
Boston Celtics seize a statement win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, silencing doubters and reigniting their championship momentum. Can Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum keep up this all-around dominance as the playoffs approach? John Karalis of Celtics On SI breaks down the Celtics’ gritty victory at TD Garden, spotlighting Jaylen Brown’s 31-point explosion and Jayson Tatum’s double-double, as the duo’s improved passing electrifies the offense. The episode covers Baylor Scheierman and Payton Pritchard’s crucial bench contributions, Boston’s late-game free throw advantage, and the team’s thriving playoff atmosphere. With insights on ball movement, bench depth, and Joe Mazzulla’s tactical adjustments, this analysis explores whether Boston can sustain this winning formula against elite NBA competition.
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Best mobile network based on analysis by Google of speed test intelligence data 2H 2025 bigger network the combination of T Mobile's and US cellular network footprints will enhance the T mob coverage price guarantee on talk text and data exclusions like taxes and fees apply. CT mobile.com for details now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast a statement win for the Boston Celtics over okc. They really needed this one. Locked on Celtics pot. Home of the winners. Welcome hey there, welcome back to the show. I'm John Corrales here at TD Garden with where the Boston Celtics get a 10 point win. If you're watching here on YouTube, I'm right here in front of the Mike Gorman broadcast table at center court as the Celtics celebrate a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Later on we'll get to some of the more individual performances like Baylor Shireman and Peyton Pritchard. I'll talk about the Jays coming up in the second segment and how good they were. I just want to start though with just how important I think this game was. This was a win that they needed. I think a lot of us just came into this game assuming, hey look, Celtics are going to just be in third place after this and obviously you're going up against Oklahoma City Thunder, defending champs. They look great. They got their whole team back, which might have hurt more than helped tonight. But it's not unreasonable to think the Celtics would have lost to the Thunder. Everybody's losing to the Thunder. Thunder, but also Celtics really wanted this one. Jaylen Brown was on his live stream on Twitch talking about how much he really wanted this. After the last couple of games, the, the win in Memphis, that didn't feel like a win. It felt like kind of like a just a tough, ugly game that you won because it was Memphis and then the game against Minnesota that everybody seemed to really react to, dare I say, overreact to. And then New York winning, tying, the Celtics five games back, and now Celtics playing okc. Everybody's like, oh, here we go, here we go, here comes. Nope. Celtics came out. Tough first quarter. Tough first quarter for everybody. Jalen missed everything in the first quarter. He was 0 for 5 in the first quarter. But Jason had two bad turnovers in the first quarter, and it was. It didn't look great. My reaction in the first quarter was that everything that OKC was doing looked fluid and smooth, and everything the Celtics were doing looked a little kind of clunky. Now that obviously could have been a lot of the missed shots. They. They got a lot of. Of open. Like, Sam Houser had four three pointers in the first few minutes, and he hit one. It was just. This game really could have been a little bit different. Who knows how the flow of the game would have gone. But if he had hit the first. His first three or four, if you just gone on a. A heater right away, he had wide, wide open looks, things could have been much different. But as it was, the Celtics went down by 11 in the first quarter. And I just thought, okay, this is. This might be. This might be a tough one. But they turn it around. They fought back. They won that second quarter. They played great in the third and the fourth. They built a lead as high as 14 in the fourth quarter, and they held on to win the. It's just a regular season game, right? So after the game, everybody was like, it just counts for one. Got to do it again on Friday. All of the stuff that you're supposed to say at the same time, when you've had a couple of tough performances and all the noise around the team is. Is negative to come out against a team like okc, which. It would have been great. All these games that get flexed into national TV games would have been great to put this one on national tv. I guess OKC is. Has maxed out its. Its number of national TV games, but this would have been a great statement to make on national tv. Either way, it's going to be something that leads a lot of the sports talk shows when they talk about the NBA at the very least. And Boston played great. Jalen was great. Jason was great. After their slow starts, the bench comes in. Shireman, Ugo for a little stretch. Peyton, all of these guys come in and play really, really well. The Thunder built out a big lead, and the Celtics just didn't wilt under that. They made the Thunder kind of. They they played with force. They played their own brand of basketball. Right. Jalen was talking after the game about how we start our offense, where we wanted to start the offense, not where they wanted us to start the offense. We got the shots we wanted, not the shots they wanted us to take. And that's important, right? It's. There's, you know, any sort of matchup, any sort of fight, there's always somebody who dictates the pace. And the Celtics were able to dictate a lot of that, especially from the second quarter on. So to put that