December 4, 2025 • 20 mins
The Celtics took care of business on the first night of a back-to-back, and they did it in emphatic fashion by beating the Washington Wizards by a ridiculous 45 points. Oh, and they did it without Jaylen Brown! How, you might ask? We’ve got the answers, and they start with Derrick White and Jordan Walsh.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Sound Off with me folks on the Boston Celtics taking
care of business on the first night of a back
to back and logging a forty five point win on
the road over the Washington Wizards. This is the sound
Off Postgame podcast presented by Exfinity Mobile and I appreciate
you giving us a listen. Let's dive into this game.
(00:28):
As I said, a forty five point win. That is
a season best point differential for the Boston Celtics. And
on top of that, this win pushes the Celtics up
to having the fifth best point differential in the entire NBA.
(00:50):
I'm gonna repeat that, this forty five point victory has
pushed the Boston Celtics into the fifth batt scoring differential
in the entire NBA. Did anyone expect that to be
the case a month and a half into the season,
(01:11):
before this season began, I doubt it. I doubt it
for anyone outside of that locker room. I highly doubt
that anyone could have predicted that the Celtics would be
in this spot today. But here they are winners of
eight of their last ten. They are winners of thirteen
(01:32):
of their last nineteen. Basically that's every game since they
opened up the season oh to three. And as we
all know, they struggled a bit during that first week
of the season, but slowly but surely, they found their
way in Right now they are playing like a well
oiled machine. Oh and by the way, Jalen Brown, their
(01:52):
leading scorer in a top ten NBA MVP candidate this season,
didn't even play in this game. Derek White only played
twenty eight plus minutes in this game and they still
won by forty five.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So how did they do it?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
How did they win this game by forty five points
to take care of business on the first night of
a back to back. Well, some trends don't go away,
and this trend is a very important one and honestly
a shocking one that has begun to present itself over
the past few weeks of the season. Jordan Walsh is
(02:35):
a game changer, my friends. Like, this guy isn't just
playing elite defense, but now he's starting to pair some
pretty dang good offense along with that defense. Tonight, he
set a new career scoring high in the first half.
He had fifteen points during the first half. His previous
(02:56):
career high in scoring was fourteen for an entire game,
and he just did that on Sunday. He finishes this
game with a career high twenty two points, did not
miss a shot from the field, eight for eight from the.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Field, one of one from long distance.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
As our good friend Taylor Snow of Celtics dot Com
tweeted out during this game, he is the first player
in a long time to log anything close to those
types of numbers in Celtics Green. In fact, it is
the first time since March second, nineteen eighty six, when
(03:36):
Kevin McHale put up numbers like that. We're talking about
almost forty years since the last time a Boston Celtics
scored at least twenty two points without missing a shot,
and Jordan Walsh is the man who did it. He
(03:57):
was unbelievable yet again, as I said, twenty two points,
seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, a block shot. He's
given the Celtics everything they need from him right now,
and he is certainly one of the key reasons why
they have been on a steep incline in terms of
(04:20):
the level of basketball that they are playing this season.
But he's not the only one who had a great
night Derek White. And by the way, all of those
numbers that I rattled off about where the Boston Celtics
are right now, winners of thirteen of their last nineteen,
winners of eight of their last ten. This is all
while Derek White is having a pretty underwhelming shooting season,
(04:43):
like he has not shot the ball all too well
this season. The full numbers thirty seven percent from the field,
less than thirty two percent from long distance. It's a
guy who shot forty four percent from the field and
thirty eight percent from three point t ranged last season,
but it started to turn tonight and that is a dangerous,
(05:06):
dangerous thing for Celtics opponents. Okay, no Jalen Brown. So
Derek White steps into that leading role. Thirty points, a
season high, nine assists, a game high. By the way,
those thirty points were a game high too, so let's
rephrase it. Thirty points, a game high, nine assists, a
game high seven rebounds, a steal plus seventeen and the
(05:32):
plus minus twelve of twenty one from the field. Just
an unbelievable offensive performance from him when he starts to
shoot the ball like that. And listen watching Derek White
for a few seasons now sometimes it's like he just
needs to get a good game under his belt. And
that's the thing that just he doesn't like tap the
(05:52):
door open. He kicks the door open and I think
now he's about to walk through. So the Celtics have
done what they've done so far the season. Well, Derek
White hasn't really shot the ball that well, hasn't played
great offensively. Just imagine where they can go if he
starts to shoot the ball like he has the past
few seasons. Well, tonight was a pretty good indication of
(06:14):
what they can look like. And again that was without
Jylen Brown. He was awesome tonight with a capital A.
