It took just one play for Jordan Walsh to competely change the game for the Celtics

Early April is a strange time for the NBA. Sometimes the games couldn’t matter less. Others play a crucial role in deciding playoff seeding. Tuesday’s Boston Celtics vs. Charlotte Hornets matchup fell closer to the latter.

Charlotte entered the evening in a five-team battle to avoid the Play-In Tournament, while Boston could’ve used a win to get one step closer to locking down the East’s second seed.

Both teams wanted to win. There was good energy in TD Garden. It was a borderline playoff atmosphere. With all of those things factored in, the first two and a half quarters of this game didn’t feel great. The Celtics struggled offensively, while the Hornets were able to lean on LaMelo Ball, who couldn’t be stopped for stretches in this one.

Things were looking grim for Boston as Charlotte capitalized on about two and a half minutes of scoreless hoops from the Cs with an 8-0 run, which turned a one-point deficit into a seven-point advantage. They struggled to score in the half court and turned the ball over four times in just as many possessions.

Then, Jordan Walsh changed the game.

He sprinted the length of the floor and beat the entire Hornets team down the court for an easy slam in transition. The bucket not only gave Boston their first points in some time, but also ignited a crowd that’d been waiting for something to cheer for.

“Give him credit,” Jayson Tatum said postgame. “He changed the game.”

From this point on, the Celtics scored on six of their final seven possessions in the third quarter, as they closed out the frame on a 13-5 run to recapture the lead. Boston’s control didn’t stop there, either. They outscored Charlotte 36-20 for the rest of the game after Walsh’s slam.

None of those points came from Walsh, either, who finished the evening with nine points, six rebounds, and a steal on 4-4 from the field in 18 minutes.

As Joe Mazzulla often says, the 21-year-old simply gave the game what it needed at that point. He made the conscious decision to sprint the floor and it made an impact beyond what anyone could’ve expected.

“Our offense wasn’t going [in the third quarter] and he gets out and runs for the transition dunk that gets us going,” Jaylen Brown recalled postgame. “So plays like that are important.”

Jordan Walsh's defense was for real against Charlotte

Walsh’s impact spanned far beyond just this sequence, too. His performance against the Hornets served as a reminder of what made him so great throughout November and early December. He can defend at a high level and quite literally ruin an opposing player’s day.

Ball’s aforementioned 36-point heater came to a screeching halt when Walsh checked in for Sam Hauser, who’d previously been assigned to the Hornets guard, with about 7:41 to play in the third.

His assignment was clear -- pressure Ball (both the person and object) and make everything as difficult as possible. Walsh consistently picked up the man who is responsible for the “6-7” trend every time he crossed halfcourt and didn’t let him move.

Ball didn’t make another field goal for the rest of the game, scoring his lone two points from the charity stripe, after Walsh got on him. Of course, the defense spanned beyond Walsh, who went back to the bench in the fourth quarter, but the rhythm was disrupted.

“He just understands that when he's at his best defensively, he's impacting the team's best players, creating turnovers,” Joe Mazzulla praised. “He's forcing them into difficult shots and I thought he did a good job of that.… He finds different ways to impact the game for us.”

Is Jordan Walsh back?

Walsh’s impact on games has been a recurring storyline over the past few weeks, ever since he’s reemerged as part of Mazzulla’s rotation. The former Arkansas standout had previously racked up eight DNP-CDs across 10 games. He’s now earned minutes in Boston’s last seven and made the most of them.

At about 20 per game in that span, the 2023 second-round pick has averaged 5.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.6 combined stocks in each outing while shooting 48.1% from the field. His resurgence is shaping up to be a fitting final chapter to what’s been an impressive third season. 

“Throughout the whole season, I've seen an increase in just a better feel overall for what is needed, what he needs to do when he's out there on the floor,” Brown continued. “I think he's just managed that well at times.[He hasn’t always had a consistent role], but I think he's kept a level head, and then he's had a great year.” 

There are plenty of factors that go into a coach’s rotation during any given stretch of an NBA season. I’d be wasting everyone’s time if I even tried to pretend like I understood the ins and outs of those decisions.

Walsh, for whatever reason, fell out of the rotation almost entirely during the middle months of the 2025-26 campaign. Now, with the year’s most important basketball looming large, he seems to be part of the Celtics’ plan moving forward.

“Playoffs is a time of year where you put it all on display, everything that you've learned, all the discipline that you acquire, you know, all of that stuff is getting put to the ultimate test,” Brown pointed out. “I’m looking forward to that.”