performance out there for everybody to see is just a nice message to everybody, right? A message to the whole league that, listen, you want to talk about the Celtics not doing well against elite teams? Well, here you go here. What more elite team can you want than the Oklahoma City Thunder? Full everybody, they've got everybody. What more elite team can you want? The Celtics come out and put this performance out there. They don't. They don't give in to early struggles. They hang with it, they stick with it. They do the things they're supposed to do and they win. So now the narrative shifts. It is too much of this, you know, narratives blowing in the wind, right? Celtics lose a game or they look bad as, oh, here we go. Not enough time for them to get it together. Then they look good and it's a, hey, maybe, maybe they are the favorites after all. Really important win to get because the, the, the Detroit Pistons lost and the Celtics are able to. You know, I shouldn't even say it that way because I'm not even looking at that top seed anymore. I think that's just over. But they didn't fall behind the Knicks. They were half game up on the Knicks now. So they've matched them in wins. They're a game up in the loss column. It's just when you're a game up in the lost column, all you got to do is win, right? All you got to do is match the number of wins the other team has and you're going to be fine. So just all around statement. You want to call it a statement game. You want to call it a feel good kind of game or however you want to classify it. I think Celtics fans really feel good about this game. This arena was, was buzzing. Shea Gilgamesh Alexander said it after the game. Anytime you play Boston, it feels like a playoff game. This was a complete playoff atmosphere. Celtics fans, you get some weird, not weird moments, but unique moments in this building sometimes where the Celtics were building a lead, it was in the fourth quarter, there was plenty of time left, but the fans felt maybe with six, five, six minutes to go, they were feeling the momentum. They knew that the Celtics had this right there for the taking, and you could see them. They were getting up on their feet. They. They were riding the. The wave of Celtics runs. That early on, the place was really, really loud. When the Celtics came back and tied the game in the second quarter, they. The building just exploded louder here than you would find in a lot of arenas. This being in Boston for that, having that atmosphere, putting on the show the Celtics did, getting this kind of win, you can say it's one of 82, but it's not. It's really not. This is a win that makes you feel good. This is a win that when Jalen Brown goes home, throws the keys on the table, and sits on his couch, maybe with a glass of wine, he just let out a little exhale, like, that was satisfying. It's just a satisfying win. You need to have those feelings every once in a while, you need to have that feeling. You need to be able to go home from a tough day at work and be like, you know what? I did good today. We did good today. We needed this day. We got it, and we. We feel great, great about where we are. Knowing that there's room for improvement, knowing that Jason Tatum still has ups and downs, the efficiency isn't there yet, and I'll get to him in a minute. But the. The. The win, the way you win, just that kind of feel good, it's what carries you through these last few weeks and gives you that little bit of oomph. You need to make that little bit of a run to. You know, you feel good about going to shoot around the next day. You feel good about walking into that film session the next day. Because even your mistakes, when you win a game like this and you do so many good things, even your mistakes, you sit there like, yep, okay, yep, I feel it. I gotcha. I'm going to work on those. Whereas when you lose, you go in there and you see your mistakes, you're like, I can't believe I did that. I cost us, right? That. That little bit of a mentality difference is the difference between wanting to go out there and put in 100% and that little bit of a dragging your feet, man, I can't believe it. Just that you don't want those negative thoughts. You don't want those negative vibes. So just a great, great win for the Celtics. Part of how they won this was Jalen Brown beating Shay Gilda Said Alexander at his own game. A fun moment from late in the game that's coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Quo Spring is a natural reset point. There's one thing that can quietly cost the business money. It's messy communication. 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So check it out@quo.com lockdown MBA okay, you will get to try it for free and you get 20% off your first six months@quo.com lockdown b a q u o.com lockdown NBA quo no missed calls. No missed customers. Thy ticket lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks good sir. Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Getth with the times with the Tynes. You're playing the lute. Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right? Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide based on the February 2025 Nielsen report. Thank you for making lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Would love to have you the Everyday or join the Everydayer club, right? You're here with me Monday through Friday. I drop bonus podcasts throughout the week. When they play Friday night, I'll have a bonus podcast for you there. So you're an everydayer. The Everydayer club gets you ad free audio if you use the code March. You'll get a month free if you use the code March. So check it out. Ad free audio compatible with every major podcasting app. Do that. You can get access to our Discord server and get live chats for the games. It's a lot of fun. Everyday club lockdown celtics.supercast.com I'll drop that link in the show notes as well. Celtics get the 10 point win. There we go. 10 point win. You got the the Jays who were great. Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum. Now again the asterisk there is first quarter. They were not. But that's okay. Jalen zero points, zero five in the first quarter. Jason four points, one of one. But two, two bad turnovers, live ball turnovers that led to points. The Celtics turned the ball over three times in the first quarter, but it led to seven OKC points. No wonder they were down 31, 20. But after that, look, Jalen finished with 30, 31, 31 points, eight rebounds, eight assists. Jason 19 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists. So after that first quarter, they both really just took off. So 31 points through three quarters basically for Jalen. My favorite moment of this game was Jalen going up against Shay Gilgis Alexander fourth quarter, drawing a few different fouls, right? He drew three rapid succession fouls, but he got SGA to bite on an up fake. So Jalen drives, sets him up, does a little, just a little bit of a push off because everybody does it. Pump fakes. SGA jumps, does that. Oh no, he's. He's done lands. JB goes up, hits the shot, gets the foul. As he turns around and walks like backwards, he can't help but smile. He's smiling, right? SGA does the, the classic. Oh, man. And then Jalen turns around and he's still smiling. I asked him about that after the game and he was like, look, he got me on that same thing. I knew he was going to do it and I still jumped. So yes, I was enjoyed getting him back basically, is what he said. But Jalen did a good job. I mean, obviously Jalen got to the line 14 times, two more than Shay Gilders Alexander. So how about that? He's been getting to the line a lot. I asked him about that and he said maybe the complaining is working because I. He said, I feel like I'm playing my same game. I'm just getting the calls now. I don't know if that's what it takes. I don't know if complaining, you know, squeaky wheel gets the grease or whatever, but whatever it is, he's getting to the line. Not only is he getting to the line at a super high rate, he's making the free throws at a super high rate. Jalen, one of his weaknesses over his entire career has been the free throw shooting somewhere in the mid to low 70s, sometimes less. But now he's, I believe, above 80% for the season. That's huge. That is a huge thing for Jalen. So him getting those three fouls on sga, not only is it fun like haha, we got you sga, look at how does it feel now? It's like the, the Family Guy clip where the guy in prison comes in and says, I'm going to kill everybody. And they left. He goes, oh, I want to see how this feels. And he stabs himself. He goes, oh, this is what I've been doing to people. I belong here. That's that. That's the kind of the feeling that people are going to get when you see SGA committing three straight fouls over here and, and being the reason why OKC went into the bonus or the Celtics went into the bonus so quickly. Celtics were shooting penalty free throws with more than six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. That is. That was a killer. That was exactly why the Celtics were able to take control of this game late the fourth quarter execution. The late game execution was not exactly stellar. I'm not gonna. It was not what I would call great. The Celtics were a little too loose. The Thunder, because teams get, get desperate in those situations. The Thunder turned up the pressure. They, they, you know, blitzed a little bit more and the Celtics turned it, turn it over a little too much down the stretch. But they also made a lot of the right plays and they were able to be aggressive. They maintained their aggressiveness and that allowed them to get to the free throw line. And even when things got a little bit shaky, maybe a little bit tight, they get to the free throw line, you settle down, you're able to get a couple of points on the board. You. And this goes back to my thing about fourth quarter is playing with the lead in the fourth quarter. Just get buckets, just get points. Doesn't matter how, doesn't matter what it is. You run your offense, don't run your offense. ISO, don't ISO. Three pointer, two pointer, doesn't matter. Whatever it is, you just need to put points on the board to prevent the other team from going on a run. You don't have time to make a run yourself. So you know, first quarter, second quarter, the third quarter, the other team goes and run. Not a big deal. There's time on the, on the clock the fourth quarter. That as that time ticks away. There's no fifth quarter here obviously, unless you go to overtime. But you. When you're playing with a lead, that's not what you want. You don't want to go into that overtime. So getting into that penalty early was such a massive, massive way for the Celtics to hold on to that lead and to take control and keep control down the stretch. Jaylen Brown was a major, major reason for that, obviously. And this is why. Yeah, like, I don't know. I, I don't want to react to certain people on Everybody's got a, a, their own kind of thought process. I think Jaylen Brown is a first team all NBA guy. I think he's probably third, fourth in the mvp. Like I'm not going to sit here and say Jaylen Brown is the MVP of the league this year. I, I'm not going to say that, but I do think that he deserves it for. If we're going to go by respect, you know, the higher you are in the, in the rankings, the more respect that you get. I think Jaylen Brown as third. Sure. Now I know people are going to want to argue that that's fine. It doesn't matter. But that's my opinion and I think Jalen is a first team all NBA guy. No worse than second team. This kind of performance, what he's doing lately is just a nice little capper to what's been a great season. Big start, kind of like a little bit of a lull in the middle. Now he's finishing strong, which is especially good because Jayson Tatum is back. Jason, after a slow start, he looked good as well. I'll come back, I'll finish the conversation about Jalen and Jason because I think their passing was on point. This was one of the best passing games that we've seen from these guys. Plus Baylor Shireman and everything he did. That's all coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Turbo Tax. 