Derek White looked like the old Derek White that we
saw the last couple of seasons in terms of shooting
the basketball. And like I said, that is a dangerous,
dangerous sight for everyone around the NBA because when he's
(06:36):
clicking and Jalen Brown's clicking, and you've got all of
these long, athletic wings and then Peyton Pritchard scoring the ball,
Anthony Simon scoring the ball like boy oh boy, this
team is certainly shown that it can be a dangerous
one to play against. All Right, another guy who played
(06:56):
pretty well. Peyton Pritchard another twenty point game for him.
He also dished out eight assists, who he was right
behind Derek White for the game high in that category
and by the way, thirty five assists for the Celtics team.
The ball was popping, it had great energy behind it.
No wonder why they shot fifty five percent from the
field forty three percent from the long range. I mean,
(07:17):
obviously a big part of that was Jordan Walsh and
Derek White, but again, another strong performance from Peyton Pritchard.
Like Anthony Simon's comes out the bench, has a big
second half, winds up with sixteen points off the bench,
four of eight from long distance. Everything's starting to come together, folks,
and listen, this is what the Celtics did tonight. And
(07:40):
I mean sure winning by forty five points, but really
just what they did in terms of putting this game away.
This was a six point game at halftime, six point
game in halftime, and they won by forty five.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
They outscored them by thirty nine points during the second
half alone.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
But regardless of what the final score was, the Celtics
did what they needed to do. This was the first
night of a back to back for the team. Okay,
they're flying back from DC tonight and they are playing
host to the Lakers tomorrow in primetime. Lebron is in town,
(08:24):
Austin Reeves is in town. We're gonna see if Luka
Doncic is in town. But this is Lakers Celtics. Okay,
you got to bring your best, and now the Celtics
might be able to bring their best because they're gonna
be feeling nice and fresh again. Jalen Brown didn't play tonight,
Hopefully he's good for tomorrow. Derek White didn't play a
ton of minutes, Like not not really, anyone on the
(08:46):
team had to play a ton of minutes. So they
should be feeling pretty dang good going into that game
tomorrow night against the Lakers. This is exactly what they
needed to do. Take care of business, play a strong
game at both ends of the court, let the talent
take the game where it did or where it was
ever gonna go, and where it went was to a
(09:07):
forty five point victory. So props to the Seas for like,
you never know, like this is kind of what some
people might say as kind of a schedule loss. Or
like a sleeper game where the Celtics could have overlooked
this one. You got the lowly Washington Wizards first night
(09:28):
of a back to back, and you know that you've
got those Lakers looming the next night back at ted
Guard and the only time LA's coming to ted Garden
this season. It's a big game. So the Celtics easily
could have overlooked this Thursday night game and struggled, But
they did not struggle at all. Like they were great
(09:49):
from the jump, thirty two points during the first quarter,
played some pretty good defense. I mean, the Wizards played
shot the ball pretty well during the first quarter as well,
but the Celtics were playing really good basketball from the
get go. So just more like you're seeing more evidence
of the mental strength of what this team brings to
(10:13):
the table. And that is a very very important thing
for this team here moving forward. You don't find success
in a season, let alone in the playoffs without having
mental strength and mental wherewithal. This team is proving that
it has it. It's not giving indications that it has it,
it is proving that it has it. A nice little
(10:37):
mindset win tonight down in DC, all right, real quick,
before we dive into some comments from our fans. We'll
give you a quick note from our sponsor, Exfinity Mobile.
Celtics fans want to keep your phone as fresh as
your kicks. With Exfinity Mobile, you can upgrade to a
new device every year, So send that old phone to
(10:59):
the bench and stay ahead of the game. Exfinity imagine that.
All right, back to our favorite part of the show,
which is our comments from our fans. We got a
bunch of good ones tonight. We took two of them.
