it up. And a lot of these guys are outperforming their deals. You can count Peyton Pritchard among those too. But look, this was just incredible win. Well, I think there's a win over Detroit earlier this season that was similarly good. I, I think, I think just overall the efforts, the execution, the, the circumstances, I dare you to find a better win this season. When it's all said and done, I don't think you'll find one. And if you do, man, I can't wait to watch that game. So a fun one here Podcast tomorrow I'll bring in Tom Westerholm. It's trade deadline day so we'll see whatever whatever else is done at the at the trade deadline. If anything else happens in the meantime, we're going to we'll process all of this. There's a game Friday so make sure you are subscribed. You get a bonus podcast there. Join the Everydayers Club ad free audio on all major platforms. On major podcasting apps. You get the Discord chats for Celtics and National, a bunch of other stuff merchandise. All of that stuff coming at the everydayers club. Five bucks a month, 50 bucks for the year. You get a free month if you use the code Vucevich between now and February 9th and I'll drop that link in the show notes. So enjoy that deal and I hope you enjoy the podcast enough to share it. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It's your team every day.
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Host John Karalis recaps what he calls “maybe the best win of the season” for a shorthanded Boston Celtics team, who, despite missing key players, stunned the Houston Rockets with relentless defense and standout performances from Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and supporting cast. The episode revolves around the Celtics’ defensive prowess, surprising role player impact, and what this victory means for the team’s identity and trajectory.
Context: No Jalen Brown, no Sam Hauser, and still waiting for Anthony Simons’ trade to be official. On the second night of a back-to-back, expectations were low.
"There were all the reasons for the Celtics to kind of not play well in this game, and all they did was go into Houston and go up by 30 almost in the fourth quarter." (03:18)
Lineup Spotlight: Celtics started Ron Harper Jr., Baylor Scheierman, Luca Garza, Nimi Queta, and Derrick White—an unheralded group.
"Think about this just for a second before I even continue. Listen to the names I just said. How did that team beat the Houston Rockets...?" (05:12)
Defensive Execution: Celtics’ “double-big” lineup stymied Houston early, keeping the first quarter to a college-like 18–17.
“The defense that was played by both teams, they came out and played really tough…But the defense that was played by both teams, they came out and played really tough." (04:29)
Luca Garza & Nimi Queta: Unexpectedly great defending and rebounding versus Houston’s Shingoon; especially notable was Garza’s energy disrupting post play.
Celtics: 20 offensive rebounds (Queta 7, Garza 3; combined for 10)
Rockets (whose whole identity is offensive rebounding): 12 offensive rebounds
Stat-Driven Take: “If you look at a box score and you say: The Celtics had eight more offensive rebounds than the Rockets, and 12 more second chance points. Every Rockets fan would look at it and be like, oh dude, we lost that game.” (11:39)
Effort & Coaching Praise: Karalis elevates Joe Mazzulla as a Coach of the Year candidate for getting buy-in and maximizing role players.
Ron Harper Jr.: Defensive standout on Kevin Durant (holding him to 15 points), plus contributions on the boards and opportunistic shooting.
Baylor Scheierman: Double-double threat, timely shooting, and relentless rebounding.
Depth & Brad Stevens’ Eye: Beyond the stars, Karalis lauds Brad Stevens for assembling a “second apron” roster with multiple contributors (Gonzalez, Minott, Walsh). Second apron era means every outperforming cheap contract is massively valuable.
On Defensive Identity:
On Joe Mazzulla’s Coaching:
On Derrick White’s Reliability:
On Role Players Surpassing Expectations:
Karalis is exuberant and somewhat incredulous, repeatedly expressing shock at both how the Celtics won and by what margin. He mixes analytical breakdowns with fan-like enthusiasm and clear respect for effort, development, and coaching.
Closing Reflection:
This was not just a “next man up” performance—it was a systematic team win that reaffirmed Boston’s identity and depth, galvanized by defensive intensity, energy, and a roster full of overachievers. One for the season highlight reel.