
Celtics' defensive woes exposed in 76ers clash. Can Brown step up as a leader? John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal dissects Boston's late-game struggles against Philadelphia, highlighting communication breakdowns and positioning issues. The analysis covers Jaylen Brown's expanded role, Anfernee Simons' defensive growth, and the challenges faced by Celtics' big men. Karalis also tackles the NBA's recent gambling scandal, proposing solutions to protect the game's integrity. Tune in for expert insights on the Celtics' path forward and the league's response to off-court controversies.
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I'm Scott Hanson, host of NFL Red Zone. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. That's why we're here to help you get your next DIY project done. Even when the clock isn't on your side. Whether that's a new Filtreat filter or Bosch and Cobalt power tools, Lowe's has everything you need to feel like the MVP of diy. So get it done and earn your Sunday Shop now in store and online. Lowe's official partner of the NFL what really happened in the last five minutes against the Philadelphia 76ers? I will break that down. Plus a look at Anthony Simon's defense right now on the Locked on Celtics podcast. Huh? Yep, yep yep. Be down be ever ready. It's the seas. Who else could it be? What they going to say now? Screaming like J.T. corrales we kept the madness every game, every practice prime time Depp and D White on the sideline. Ren and J. How was started Raising banners how we finish Locked on Celtics pod Home of the winners. Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast network. It's your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics. I talk about them Monday through Friday Bonus podcast like the one coming up tomorrow after they play the Knicks in New York. So whenever they plan the weekends you get another free podcast. They're all free. They're available everywhere. Monday through Friday they're on YouTube. Getting in the comments section there. Join your fellow every dayers people who are with me when I drop a new show daily. So go ahead, subscribe. I'm John Corrales, be writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've written a couple books about the team. I've been covering this team for about 20 years now. So I love talking about the Celtics. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins you get 300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to FanDuel.com to get started later on. I know we just talked about FanDuel, but later on we're going to talk about gambling in the NBA. Obviously, big breaking news. I think we all have to talk about it and we'll do that in the third segment. We'll get to Anthony Simon's defense in the second segment. But I want to start with the last five minutes of the game against the Sixers. I took a deeper dive. In fact, on Friday morning I, I will be publishing on Boston Sports Journal. I did a film session, I did a 45 minute. The video went longer than I thought it would, but it ended up being a 45 minute film session on everything that happened both sides of the ball in the last five minutes of the game. So I took a really, really close look at it and I think my, my where I finally settled on where that game kind of fell apart is such a combination of things. I think you have guys who are doing things or being asked to do things that they haven't normally done and that goes for guys like the Mishkeda, Xavier Tillman to Jalen Brown and Peyton Pritchard. So it's across the board. You have guys being put in positions to do things that they maybe can't do like Kada and Tillman trying to switch onto Xavier Tillman that, I mean on to Tyrese Maxi asking, I mean anybody picking up Maxi on a switch is you're, you're in for a tough night. But it's not like you're, you know, Lou Dort out there or you know, Dyson Daniels, they, Davier and, and X. They do certain things. Well. Switching on to, switching on to Maxi is, is a problem. And there were a couple of instances where they were kind of there. They kind of wanted, you can tell they kind of wanted to do the, what they were supposed to do. But their own weaknesses, their own limitations kind of pulled them out of the play. And it's like you're, you're going down the stretch against a high level player like Maxi and you're asking these guys who normally don't play in those situations to make these plays. And I think it's probably a bit too much to ask of those guys. There were some timing issues. There were some things where guys weren't on the same page. One play really, really stood out to me in, in the last couple of minutes Derrick White and Jalen Brown ran a pick and roll and it was Perfect. It was. I want to say it was like a minute and a half to go. Celtics were up four, and they had the whole thing set up. Jalen is not a, not, not normally a pick setter. And when he does set picks, it's usually because he has a mismatch that, you know, Jason Tatum wanted