Our first one's coming in from Keith Grant, who clearly
has been watching the Celtics for a while because he's
got a comment about who Jordan Walsh is looking like.
(11:22):
And it's an interesting one because this player was an
unbelievable defender for the Boston Celtics for a long time.
And our final comment of the night is coming in
from Ricardo Kuna, and this one is about Joe Missoula
and the props that Missoula deserves for what he is
bringing out of this Celtics team this season. All right,
(11:42):
so let's dive into the first one here. As I said,
this one is coming in from Keith Grant.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, I think You're wonder put your mobile bill in
half and saved sixty five dollars a month for your
first year with all.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Right, folks, first comment of the night coming in from
Keith Grant, who says, Jordan Walsh is looking like Avery
Bradley in his prime. All right, some of our podcast
listeners might have only been seven, eight, nine years old
during those latter years with Avery Bradley. I don't know
(12:26):
if everyone who's listening really understands how great of a
defender Avery Bradley was in his prime.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Like, that guy.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Really got into offensive players space, he really made them uncomfortable.
And I love what Keith Grant is saying because that
is exactly what Jordan Walsh is doing right now. The
difference here is that Avery Bradley had a super low
center of gravity. He was only like six three sixty four.
Jordan Walsh brings so much more length and size to
(12:57):
the table and you can see that with all of
that combined, he really is impacting the ball in a
very similar way to what Avery Bradley did back in
the day. And Avery's one of my favorite guys to
ever walk through the Celtics locker room. Just like Super humble,
and it was great to see him turn into what
(13:18):
he did as a defender, got props from people around
the league saying that he was one of the, if
not the most difficult perimeter defender.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
To face on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And Jordan Walsh has not gotten to that place yet,
Like he has not built that reputation, especially the fact
that he's just really starting to take a grasp of
this role over the past few weeks.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
But from what it's looking like on a nightly basis, like.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
It does look a lot like Avery Bradley, with the
level of impact that he is making on the ball,
with the disruptive defense that he is providing on a
nightly basis, Like I'm telling you that length and then
the agility, the instincts. When you combine that altogether, it
is so hard for someone to score against that. You
(14:08):
saw it from Donovan Mitchell on Sunday, You saw it
against Jalen Brunson on Tuesday. You saw it tonight against
at times Chris Middleton or at times CJ McCollum. And
I know those guys aren't on the same level as
the guys that I mentioned just a moment ago, But
like these are polished veteran scorers, and Jordan Walsh has
(14:33):
been making all of those players that I just mentioned
look and feel uncomfortable. And that's exactly what Avery Bradley
did back in the day. It wasn't just like sagging
off and like staying in front of his guy. It
was being up to touch, being in their airspace and
really just making them feel uncomfortable from the second they
(14:56):
cross half court. Jordan Walsh is doing that. Of this
comment from me, Keith Grant, great observation, all right, folks.
Second and final comment of the night coming in from
Ricardo Kuna, who says, Joe exclamation point, I must say,
I don't agree with everything, but damn, the chemistry of
(15:17):
the team and how they play unselfishly is amazing exclamation point.
I kind of mentioned this at the beginning. If you
could have predicted something of where this team is now
before this seat, like you're lying to me, if you
would have thought that this would be the case, this
team looks so tied together, from the bench and the
(15:43):
guys rooting the players on who are on the floor,
to like the way that they are executing on the floor,
they really just look like a well oiled machine, a
team that there's no egos getting in the way. They
know exactly what they need to do individually and as
a unit in order to find success. Like yeah, that
(16:07):
chemistry of this team and the unselfish brand of basketball
that they have been playing.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Man, it's beautiful to watch.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It really is, and it makes it even more exciting
to watch when I mean, I don't think a whole
lot of people expected this before this season. I think
a lot of people thought, yeah, you know, maybe later
in the season February March, maybe the Celtics start to,
you know, look like a group with so many new
(16:38):
players and also new players playing new roles. We're talking
about early December, folks. We're like six weeks into the
season and the Celtics have been They look like they've
been playing together for years, and granted some of them have,
but as a unit with some guys playing on some
(17:00):
nights and other guys playing on other nights. I don't
know how they're doing this, but I know that Joe
Miszula is at the center of it all. He's got
everyone bought in to what they need to do individually
in order for this team to be successful. And I
know he's already won an NBA championship. I know people
(17:22):
talk about Missoula ball, what they really should be talking
about right now is that Joe Missoula should be very
high up on the Coach of the Year rankings. He
should be near the top. We're talking top three, top
four in the league. Tough to vote against anyone in
(17:48):
good old Oklahoma City right now with the way that
they're playing. But and the Detroit Piston seventeen to five JB. Bickerstaff,
he deserves a lot of credit. Toronto Raptors, they're playing well,
they deserve some credit, Spurs. But what Joe Missoula has
done with this team, which again I'm going to repeat
(18:09):
from the beginning of this episode, they are the fifth
best team in the league in point differential right now
in the league, not in the Eastern Conference. In the
league in point differential is one of those things that
is usually a pretty darn good indicator of just how
(18:30):
strong you are as a team. So the Celtics blow
out the Wizards on the front end of a back
to back. They take care of business to exactly what
they wanted to and needed to do, winning by forty
five points for their eighth win in their last ten games.
