Celtic Chalk Talk: Episode 7 - Celtics Strong Start: Triumphs, Surprises, and Future Prospects

CCT-12-8-2025 === Steve: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's Celtic Chalk Talk we're on every Monday and we talk about the Celtics for the week and some thoughts on the Celtics. And this will go on throughout the season. My name's Steve Purciello lifelong Celtic fan. Going back to Bill Russell A. Long time ago, and I can remember things very well. My favorite season was the 69 Champions when they came back and beat the Lakers and they had no right winning. And that was the last of the Russell titles. He retired right after. This week though, we're gonna talk about the Celtics and what's going on. What a great week it was. They, it just couldn't get better for the fir first game of the week. They played the New York Knicks. And Boston looked in trouble as the Knicks came out and shot them out of the gym early. It was a 14 two game early. Boston was trailing. And I'm, as a fan, I'm thinking Uhoh we're just not that good to compete with them. Boy, was I wrong. Second quarter it became the [00:01:00] Jalen Brown show. He went off yeah, I think he had 20 or so in that quarter. Boston. Going from down by 12. They were winning by I, I think six and half. And they took over a couple positives from the game and there were positives. Hugo Gonzalez, he came in and he guarded Carl Anthony Towns. Now think of how crazy that is. Hugo's six six, Carl Anthony, towns of seven. He held his own. In fact, he frustrated Townes, which is just fascinating 'cause they were able to do this and get away with it. The. Jared Walsh played another one of his good games, Minot, who's got a good knack for making a three. He can shoot the three played well and they just overwhelmed the Knicks and it was just a very big surprise to me because the Knicks were a good team, although they struggle on the road. One other thing I saw in the game. It was Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson has killed the Celtics. Every time he gets in the paint, he has always scored against him. In this game [00:02:00] in, it was fascinating to watch because in this game, Brunson got into the paint. I don't know if he got Snake Boston defended well with him, but he would kick the ball out. I've never seen that from him and it was really interesting to watch and he had a, he didn't have a great game either. He didn't shoot well and I credit a lot of that to Boston's defense. I believe he was five for 19 from the four, which is not a Jalen Brunson night. I wanna think it's their defense. A Nick fan might say It's, Jalen had a bad night, which, whatever way you wanna look at it, he got shut down pretty well. After. After that win, Boston went and played Washington. There's not a lot to say. It was just a beat down. Jalen Brown didn't play in that game. But Boston won by 40 Walsh again, great on defense, makes some key plays. They're plays that if you're playing, when a guy makes these plays, it's a spark and gets you wanting pumped. And wanting to play better. K to white they [00:03:00] all played well. The thing is Washington has no defense and they play less defense when they get behind being So Boston just did what they wanted and just scored continuously and really just ran 'em right out of the gym. Now in a back to back for both the Lakers and the Celtics, both teams came back the next night. Now the Lakers had won a tough game against Toronto. Boston had the easy game with Washington. JB not playing against Washington, so he was arrested. Now the Lakers came in. LeBron sat in the back to back, and Luca, his wife was pregnant, so he was away from the team. His wife was giving birth actually, and he wasn't there either. But now the Celtics gave them the beat down. They really. Played well. They shot 53% from three. They were just great. And what was interesting, what was very Jalen Brown, 38 and eight. Eight rebounds, eight assists, 30 [00:04:00] points. Great game. Banged away. A couple threes in the third that really helped. But what was interesting, when the Lakers cut it to 15 Boston stood right up to 'em, got a little ner, not nervous, but you saying, oh God, here we go again. 'cause last year we were ball games like this. No, Boston stood tough and held on and that was something that would go on a few times. Now, balance scoring. Yes, Walsh with 17, white 19 Pritchard, 15 behind jb. So they really gave him a beat down the Lakers and that's in a back to back. Saturday was a day off. Sunday we played again, we played Toronto. It's three in four nights, three games and four nights. Tough thing to do in the NBA you wouldn't know it. Boston got off to a 23 point lead in the third quarter and really was playing well. And it looked like they were gonna put this one away easy. No. Toronto made a strong run. In fact, took a one or one point lead in the fourth quarter. So [00:05:00] they cut that 23 points in about 10 minutes, they cut that lead and they had a one point lead. The biggest take of this. Was how Boston responded, and Boston responded well to win the game. Derek White made some great big time. Threes Pritchard hit a big one. Jalen Brown stood steady and continually I believe he had 30, but just continually throughout the game, kept the team going. Another just a great win. Boston moved ahead of Toronto in the standings. I believe there. Third or fourth and it just looking better and better. Now, it's a great time to be a Celtic fan. If you're a Celtic fan, you, you're surprised you