to attack, and so. So Jalen comes up, they get the switch, Jalen gets out of the way, Jason goes one on one, or he's trying to get a mismatch, he knows they're switching, and so he will set a pick to get the mismatch for himself. That's kind of the extent of Jalen Brown's pick setting. So when he set a pick with Derrick White, there is a spot where Jalen's like, hey, great, I got the matchup I wanted. I. I got an advantageous match up here, and I'm gonna get the ball, get it to me. You get out of the way. I'm gonna cook. Derek ran a pick and roll because he runs pick and rolls all the time. And when there's a lane to pass, he sees an opportunity to lead the roll. Man, two guys went to him. There was a wide open lane. The read, the point guard read is, I'm gonna lead you so you can go down the lane and maybe get a shot at the basket. So Jalen went one way, Derek passed the other way, and Jalen did kind of get his fingertips on the ball and regain control. But by that time, the play was kind of busted, and Jalen ended up getting a contested elbow jumper that missed. If he had read the play as a roll man, the way a roll man should read the play, he would have been led to the basket. Maybe he would have gotten a dunk. Maybe he would have gotten a dump off to Xavier Tillman. Maybe Tillman would have had a layup, or Tillman would have kicked it to the corner for a Sam Houser 3. This is what I'm talking about, where guys are being asked to do things they don't normally do, and that goes all the way to the top, all the way to Jalen Brown. And I'm. I. I'm, in a sense, blaming Jalen for this, but I don't blame Jalen for this. That's not what his. His level of expertise is. That's not. For years and years and years of him playing NBA basketball, he has almost never set a pick so he could roll to the basket and get a leading pass so he can make a play or get a dunk like that. That has never been his game. The instincts kick in. He knows what he wants to get. And in a clutch situation, he wanted to go to a place he was comfortable. That is absolutely understandable. Absolutely understandable. And now this is the Celtics challenge. With this new configuration, the. The new responsibilities, the way the team is constructed, I liked that pick and roll. That was a. That was executed well, but it. The read wasn't there. And so that's where Jalen. I talked about this a few few episodes ago. Jalen's level of awareness has to reach another level for the Celtics to win, if they want to win 45 plus games. It has to reach a level where I would. I would be insanely impressed if he can get there, because this is habits. This is years of habits. He almost has to break himself of all of the things that he knows how to do. I think he can do it. He's absolutely capable of doing it. But when I say the level of recognition, the things that he has to do that he hasn't normally had to do, that is a big ask of someone who is in what year? 10. Even on the defensive end, there was one particular play where Jalen had. I forget who it was driving down. Oh, it was Edgecombe. It was VJ Edgecombe. Because I. I noted in the video that is a rookie coming down the lane. Jalen is in the middle of the lane. And it was a perfect situation to draw a charge. I can't tell you the last time Jaylen Brown drew a charge. Set. His feet took one to the chest, fell backwards, and drew an offensive foul. That's not his game. He's a super athlete, and he wants to go up and block the shot. He wants to use his athleticism to block the shot. But that situation called for setting up, taking the charge. Just a simple play. Get the turnover. Because you have VJ Edgecomb, who was having a monster game coming down the lane. You know he wants to dunk on you. You know he's gonna. He. He's building up ahead of steam. You're in position. He was out of the restricted area. He was there. All you had to do was protect yourself. Take one to the chest. Boom. Offensive foul. You draw the turnover. Go down, you score, you extend your lead. But Jalen went up to try to. To challenge the shot. And he did challenge the shot. They did miss that shot. But on the back end of that play is Peyton Pritchard defending three guys. Because of the way the rotation set up, Pritchard is now stuck and a big or the the biggest guy on the floor for Philly ducks in. Pritchard does his best to try to push him underneath the basket to try to get the rebound. He tried but couldn't. Couldn't move him, couldn't out jump him. Too short to get to the ball and they get a put back. And so in a vacuum, you say, well, Jaylen challenged the shot and that's, that was good. But the play called for a to take a charge. And so again, I'm using Jalen as the example because he's the best player on the floor for Boston and those are the things he has to do. He has to get his head to a place now where you are a charge taker. You have to recognize when to take the offensive foul. You are a role man. Sometimes you, you are doing things that are out of your comfort