By the way, that is the best record in the
(18:51):
Eastern Conference of any team in their last ten games.
It's the second best record in the NBA among any
team in their last ten games. The only team that's
better is the thunder who have won ten straight. In fact,
they've won thirteen straight. But the Celtics are right behind
them with an eight and two record in their last
ten and again thirteen and six since that opening week
(19:15):
when they lost their first three games. So the Celtics
take care of business, and they do it in emphatic faction.
And now they set themselves up nice and pretty for
a Friday night showdown with the one and only Los
Angeles Lakers. It is the biggest rivalry in basketball. The
(19:39):
Purple and Gold coming to TD Garden to take on
the Green and White. This game will be on Prime Video.
Tip Off is at seven o'clock and hey, you can
catch me and Sean Grandy live tomorrow night at five
point fifty pm on the Celtics, Facebook, X and YouTube
live platforms. Come and join us. We're gonna be talking
(20:01):
everything about the game. We're gonna have the latest information,
talking about the matchup and then after the game, make
sure you take a listen and tune in to my
post on AX and respond with your thoughts on what
you saw from what went down between these two teams.
I'll take a couple and put them into our next
episode of Sound Off.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Until then, have a great night.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I'll see your Friday night from the studio at td
Garsen
Sound Off with me folks on the Boston Celtics taking
care of business on the first night of a back
to back and logging a forty five point win on
the road over the Washington Wizards. This is the sound
Off Postgame podcast presented by Exfinity Mobile and I appreciate
you giving us a listen. Let's dive into this game.
(00:28):
As I said, a forty five point win. That is
a season best point differential for the Boston Celtics. And
on top of that, this win pushes the Celtics up
to having the fifth best point differential in the entire NBA.
(00:50):
I'm gonna repeat that, this forty five point victory has
pushed the Boston Celtics into the fifth batt scoring differential
in the entire NBA. Did anyone expect that to be
the case a month and a half into the season,
(01:11):
before this season began, I doubt it. I doubt it
for anyone outside of that locker room. I highly doubt
that anyone could have predicted that the Celtics would be
in this spot today. But here they are winners of
eight of their last ten. They are winners of thirteen
(01:32):
of their last nineteen. Basically that's every game since they
opened up the season oh to three. And as we
all know, they struggled a bit during that first week
of the season, but slowly but surely, they found their
way in Right now they are playing like a well
oiled machine. Oh and by the way, Jalen Brown, their
(01:52):
leading scorer in a top ten NBA MVP candidate this season,
didn't even play in this game. Derek White only played
twenty eight plus minutes in this game and they still
won by forty five.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So how did they do it?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
How did they win this game by forty five points
to take care of business on the first night of
a back to back. Well, some trends don't go away,
and this trend is a very important one and honestly
a shocking one that has begun to present itself over
the past few weeks of the season. Jordan Walsh is
(02:35):
a game changer, my friends. Like, this guy isn't just
playing elite defense, but now he's starting to pair some
pretty dang good offense along with that defense. Tonight, he
set a new career scoring high in the first half.
