ORLANDO — For the second straight game, the Boston Celtics found themselves playing crunch-time basketball against the Orlando Magic in enemy territory. It was a one-possession game early on in both fourth quarters. On Friday night, a string of mistakes—turnovers, fouls, and Magic transition chances—doomed the Celtics. Sunday was a different story.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, Jordan Walsh’s clutch three-point shot captured everyone’s attention. A drive-and-kick play by Jaylen Brown quickly turned into a Payton Pritchard swing pass to Walsh in the corner. He buried the triple, putting Boston up by five with 12 seconds to play.
“I hit it, and I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness,’” Walsh said with a smile post-game. “I didn't even celebrate it. I think I was just kind of like, in the moment. So, that was pretty cool.”
That shot clinched the game. But Walsh’s play earlier in the quarter won it.
Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez embodied everything the Celtics want to be this season
Joe Mazzulla opened the fourth quarter with a non-standard lineup: Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, and Neemias Queta.
Up to that point in the game, Gonzalez had played 5:29. Walsh, 13:33.
In the fourth, Gonzalez played 7:07. Walsh played the entire quarter.
“I thought they had a great run,” Mazzulla said. “I thought that lineup to start the fourth quarter gave us good stuff.”
Boston’s new, risk-oriented defense has come with flaws. Orlando took 32 free throws on Sunday night. They made 30 of them. But in the process, the Celtics forced 17 turnovers.
Walsh and Gonzalez were agents of chaos. They picked up Paolo Banchero full-court, sprinting from one side of the floor to another for steal opportunities, and pressured Orlando’s ball-handlers to the point of forcing travels. Anytime somebody in a blue jersey put the ball on the floor in the final frame, they were there.
“The standard is to come in and play that hard,” Walsh said. “Try to affect the game without the ball. I think that's what we all bought into to do.”
At one point in the fourth, Wendell Carter Jr. got deep post position on White. He backed him down under the rim, and Anthony Black dumped the ball into him.
Walsh, who was guarding Banchero in the opposite corner, dashed through the paint while the ball was in the air and slapped it out of Carter’s hands.
He pushed the ball up the court, swung it to White, who found Pritchard for a wide-open three-point chance. The shot didn’t go down, but since the Magic were cross-matched in transition, Luka Garza got an offensive rebound, put up another shot, and got an and-one opportunity.
It all stemmed from Walsh’s hustle.
“Honestly, it's run around, make it difficult, and make errors of aggression,” Walsh said of what goes through his mind amidst the defensive chaos. “Don't let them attack me. I kind of want to be the one who punches first. And so, it's never like I'm in a backpedal. I'm always sprinting. I told Hugo the same thing. That's kind of what we're trying to do.”
On Sunday night, that’s exactly what he and Gonzalez accomplished.
“I thought they were good tonight,” Brown said of that group. “Lot more poised. Didn't foul inadvertently like kind of did last game. We were a lot more solid, lot more poised, and those guys, they did a good job tonight.”
That side of the Celtics’ success doesn’t stop at Walsh and Gonzalez. White was an essential figure in their defensive game plan on Sunday, too. He frantically galloped across the court for steals and deflections, all while living up to his reputation as one of the best fast-break stoppers in the league.
Sam Hauser had his hands in passing lanes. Payton Pritchard battled against bigger players in switches. Garza had a big steal late in the game.
Boston’s new defense only works if everyone is bought in. Otherwise, transition leak-outs and open shots are handed out like candy on Halloween.
But Walsh and Gonzalez’s performances were not a coincidence, but rather a product of how Boston wants to be.
“Whatever matchup, and then whoever's given us what we need, that's where the comfort level has to be,” Mazzulla said on Saturday morning. “The demands of playing the way we want to play is highly physical and mental, and it takes 12, 13 guys to do it.”
Alongside White and Brown and the rest of the regulars, Walsh and Gonzalez found their spot in the 12-13 players. They gave the Celtics what they needed.
“It always comes down to three things: We didn't get beat in transition, we limited them to one shot, and we got good shots at the other end,” Mazzulla said. “And we crashed and got offensive rebounds. And so, we just made those connection plays. We got back on defense, rebounded, got out, got some easy ones where we ran, made some shots.”
In this instance, the game needed chaos. Boston needed to throw Banchero and Franz Wagner out of their rhythm. To disrupt everything Orlando wanted to do at all times.
That’s how Walsh and Gonzalez want to get on the floor.
“That's our role that we're trying to carve out,” Walsh said. “So, I talked to him when we were going in, I was like, 'Let's just mess the game up for everybody. So that's what we did.”
And there’s nothing easy about it. Before the Celtics got blown out by the Houston Rockets, Walsh was out of the rotation. He earned some low-pressure minutes in that one, which parlayed into extra opportunities against the Utah Jazz and in the first Magic game.
All of that built up to Sunday night—arguably the most impactful game of his young NBA career.
Every time Walsh (and Gonzalez, and Josh Minott, and Baylor Scheierman, and Luka Garza) steps onto the court, he knows what’s at stake. He understands that each time he checks in, he needs to earn the next one. “Absolutely,” he said when asked if he feels like he’s fighting for his life when he steps onto the court.
But that’s what playing for these Celtics entails.
“It's a deep quote, and it's probably not serious, but you have to have that type of sense of urgency, especially for a young player,” Mazzulla said. “And it's hard to teach that, it's hard to simulate that, it's hard to do that, but he's turned it on, and he's had that sense of urgency, as if he's playing like his basketball life is on the line. And he should play that way, and it's a credit to him.”
And if there’s one person who knows what Walsh has to do, and what he’s going through, it’s Mazzulla.
“One of the reasons why I trusted him and went with him was because of his work ethic behind the scenes,” said the head coach. “His body language and work ethic never changed, even when he wasn't playing. I told him, 'You seem to forget, you guys are the only guys that I worked with in the NBA as an assistant.'
“So, I know what they're going through physically, mentally, psychologically, and emotionally, and it just doesn't matter. You just got to do it. So, he's done a great job of just doing that, and he's got to keep it up. It's easy to, now that you got minutes, to relax, and you have to, even when you're playing well, make sure you play like your life's on the line. So, he's got to keep doing it.”
Without Walsh’s three, the Celtics may have lost the game. But the same statement can be made about a flurry of plays throughout Sunday night’s contest.
Walsh’s strip steal on Carter. White’s multi-steal possession that led to an Anfernee Simons three in the first quarter. Gonzalez’s ball pressure that led to a Desmond Bane travel. Garza’s offensive rebounding spree in the fourth.
No matter the clock, no matter the time, every moment mattered on Sunday.
Walsh and Gonzalez embodied that in the fourth quarter with their hustle, but it was simply a small dose of everything the Celtics want to be this year.
“Today was fun,” said Brown. “Hard-fought, collective win. Nothing brings me more joy than that. We had some guys step up and make some big plays. That's excellent. That's what it takes every single night. To have that type of fight, that type of desire, and then have guys get rewarded at the end. Like Jordan.
“Jordan's been playing great the last few games. Physical, defensive, doing what we ask him to do. And then, that's the cherry on top. When you do what you're supposed to do, you get rewarded at the end. Big-time shot for him. So, that was great.”