zone. And that's where I think Jalen and others. I saw Mimi, I saw X, I saw Pritchard, I even saw Derek White a couple of times. Just in places where you're like, this is not exactly their wheelhouse. So did they make mistakes? Yes. There's, you know, a bad closeout. Like I said, there were timing issues. There are, you know, guys not on the same page, a lack of communication where two, three guys ended up on one player because you don't have a big. This is a problem for the Celtics. You, the bigs that they have. And let me, when I come back, I'll talk about the bigs. The bigs that they have are not able to do what the bigs did before. Communication wise especially. I'll expand on that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met us match with Robinhood. You play for the win. Not just on game day, every day. Walking in on every opening, beating your pr, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robinhood puts you in control of your money trade. 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Visit door-inyour bag.com for full details. Doordash in your bag all season long. Thanks for making lockdown Celtics your first listener today. Go check out lockdown NBA game night. They're covering that monster game and another double OT win for the Thunder. Thunder have played two games and where they've played was that 8, 16, 12 periods, 4 overtimes. So it's an extra 20 minutes. They played two and a half games with two wins. So yeah, locked enemy. A game night's gonna have the whole thing covered plus the whole league every night, seven games a week plus locked on MBN the same, same feed every day. All right, let's get back to the bigs here because I think Celtics big men, it's not just what can they do on the floor? What can't they do on the floor? Like I, like I said, the, the, the switching on to maxi was a problem and you know, there are limitations to all of these guys. Kata I thought had, you know, he did have a really good game. He made some defensive mistakes and the fouls were a little too much. He made, you know, a couple of, couple of decisions that I, I'm sure he wanted to take back. But beyond that, the Celtics are often finding these guys now pulled out to the three point line and they just don't have the, the communication on the back end to be able to direct guys. Honestly, Al Horford is one of the things that he did great was they, he was able to keep the defense organized and the. Stylistically, the Celtics are taking so many more chances that the bigs are, are, are in a different spot. The, the defense is situated differently where last season, as Peyton Pritchard has put it, it was a safe defense and you, you, you didn't chase as much, you didn't gamble as much and your bigs kind of stayed where they were supposed to be and they would call out coverages and call out where guys were supposed to be. That communication cost the Celtics down the stretch. If they just had that communication, they probably would have gotten a couple more stops and they would have been okay. So I would say that the miscommunication cost them and it was the Ubere three in the corner. There was an offensive putback. So that's five points. There might be another one in there. So at least five, maybe seven points in a one point loss that just communication alone would have solved. So everything else being the same communication alone would have stopped a few of those plays. So that's something that the bigs that they have just not at that mental level, they're not there in the style of defense, doesn't put a big traditionally where he would be. And it again, it's going to be up to guys like Jalen because Jalen found himself in the middle of the paint sometimes he's going to have to call that stuff out. It's a ton of responsibility. I think maybe my biggest takeaway after that first game, having rewatched everything, is Jalen is going to have so much more responsibility beyond, hey, he's going to make a few more plays and he's got to distribute a little bit more and he has to be aware of, he has to be aware of so much more. It is, I mean it's such a huge ask. And even like this isn't a knock on Jalen. They're, they're asking, they're going to be asking him to take on the responsibilities of a point guard, of a center, of, you know, Marcus Smart, you know, the, the of Derrick Whiteley. Those, those kind of mentalities. He's gonna have to like embody all of that. And I'm sure he's, he's gonna say, well, I'm up to that challenge. Okay, good. I hope you Are. Because if the Celtics are going to be any good in a playoff team, if they want. They want to be a playoff team, Jalen's going to have to be like, this is going to have to be the absolute highest iq, smartest year Jalen has ever played. And his stats may not even change even it. I would even say if Jalen does all the other stuff, his stats can go down. It would be the best year of his career if he can do all that other stuff. That would be the most impressive thing that I've ever