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Trading involves significant risk and it's not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood Derivatives llc, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. It's a Monday through Friday. Podcasting a bonus podcast all week long. So sometimes you're getting 5. No, it's usually like 6, 7, maybe 8, 9, 10. I just did like the Sesame street song. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. That's. That's how many podcasts you might get in a week. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I love that song. I'm John Corrales, by the way, who's just. That's who's annoying you right now. I've been cop. I've been covering the Celtics for 20 years. I'm doing it right now for SI. Celtics on SI. I've been doing this podcast for 10 years. Thank you. All of the people who came up to me and said hi. I love it. Every time I'm in here, I get people saying hi, screaming at me. Lockdown Celtics first listen. Thank you so much. I love all of you. You're the reason why I do this podcast. It's fun. It's fun to meet everybody. So, so thank you so, so much. The Jays. This. This might have been one of Their best passing games. One of the, one of the weaknesses I think for both of these guys is the passing sometimes tends to be the afterthought. I think Jalen is more guilty of this, but you get into trouble and it's like, oh, God, I'm in the air. I'm stuck. They rotated over somebody. Here, take this. That's not what the Celtics. That's not what these guys did. They, they got off the ball quickly. They read the, the defense. They, they played with really, really good pace. They played with really good physicality. They played with force. They went through bodies at the rim. Jaylen Brown, geez, who did he dunk on? I forget who. It was just decimated. Big time dunk. Baylor Scheireman, big put back dunk. They, they played just really exceptional basketball, but they, that's because they were reading the game really, really well. Jalen, Jason, both understood exactly what was going on on the floor. They, they saw everything that OKC was trying to do. When guys got blitzed, they got off the ball quickly and that led to multiple passes and good, just good ball movement. And let's see. Final 25 assists on 38 baskets. That's really good. So I thought it was an exceptional passing. Good, good game of reading the game. A good night of reading the game by Tatum and Brown. It's funny because this, this really is not even the best of these guys, but a real example of when you say, oh, oh, the Celtics are dangerous in the playoffs like this. This is the. How dangerous they can be when they're moving the ball like this. That, that's really, that's really tough to defend. And Jason had 19 points but shot 5 of 12. He was 3 of 6 from 3. He found his jumper a little bit, but a couple more finishes and he would have been up over 20. Jalen 31 points, but he did that through three quarters because he had an over in the first quarter. And the best part about how much they moved the ball is that they were still scoring. Moving the ball. Sometimes players don't like to give up the ball because they're like, I don't know if I'm going to get it back. This Celtics team is going to make the right read. They're going to make the right play all the time. And they, these guys got the ball back and made plays. Jason's rebounding 12 rebounds. His rebounding the entire time has been great. It's above his career pace, so he's rebounding better than he normally does. So on top of coming Back and looking really good just for a guy that's coming back off of Achilles surgery. Jason is rebounding like a madman. He's just chomping glass out there, just. And it's. That's. That is so important for the Celtics defense to just close. Close out these. These stops and get out there. He's a guy who can grab and go, and he did that a couple times in these. In this game and turns it into an amazing play. So great rebounding, great passing. Everything was just on point. Baylor Shireman, I mean, at minute 27, and I'm just getting to Baylor Shireman, who thumbs up, had a great game, hitting shots. He hit some shots late. There's something when he does the thumbs up, he did one towards the bench. And you know, my. My view actually, like, if you're on YouTube, over my right shoulder up there somewhere is the media section. So Baylor was actually right here on this spot right behind me, looking back at the bench. So he just did the thumbs up and like there's just something with the look on his face and the, I don't know, the floppy mullet and everything. I just couldn't help but laugh. The look on his face, the thumbs up was just hilarious. But he did a lot of good things. Obviously. He gets in there and rebounds. He got in there and defended Shay Gils Alexander. There's one play where SGA turned the ball over. You can see like Baylor's kind of reaching. And you know when you reach that, SGA is going to want to hook you. He hooks you with the off arm and then brings the ball up to gather, like he's going to take a