He had fifteen points during the first half. His previous
(02:56):
career high in scoring was fourteen for an entire game,
and he just did that on Sunday. He finishes this
game with a career high twenty two points, did not
miss a shot from the field, eight for eight from the.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Field, one of one from long distance.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
As our good friend Taylor Snow of Celtics dot Com
tweeted out during this game, he is the first player
in a long time to log anything close to those
types of numbers in Celtics Green. In fact, it is
the first time since March second, nineteen eighty six, when
(03:36):
Kevin McHale put up numbers like that. We're talking about
almost forty years since the last time a Boston Celtics
scored at least twenty two points without missing a shot,
and Jordan Walsh is the man who did it. He
(03:57):
was unbelievable yet again, as I said, twenty two points,
seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, a block shot. He's
given the Celtics everything they need from him right now,
and he is certainly one of the key reasons why
they have been on a steep incline in terms of
(04:20):
the level of basketball that they are playing this season.
But he's not the only one who had a great
night Derek White. And by the way, all of those
numbers that I rattled off about where the Boston Celtics
are right now, winners of thirteen of their last nineteen,
winners of eight of their last ten. This is all
while Derek White is having a pretty underwhelming shooting season,
(04:43):
like he has not shot the ball all too well
this season. The full numbers thirty seven percent from the field,
less than thirty two percent from long distance. It's a
guy who shot forty four percent from the field and
thirty eight percent from three point t ranged last season,
but it started to turn tonight and that is a dangerous,
(05:06):
dangerous thing for Celtics opponents. Okay, no Jalen Brown. So
Derek White steps into that leading role. Thirty points, a
season high, nine assists, a game high. By the way,
those thirty points were a game high too, so let's
rephrase it. Thirty points, a game high, nine assists, a
game high seven rebounds, a steal plus seventeen and the
(05:32):
plus minus twelve of twenty one from the field. Just
an unbelievable offensive performance from him when he starts to
shoot the ball like that. And listen watching Derek White
for a few seasons now sometimes it's like he just
needs to get a good game under his belt. And
that's the thing that just he doesn't like tap the
(05:52):
door open. He kicks the door open and I think
now he's about to walk through. So the Celtics have
done what they've done so far the season. Well, Derek
White hasn't really shot the ball that well, hasn't played
great offensively. Just imagine where they can go if he
starts to shoot the ball like he has the past
few seasons. Well, tonight was a pretty good indication of
(06:14):
what they can look like. And again that was without
Jylen Brown. He was awesome tonight with a capital A.
Derek White looked like the old Derek White that we
saw the last couple of seasons in terms of shooting
the basketball. And like I said, that is a dangerous,
dangerous sight for everyone around the NBA because when he's
(06:36):
clicking and Jalen Brown's clicking, and you've got all of
these long, athletic wings and then Peyton Pritchard scoring the ball,
Anthony Simon scoring the ball like boy oh boy, this
team is certainly shown that it can be a dangerous
one to play against. All Right, another guy who played
(06:56):
pretty well. Peyton Pritchard another twenty point game for him.
He also dished out eight assists, who he was right
behind Derek White for the game high in that category
and by the way, thirty five assists for the Celtics team.
The ball was popping, it had great energy behind it.
No wonder why they shot fifty five percent from the
field forty three percent from the long range. I mean,
(07:17):
obviously a big part of that was Jordan Walsh and
Derek White, but again, another strong performance from Peyton Pritchard.
Like Anthony Simon's comes out the bench, has a big
second half, winds up with sixteen points off the bench,
four of eight from long distance. Everything's starting to come together, folks,
and listen, this is what the Celtics did tonight. And
(07:40):
I mean sure winning by forty five points, but really
just what they did in terms of putting this game away.