seen. So anyway, the Celtics bigs don't have that capability. And. And they're at. They're asked to do a lot now. Anthony Simons on defense also has to do a lot. And this is. Again, when you don't have traditional big men back there protecting the rim, there's a lot of pressure on somebody like Simons to come in and stay in front of a guy. I thought Simons did okay on defense. I would say it was a little bit of a mixed bag right now. His biggest issue, I'll say issues, plural, is still, I think maybe overreacts tiny bit and gets caught going too far one way when he should be, I think, in front. Now there are a couple of those. Couple of those things that I saw that I'm like, oh, was that an overreaction? And it's more like, I think that's how he's coached. And they. I think the Celtics right now might be okay with some of those overreactions because it's just a matter of. It's one of those cases where you'd rather have a guy do too much and rein it in than not do enough and try to pull it out of him. That, I think, is where Simons is on some of those plays where there was one in the last few minutes where I think Barlow had the ball at the. At the free throw line and Simons, you know, he had his back to Simons, and Simons is like, I know that when I see somebody's back, I'm supposed to go in there and try to strip it. And then it pulled him kind of out of position. And that threw the rest of the defense into rotation, and they gave up an offensive rebound. That's one of those where I think the Celtics are just gonna have to live with the results of that play because that's. Simons can say I. I saw his back, I thought I saw the ball. I kind of went for it, and it just kind of wasn't there. Fine. Fine. Early Growing pains, That's one you live with. It's not a big deal. The other issue, though is I think he has to figure this out. When you hit him with a pick, you know, like in a pick and roll, not navigating off ball screens, when you hit him with a pick, he tends to die just a little bit. And he sticks, he sticks to it too much. But we also saw, and I tweeted this out, 4 minutes to go in the third quarter, the absolute best defensive possession I've seen out of Simons maybe ever. Picking up three quarter court, switching, navigating off ball screens, staying in front, forcing a pass. Beautiful stuff. So he has it in him. So I, I was really impressed with that defensive possession and really impressed that the effort. So the effort is there. He's listening to the coaching, he's making mistakes. That in game one of the season, I think, fine, you obviously don't want to see the mistakes. And now you go into New York and you say, okay, correct, correct. One or two of these things. Stop making the same mistake over and over again. We don't want to see that. That's where you tend to have problems as a coach. You say, okay, you've made this mistake. Here's the film. You get it. We drill it. Don't make that mistake again. Or if you do, maybe you. It's not as egregious. As long as there's progress, as long as there's some semblance of he's getting it. That's where you need to be with Simon. So in one of the biggest storylines of the off season, Simon's defense, I like the effort. I think some of the execution on some possessions, it's like 75, great execution. And then, boom, here comes the screen. You're like, ah, okay, work, we're gonna work on this. But I, I do think that he's, he's actually trying to do what the Celtics want. And that's kind of all you can ask. And if he keeps trying to do that, that'll be good. The key here, I'll wrap this up on this. You can, like, everybody is trying to do what the coaches want in game one. Can you do that in game 10, game 20, game 30? Sometimes when you get beat, can you, can you make a mistake and not hang your head? Can you make a couple of mistakes and not be like, you know what, screw this, I'm just going back to my old habits. That's going to be where it goes. So right now, fine, I kind of like where he's at where he is. It's, he's in a good spot. It's not, he's not a good defender yet necessarily, he's in a good spot. And he had that one tremendous possession where you, you see the, the, you see, you see it, you just see it. So. Welcome back. I just, I have to talk about this gambling scandal in the NBA. Do that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by Rugiettes. Let's be real, making excuses doesn't solve anything. Just sitting here talking about all the excuses the Celtics are trying to avoid. But we've heard them all ourselves before, right? It's just stress. I'm tired. 