thought this wasn't, this kind of year couldn't happen. The Celtics came into the year lost jt. A lot of trouble. A lot of trouble. They picked up after the assignments. They had a trade all the. They're big men and everybody else and it's worked out really well. It's a surprise [00:06:00] to a lot of people. All the questions Boston came into the year with most, if not all, are positives. Let's think about it. You got cda. CDA is playing better ball than we ever imagined, and he's holding his own with other centers, which is what you want out of the big, because you have such good scoring from your guards. Hugo Gonzalez, a rookie, never played, makes mistakes all the time defensively, and you'll see Missoula pull him outta the game as he did yesterday when he does make a mistake, but he plays hard. He makes things happen on the court, and he can guard anybody and he's a. Good defender. Josh Minot took him from Minnesota. And boy is he can play, he can flat out play and he can shoot. He surprised a lot of people with his ability to play three and they have been using him as a small ball. Five, and he's done quite well in that role. He assumes the role because I guess Boston wasn't happy with Garza and I understand that he's not a good [00:07:00] defender, and Tillman is Tillman, so they've used him in a small ball game in, in, when Cada comes out. Edda did play in 33 minutes, which I believe is the yesterday. So I believe that's the highest amount of minutes he's played this year. But Minot has been the bench guy. Now you start thinking about this, what do you do with the an Anthony Simmons, but all the good things. He's a great player to have off the bench, not at 27 million, but a great player to have off the bench. 'cause he's a microwave. He can heat up and shoot at any time and keep it going for you. He did a, he hit a couple baskets against Toronto yesterday to help. My sense would be if you keep him, you gotta hope that he'll take like 12 to 15 million. If that happens, it'll work. Because don't forget, C to Walsh have one more year of con and so is mine. Not one more year of a contract. They're gonna get raises if you're gonna keep them. And don't forget you got Tatum. Also, he's getting paid. Of course we're not [00:08:00] talking about money, but it will cut into the minutes of Walsh and Hugo and Minot and everybody else. So you got some decisions with Simons there and I think it would depend on his ability to take the money. He looks happy on the team and that's a positive. We'll see what happens. The other interesting thing with Boston. Last year and the years before, whenever things got tough that Boston would fold when a team made a comeback against them. They don't do that yesterday against Toronto. They stood right up to them and played well against the Knicks. Tuesday night, the Knicks went from 12 to three at about 12 point deficit to three point deficit in no time. Boston came right back at 'em and made some big baskets down the stretch to put the game away. These are things that they didn't show before. And those are great things to see. You really, it's five in a row. We're all shocked. I wouldn't think about winning the division or anything. Give it [00:09:00] time. Couple months and we'll talk about that. But it's been fun because they play so hard. The last thing I wanna say, you've gotta sit there. When you watch this team you gotta feel, Joe Missoula does a great job. Everybody can find fault with a coach and we can find fault with Joe but. No, he's great. He's done a great job with this team. The other thing that you have to just keep in mind, Brad Stevens, what a gm, we're lucky to have him. He got rid of the players to get us under the second apron. He got Simons back, but. Couple years ago, he picked up a guy by the name, a Cada wasn't even supposed to make the team. Wayne Gabriel was the guy they picked up and he was supposed to be the big Cada, outplayed him in the preseason, became part of the team. I think, and then he got a four year contract. So he's got two more years on his contract. For two years they bought him along. Now he holds his own every night. So that's a good move. Josh may not. What a great pickup. What a great en energy player. [00:10:00] Good player. Another, just a positive. Hugo, that's a 28th pick in the first round. Getting minutes. As a rookie, it's impressive, especially on a decent team as a rookie, getting minutes. Those are people and things that are really interesting. The last one is Jared Walsh. Wow. If someone told you this guy would become a borderline star defensively, he is one of, he's good. He's good. You would've been, you would've been saying, no way. You're crazy. He is. He is. Let's see if it continues. And the thing that surprised me when he first got to Boston, he couldn't shoot. He can, he holds his own shooting at three, which is very important because teams will load up on the other four guys and allow him to take his shots, which they've been doing and Walsh has hurt him because he's made those shots. So all these things combined. Brad Stevens is the one who orchestrated and brought these people in. He deserves a ton of. Let's hope it [00:11:00] continues. That's it for now. We'll be back again next week. And we'll continue with this Celtic Chalk Talk. Please don't be afraid to subscribe and don't be afraid to listen. Every Monday we'll be there. We'll be in the Peach Basket website or you can find their podcasts in on YouTube as well. So please continue to listen and thank you for your time.