This was a six point game at halftime, six point
game in halftime, and they won by forty five.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
They outscored them by thirty nine points during the second
half alone.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
But regardless of what the final score was, the Celtics
did what they needed to do. This was the first
night of a back to back for the team. Okay,
they're flying back from DC tonight and they are playing
host to the Lakers tomorrow in primetime. Lebron is in town,
(08:24):
Austin Reeves is in town. We're gonna see if Luka
Doncic is in town. But this is Lakers Celtics. Okay,
you got to bring your best, and now the Celtics
might be able to bring their best because they're gonna
be feeling nice and fresh again. Jalen Brown didn't play tonight,
Hopefully he's good for tomorrow. Derek White didn't play a
ton of minutes, Like not not really, anyone on the
(08:46):
team had to play a ton of minutes. So they
should be feeling pretty dang good going into that game
tomorrow night against the Lakers. This is exactly what they
needed to do. Take care of business, play a strong
game at both ends of the court, let the talent
take the game where it did or where it was
ever gonna go, and where it went was to a
(09:07):
forty five point victory. So props to the Seas for like,
you never know, like this is kind of what some
people might say as kind of a schedule loss. Or
like a sleeper game where the Celtics could have overlooked
this one. You got the lowly Washington Wizards first night
(09:28):
of a back to back, and you know that you've
got those Lakers looming the next night back at ted
Guard and the only time LA's coming to ted Garden
this season. It's a big game. So the Celtics easily
could have overlooked this Thursday night game and struggled, But
they did not struggle at all. Like they were great
(09:49):
from the jump, thirty two points during the first quarter,
played some pretty good defense. I mean, the Wizards played
shot the ball pretty well during the first quarter as well,
but the Celtics were playing really good basketball from the
get go. So just more like you're seeing more evidence
of the mental strength of what this team brings to
(10:13):
the table. And that is a very very important thing
for this team here moving forward. You don't find success
in a season, let alone in the playoffs without having
mental strength and mental wherewithal. This team is proving that
it has it. It's not giving indications that it has it,
it is proving that it has it. A nice little
(10:37):
mindset win tonight down in DC, all right, real quick,
before we dive into some comments from our fans. We'll
give you a quick note from our sponsor, Exfinity Mobile.
Celtics fans want to keep your phone as fresh as
your kicks. With Exfinity Mobile, you can upgrade to a
new device every year, So send that old phone to
(10:59):
the bench and stay ahead of the game. Exfinity imagine that.
All right, back to our favorite part of the show,
which is our comments from our fans. We got a
bunch of good ones tonight. We took two of them.
Our first one's coming in from Keith Grant, who clearly
has been watching the Celtics for a while because he's
got a comment about who Jordan Walsh is looking like.
(11:22):
And it's an interesting one because this player was an
unbelievable defender for the Boston Celtics for a long time.
And our final comment of the night is coming in
from Ricardo Kuna, and this one is about Joe Missoula
and the props that Missoula deserves for what he is
bringing out of this Celtics team this season. All right,
(11:42):
so let's dive into the first one here. As I said,
this one is coming in from Keith Grant.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, I think You're wonder put your mobile bill in
half and saved sixty five dollars a month for your
first year with all.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Right, folks, first comment of the night coming in from
Keith Grant, who says, Jordan Walsh is looking like Avery
Bradley in his prime. All right, some of our podcast
listeners might have only been seven, eight, nine years old
during those latter years with Avery Bradley. I don't know
(12:26):
if everyone who's listening really understands how great of a
defender Avery Bradley was in his prime.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Like, that guy.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Really got into offensive players space, he really made them uncomfortable.
And I love what Keith Grant is saying because that
is exactly what Jordan Walsh is doing right now. The
difference here is that Avery Bradley had a super low
center of gravity. He was only like six three sixty four.
Jordan Walsh brings so much more length and size to
(12:57):
the table and you can see that with all of
that combined, he really is impacting the ball in a
very similar way to what Avery Bradley did back in
the day. And Avery's one of my favorite guys to
ever walk through the Celtics locker room. Just like Super humble,
and it was great to see him turn into what
(13:18):
he did as a defender, got props from people around
the league saying that he was one of the, if
not the most difficult perimeter defender.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
To face on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And Jordan Walsh has not gotten to that place yet,
Like he has not built that reputation, especially the fact
that he's just really starting to take a grasp of
this role over the past few weeks.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
But from what it's looking like on a nightly basis, like.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
It does look a lot like Avery Bradley, with the
level of impact that he is making on the ball,
with the disruptive defense that he is providing on a
nightly basis, Like I'm telling you that length and then
the agility, the instincts. When you combine that altogether, it
is so hard for someone to score against that. You
(14:08):
saw it from Donovan Mitchell on Sunday, You saw it
against Jalen Brunson on Tuesday. You saw it tonight against
at times Chris Middleton or at times CJ McCollum. And
I know those guys aren't on the same level as
the guys that I mentioned just a moment ago, But
like these are polished veteran scorers, and Jordan Walsh has
(14:33):
been making all of those players that I just mentioned
look and feel uncomfortable. And that's exactly what Avery Bradley
did back in the day. It wasn't just like sagging
off and like staying in front of his guy. It
was being up to touch, being in their airspace and
really just making them feel uncomfortable from the second they
(14:56):
cross half court. Jordan Walsh is doing that. Of this
comment from me, Keith Grant, great observation, all right, folks.