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With NBA new customers, you just bet $5. You get 300 in bonus bets if you win. So you pick a bet, put down five bucks if it hits you unlock 300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So you can, you use a lot. There are a lot of different ways to play. You can build a parlay, try player props, even follow live lines during games. Makes football, basketball. You know, a little something extra on the game can make it a little bit more fun. So very important though when you sign up, it'll give you the option to set your budget. Set your limit, please, please do that. Set your limit at whatever you can afford to lose. If you happen to hit a cold streak and you lose that, it'll stop you. You can come back to it later and you can pick it back up where, you know, maybe, maybe you can hit a couple. The whole point is gamble responsibly. Go to FanDuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Thanks for making Locked on Celtics your first listen every day. Make your second listen Locked on NBA Locked on Fantasy basketball, that is. I already talked about lockdown. Lockdown Fantasy basketball with Josh Lloyd, the absolute best when it comes to fantasy basketball podcasting. You're going to learn a lot about the game. You're going to learn a lot about fantasy basketball. You're going to win your league because he's going to help you with all the drops and ads and all that stuff throughout the season. Now people are going to be like, how did you know to pick this person up? Because Josh Lloyd told you and you pay attention. So check it out wherever you got this podcast. All right, let's get into this, this scandal here. It's, it's the biggest thing in the NBA right now. And look, we know I just didn't add for FanDuel. Gambling is, is kind of everywhere, but there's legal gambling where you and I put down a few bucks. That is totally fine. Right? What is happening in the NBA is a different, a different animal. And the league has to, has to embrace what's happening here and embrace that these things are happening, that the authorities are, are catching it that often. It's a sports book that recognizes some unusual activity is coming in on a player. The league has to be fully, fully invested. You can't just take the money from sports betting and move, you know, be like, hey, that's it. We're, we're, we're fine. Can't be lip service. The league has to embrace this, has to work with all of the sports book everywhere. When they find unusual betting patterns, they have to pounce. They have to investigate, they have to get the authorities involved. We can't have these multi year FBI investigations. These, these things where the league, it's like, oh, yeah, we looked into Terry Rosier. Nothing we can do. He's cleared. And then all of a sudden, big, massive FBI investigation. That's not a good look. I'm, I'm fine. Like legalized sports gambling, to me, it's like drinking. You know, I listen, one of my best friends, an alcoholic, is really struggling. But that's an issue that some people have to deal with and try to get the help that they need and hopefully they're able to do that. But that doesn't mean that I can't go out and have a drink with my friends, you know, it's all about responsibility. It's all about personal responsibility. Anything that's out there, if it's not done responsibly, is potentially dangerous. So, like driving a car, even, like. So I think where the league dropped the ball is, is kind of, I think, letting it from what it seems, get to a point where you, hey, they looked into it and now we're here. Like, how can you look into something and not find anything when there's this big, massive FBI investigation? Now, I understand the league doesn't have, you know, the authority to, to subpoena people. They don't have the ability to, like, take somebody's phone, a personal phone, and like, somebody's connected to somebody, the league can't go to that person, be like, give me your phone. You know, but the cops can, the FBI can, and that's the difference. Right? And that. So there is some, some leeway here with the NBA, but the, the responsibility. When you, when you're getting into bed with an entity that can affect, directly impact the games and call into question the integrity of the sport, you have no choice but to be extraordinarily vigilant, extraordinarily proactive and to make sure that you're not putting players in a situation where they, they can be tempted to do certain things. Maybe player props need to end. Maybe we need to not do the player prop bets and how many point because it's too easy to have somebody say, oh, I'm hurt, I'm leaving. Oh, geez, all my unders hit. Oh, who, who saw that coming? Maybe player props need to be looked at. And that, that's something that I think is very much on the table. It has to be on the table. The league cannot, cannot put the integrity of the sport in jeopardy for a few extra bucks. I would rather they lose a little bit of money because they put limits on some of the live stuff, the in game stuff, than say, hey, no, we're doing what we can, and it's up to everybody else. It's not us. No, you have to, you have to find a way, like, yeah, I get it. You, you want to have people engaged and it's a revenue stream and all that stuff. But look, come on, you got to have a little bit of integrity here and understand what's happening and pull back, pull back some of