shot, right? This is the SGA trick. You reach in, hook with the left right hand, cups the ball like this, and this constitutes a gather. So as you go up, the ball's coming here and he's can flail and now you get two shots. That's the. That's the classic SGA trick. Baylor was like, reach, reach, reach, psych. Got his hands back and sga like fumbled the ball and turned it over. But he wasn't even going to get that. Even if he came back to get the ball towards his hands, he wasn't going to be able to hook Baylor. So that was a really great play. I think Baylor did a really good job. The Celtics do not really lose often when you get. Obviously when you get performances like you did from the Jays, but when you get a performance like you got Peyton Pritchard plus one off the bench, right? So Peyton Pritchard who was good in this game, 14 points, 5 of 11 shooting, 4 of 6 from 3. He hit some big shots along the way and, and was a team high plus 11 along with Baylor, both team high plus 11. When you get Peyton plus one contributing, then the Celtics are going to win probably 99% of those games. And so it was Pritchard plus Shireman in this one. Sometimes it's Pritchard plus Hugo, sometimes it's Pritchard plus Garza. But you need two. You need two guys off the bench and it's almost always Pritchard. You need two guys off the bench to support what Jalen, Jason or both of those guys are doing. So sometimes, I mean, you don't need it all the time. Sometimes you get a big Derrick White game. You know, D. White was fine, but he didn't shoot well. 3 of 11, 12 points, 6 assists. Just quiet. A quiet game from him for the most part. Sam Houser again, struggled, was 1 for 5 to start the game and then, you know, didn't do a ton, was okay. But you need, you need something. If you can get Jalen, Jason or both and then get two other guys off the bench, you're going to win most of these games. So shout out to Baylor Scheireman for just. Joe said it after the game. He's got a knack. He's got a knack for making these kinds of plays and you know what Peyton, Pritchard is capable of doing. There's been a lot of chatter about, oh, these guys are in slumps, you know, now that Tatum is back and blah, blah, blah. Just as time goes on and these guys start to figure it out, the. The shooting is going to come around. It's not going to be so bad. Good to see Peyton hit some shots. Good to see Baylor hit a couple of shots. This is great. So great. Win all the way around. I'll watch the game again. Maybe I'll give you a bonus podcast with a few more thoughts. Maybe Tom Westerholm will be on to discuss some other things. We got podcasts going like crazy, so I would love it if you are subscribed to the show, however you do it. You audio video. You can watch me on video. I love being here at TD Garden on the floor. I'm on the parquet floor podcasting for you here. So you got to watch the show on YouTube. Get into the comment section on YouTube. That's the best way to interact with me, your fellow Celtics fans, your everydayers who are with me every Monday through Friday. And all these bonus podcasts. Now the only favor I ask from you is to share the podcast, spread the word and 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. Not to brag or anything, But Arby's new 7.99 meat and three box is kind of a big deal. The other guys give you just one side, we give you three sides. Not to brag. 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Podcast: Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Episode: STATEMENT: Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum POWER Boston Past OKC Thunder in Big Win
Host: John Karalis
Date: March 26, 2026
This episode covers the Boston Celtics' resounding 10-point victory over reigning NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Host John Karalis analyzes why this game was a vital, momentum-shifting "statement win" for the Celtics as they overcame sluggish starts, dictated the second half, and saw standout performances from Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and key bench players. The episode dives deep into game flow, individual performances, locker room sentiment, and the role of passing, rebounding, and mental toughness in producing a playoff-like win at TD Garden.
Timestamps: [04:15] – [08:40]
Timestamps: [03:00] – [06:30]
Timestamps: [09:30] – [13:00]
Timestamps: [13:05] – [15:20]
Timestamps: [16:15] – [22:40]
Timestamps: [23:05] – [25:30]
Timestamps: [25:50] – [30:00]
On the Narrative Swing:
“It is too much of this, you know, narratives blowing in the wind, right? Celtics lose a game or they look bad as, oh, here we go... then they look good and it’s a, hey, maybe, maybe they are the favorites after all.” (John Karalis, [10:00])
Jaylen Brown’s joy after getting SGA with his own move:
“He got SGA to bite on an up fake... JB goes up, hits the shot, gets the foul. As he turns around and walks like backwards, he can't help but smile.” (John Karalis, [17:45])
On mental relief:
“You need to be able to go home from a tough day at work... We did good today. We needed this day. We got it, and we feel great, great about where we are.” (John Karalis, [15:23])
Atmosphere at the Garden:
“When the Celtics came back and tied the game in the second quarter, the building just exploded louder here than you would find in a lot of arenas.” (John Karalis, [13:35])
John Karalis wrapped up by emphasizing that games like this are more than “just one of 82.” The renewed energy, the bench stepping up, the Jays' dominance and maturity, and the “satisfying” nature of this win create vital momentum as the team heads into the season’s home stretch. The episode leaves Celtic fans optimistic about the team’s playoff prospects, especially when the ball is moving and the supporting cast delivers.