REAL or FAKE: Celtics success, Jordan Walsh BREAKOUT, Jaylen Brown ALL-NBA
Boston Celtics surge into the East’s top tier with breakout performances—can they sustain this momentum? John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal and Tom Westerholm play “Real or Fake,” debating whether the Celtics’ home-court standing and offensive firepower are truly built to last. Deep dives into Jaylen Brown’s All-NBA caliber season, Jordan Walsh and Josh Minott’s unexpected three-point explosions, and Jayson Tatum’s recovery spark big questions about this roster’s long-term upside.
Key topics include Boston’s offensive ranking, injury luck, depth contributions, and whether hot shooting from emerging wings is for real. The episode also weighs future threats from rivals like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic, with sharp insights on Joe Mazzulla’s system and the team’s playoff ceiling. Can the Celtics maintain elite offense and health to stay in the Eastern Conference elite? This is your must-listen guide to Boston’s path forward.
1:00 Real or Fake Game Intro
3:00 Celtics Home Court Chances
12:29 Jordan Walsh Defensive Impact
17:41 Josh Minot Three-Point Shooting
24:12 Celtics Top 5 Offense?
30:07 Jaylen Brown All-NBA Case
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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.
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12 Comments
‘Tis the (Celtics) season to joyful
☘️☘️👊
Pace is the amount of time it takes them to score? If that's so and they're getting a lot of offensive rebounds. So when they get one, they're 24 second clock is now 38 second clock. They're taking longer to score because they have more time to score. Doesn't mean they're bringing the ball up slow
I feel like this team is 1 Jayson Tatum away from making a real championship run. Words I never thought I’d say this season
Yes this team will remain top 4. JT is coming back. Thats gonna circumvent any drop off. The pistons, knicks and raps are also due for a drop off.
Orlando will be marred by injuries that they wont rise.
People thought this was a tank year and a lottery pick. But our core vets would NEVER let that happen, even with early shot struggles from some. Returning bench guys like Queta and Walsh plus the newbies have been delightful to watch. When JT is back i think this team has a legit shot at the ECF title. ROLL GREEN 💚 🍀💚🍀💚🍀
This Jaylen Brown is real. He's always had the mid range game. Brad "encouraged" him to take less of them and take more 3s back in 2021. Weird when he was shooting 60+% from 2 at the time but whatever. This is the Brown you get when his kept in the flow of the offense and not stuffed in corners to make space for Tatum to work the high pick/roll. They let him free. And if yall think they didnt work together before, it'll be a lot harder now if the Celtics offense goes back to Brown being stuffed in the corners and Dwhite and Tatum running middle of the floor pick &roll.
Tatum don’t make them a contender still can’t beat okc with him nuggets
You're missing something on the injuries we had a bunch of older players that do get hurt and now we've got a bunch of younger players and they're rotating them more I'm not just playing 7 play and a game that's why they're healthier
If tom Westerholm is an ai bot where does reality begin?? Is John even actually bald?
I’d love to see these guys keep rolling & why shouldn’t they? They’re playing with confidence behind JB who’s become a quiet leader, White has hopefully turned a corner & when you look at the schedule, they have a chance to rack up a bunch of wins over the next month. IND 3x, a west coast road trip against 4 teams who all have wins in the single digits etc. We don’t even play OKC until late March (both games) by at which point you hope JT is back. So this is an excellent opportunity to rack up the W’s. Thanks guys ☘️🔒🐾
REAL 💚☘☘☘