Second and final comment of the night coming in from
Ricardo Kuna, who says, Joe exclamation point, I must say,
I don't agree with everything, but damn, the chemistry of
(15:17):
the team and how they play unselfishly is amazing exclamation point.
I kind of mentioned this at the beginning. If you
could have predicted something of where this team is now
before this seat, like you're lying to me, if you
would have thought that this would be the case, this
team looks so tied together, from the bench and the
(15:43):
guys rooting the players on who are on the floor,
to like the way that they are executing on the floor,
they really just look like a well oiled machine, a
team that there's no egos getting in the way. They
know exactly what they need to do individually and as
a unit in order to find success. Like yeah, that
(16:07):
chemistry of this team and the unselfish brand of basketball
that they have been playing.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Man, it's beautiful to watch.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It really is, and it makes it even more exciting
to watch when I mean, I don't think a whole
lot of people expected this before this season. I think
a lot of people thought, yeah, you know, maybe later
in the season February March, maybe the Celtics start to,
you know, look like a group with so many new
(16:38):
players and also new players playing new roles. We're talking
about early December, folks. We're like six weeks into the
season and the Celtics have been They look like they've
been playing together for years, and granted some of them have,
but as a unit with some guys playing on some
(17:00):
nights and other guys playing on other nights. I don't
know how they're doing this, but I know that Joe
Miszula is at the center of it all. He's got
everyone bought in to what they need to do individually
in order for this team to be successful. And I
know he's already won an NBA championship. I know people
(17:22):
talk about Missoula ball, what they really should be talking
about right now is that Joe Missoula should be very
high up on the Coach of the Year rankings. He
should be near the top. We're talking top three, top
four in the league. Tough to vote against anyone in
(17:48):
good old Oklahoma City right now with the way that
they're playing. But and the Detroit Piston seventeen to five JB. Bickerstaff,
he deserves a lot of credit. Toronto Raptors, they're playing well,
they deserve some credit, Spurs. But what Joe Missoula has
done with this team, which again I'm going to repeat
(18:09):
from the beginning of this episode, they are the fifth
best team in the league in point differential right now
in the league, not in the Eastern Conference. In the
league in point differential is one of those things that
is usually a pretty darn good indicator of just how
(18:30):
strong you are as a team. So the Celtics blow
out the Wizards on the front end of a back
to back. They take care of business to exactly what
they wanted to and needed to do, winning by forty
five points for their eighth win in their last ten games.
By the way, that is the best record in the
(18:51):
Eastern Conference of any team in their last ten games.
It's the second best record in the NBA among any
team in their last ten games. The only team that's
better is the thunder who have won ten straight. In fact,
they've won thirteen straight. But the Celtics are right behind
them with an eight and two record in their last
ten and again thirteen and six since that opening week
(19:15):
when they lost their first three games. So the Celtics
take care of business, and they do it in emphatic faction.
And now they set themselves up nice and pretty for
a Friday night showdown with the one and only Los
Angeles Lakers. It is the biggest rivalry in basketball. The
(19:39):
Purple and Gold coming to TD Garden to take on
the Green and White. This game will be on Prime Video.
Tip Off is at seven o'clock and hey, you can
catch me and Sean Grandy live tomorrow night at five
point fifty pm on the Celtics, Facebook, X and YouTube
live platforms. Come and join us. We're gonna be talking
(20:01):
everything about the game. We're gonna have the latest information,
talking about the matchup and then after the game, make
sure you take a listen and tune in to my
post on AX and respond with your thoughts on what
you saw from what went down between these two teams.
I'll take a couple and put them into our next
episode of Sound Off.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Until then, have a great night.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I'll see your Friday night from the studio at td
Garsen
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