the stuff that puts the game at risk. Okay? That's, that's it. That. Pull back on things that put the game at risk and, and you'll be okay. Now, this isn't even talking about the Chauncey Billups alleged poker. That, that's a, that's a whole different thing. That's, that's just illegal gambling with Mafia ties, which is crazy. That is a crazy story. I can at least understand a player, maybe not Terry Rozier, but maybe a player that's kind of like on the, on the cusp and, you know, struggling and, and maybe falling in with the wrong people and like making some bad choices. That's one thing. Getting into bed, allegedly with the Mafia. If that's true. Well, some, it's, some of it happened. Whether, whether Chauncey Billups is involved or not, I don't know. But somebody ran an illegal gambling poker ring with X ray tables and, you know, rigged card shufflers like that. The whole thing is just crazy. That is like, you have to make a series of choices to be involved with that. So I don't know if Chauncey did it or not. Somebody was involved, whoever was involved with that made a series of choices to be there. And that's crazy to me. I, I don't know. I, I, you know, I, I hope, I hope none of this actually happened, but I don't think we get here without something, something to it. So we'll see how it goes. But right now, everything's alleged. Everybody's innocent until proven guilty, but we'll see. But the league, the league has to, has to. You have no choice. It doesn't matter if you piss off the, the sports books. It doesn't matter. You have to be, you have to be at the front of the line on this. Eliminate the things that can manipulate a game. Eliminate the, the, the stuff that a player can look at and say, okay, I have the power to change the outcomes of certain parts of this game so somebody I know can make money that you have to eliminate. Absolutely. Because I, I will not like, I, I can't stand a. You know, if the commissioner and these owners aren't willing to protect the integrity of the game, then we, we have to, we have to come up with a solution. Something, Something has to change. And so we'll see what happens from here. It's, it's, this is a pivotal moment for Adam Silver, a pivotal moment for him as commissioner. Right. He already faced one, you know, years ago with the Clippers, and he was strong on that one. This is worse. This is worse. Okay. Or at least as bad on a different level, but at least as bad. So he has to, has to be strong on this one. We'll see where it goes. All right. That's the show. I'll be back after the Knicks game with a bonus podcast. Bonus podcast could be 10 minutes, could be 40 minutes. Who knows? It's a bonus podcast, so we'll see how the game goes and I'll treat it appropriately. Podcast will be there after the game. It will be free. It will be available everywhere. It'll be on YouTube. So get into the comment section on any one of my videos and share your thoughts there. Join the Everydayers Join the Celtics community. There are a lot of great conversations happening in the comments section. So join it and then share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics Podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, it's your team every day.
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Host: John Karalis
Date: October 24, 2025
In this episode, John Karalis takes a deep dive into the Boston Celtics' late-game collapse against the Philadelphia 76ers. Using film breakdown and sharp analysis, he examines the critical mistakes, player responsibilities (especially Jaylen Brown’s expanding role), and the challenges facing Boston’s big men on defense. The episode also touches on Anfernee Simons’ defensive development and offers commentary on the growing NBA gambling scandals and their implications for league integrity.
Timestamps: [03:30] – [16:00]
Culprits Behind the Collapse:
The Challenge for Jaylen Brown:
Defensive Mistakes:
Team-wide Theme:
Timestamps: [16:15] – [21:45]
Defensive Structure Shifts:
Missed Assignments & Points Off Miscommunication:
Jaylen Brown's Expanding Burden:
Timestamps: [21:45] – [28:10]
Early Evaluations:
Standout Defensive Sequence:
Developmental Trajectory:
Timestamps: [28:35] – [35:50]
Current State:
League’s Duty:
Player Props Under Scrutiny:
Call for Action:
Chauncey Billups Allegations:
On Brown’s Role Expansion:
On Communication Breakdown:
On Simons’ Defensive Focus:
On the NBA’s Gambling Problem:
John Karalis delivers a detailed, critical, and engaging post-mortem on the Celtics' collapse, emphasizing how player roles and mental adaptability will define this team's ceiling. Jaylen Brown’s development as a multi-dimensional leader is positioned as a pivotal storyline, while defensive chemistry and communication are exposed as current weaknesses. Karalis’ straight talk on NBA gambling issues rounds out the episode, making this an essential listen for any Celtics or NBA fan wanting to understand not just what happened, but why it happened and what needs to change.