BOSTON — Before walking out of the Boston Celtics locker room Tuesday night, Jordan Walsh thanked someone nearby for complimenting his outfit. The pink sweater wasn’t for everybody, but Walsh appreciated the kind words about it, especially after Jaylen Brown had badmouthed it earlier.
Brown wasn’t about to change his mind. He shook his head while overhearing parts of the conversation. Moments later, though, he said he could live with Walsh’s fashion choice.
“When you get those rebounds, play defense like that,” Brown said, “you can wear whatever you want.”
For all of the buckets Brown scored while pouring in a season-high 42 points Tuesday night, he recognized that his rapidly developing young teammates deserved plenty of credit for a 123-117 win against the New York Knicks. Walsh, Hugo González and Josh Minott only combined to score 23 points, but touched every part of the game with their hustle and timely plays, helping the Celtics pick up their seventh win in the last nine games.
“They’re just finding — they’re slowly chipping away at what it means to be really impactful in this league,” said coach Joe Mazzulla. “And, really, what they do matters for our team, and having that role of kind of going out there every night and knowing they can change the game. And everybody on the team has done that. Tonight I thought was the best example of multiple guys doing that.
“It came from Hugo, it came from Jordan, it came from Josh, even Sam (Hauser) defensively I thought was great. So they’re just having an understanding of how much they can impact the game and how important that is for us and how much it impacts winning. So they’ve just got to keep doing it.”
González, a 19-year-old wing, spent most of his 22 minutes guarding All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns. Walsh and Minott took turns delivering clutch plays during the final minutes. The Knicks pulled close midway through the fourth quarter, using a rare six-point possession to cut Boston’s lead in half, but the younger Celtics kept their composure.
When the Knicks consistently sent double-teams at Brown during the fourth quarter, he trusted the open man to make the right play. Walsh and Minott wouldn’t normally be used as the screeners in such actions, but found themselves in that role with Mazzulla leaning on small-ball throughout crunch-time. If the Celtics had practiced beating double teams with that type of lineup on the court, Walsh didn’t remember it.
“I don’t think we really ever practiced him getting double-teamed,” Walsh said. “I mean, we probably have. We practice everything. But, in the moment, it was more just a read. Usually JB’s the guy in the middle and making the play through the seam. It ended up being me and Josh a lot tonight.”
After the Knicks pulled within 102-99, Brown hit Walsh on the roll. He kept the ball moving to eventually set up Minott for a corner 3-pointer that pushed the Celtics lead back to six points. On the next Boston possession, Brown again found Walsh in the middle of the court after inviting a double team. Once again, the play produced an open Minott 3-point attempt. Though Minott failed to knock down a second straight long ball, Walsh took advantage of the scrambling Knicks defense by tracking down the offensive rebound and converting a putback layup. He finished another putback moments later.
“It was an evolution for both Jordan and Josh,” Mazzulla said. “They went to doubling Jaylen, so they did a good job catching the ball in the seam and just making 2-on-1 reads. So it starts with Jaylen’s ability to trust his teammates, and then it goes to Jordan and Josh’s evolution of just understanding they’re being guarded by different matchups throughout the game. They switched between Towns, (Mitchell) Robinson and (Jalen) Brunson on both of those guys throughout the game, and it can be difficult to just have an understanding of what the screen is at that time, what the spacing is, and both those guys did a good job down the stretch of just kind of executing versus the proper coverage, versus the proper spacing. So the trust there by the team, and then the execution by those guys getting better.”
Joe Mazzulla on how Josh Minott and Jordan Walsh stepped up in the 4th:
“It was an evolution for both Jordan and Josh.”
“And both those guys did a good job down the stretch of just kind of executing versus the proper coverage.” pic.twitter.com/6JHl5o2DF0
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) December 3, 2025
The Celtics might not have closed out such a win earlier this season, but their young players are growing up quickly. González bothered Towns despite giving up six inches in the matchup. Minott spaced out the New York bigs with three 3-pointers and also tracked down three offensive rebounds. Walsh dotted crunch-time with hustle plays while serving as a facilitator when the Knicks doubled Brown.
“To me, the last six minutes of the game, he was just a great playmaker,” Mazzulla said. “He had offensive rebounds, he made plays in the seam. He was great at the point of attack defensively.”
“I’m starting to see Jordan playing like a grown man,” echoed Brown. “And it’s amazing to see. Just from him coming out of his shell, being aggressive, he’s learning every day. So I’m loving it.”
Lately, the Celtics have found something with the small-ball lineups they relied on during Neemias Queta’s recent absence. Even with the starting center back from a sprained ankle, they went small for about 27 minutes against New York. Luka Garza and Xavier Tillman were DNP-CDs. Amari Williams played six seconds total in a couple of very specific situations, including once when he stepped onto the court solely to foul Robinson. Otherwise, when Queta was off the floor, the Celtics went to small-ball. That could have been a problem against Robinson and Towns. Instead, Boston turned the tactic into an advantage, outscoring the Knicks by 14 points during Queta’s time on the bench.
The small lineups helped turned around the game in the second quarter. After trailing by 11 points after the first, the Celtics mucked up the game. González picked up a couple of fouls against Towns, but frustrated him all the same. Derrick White swatted Jalen Brunson. González stripped him. The Boston defense, torn apart in the first quarter, bounced back in the second.
As the Celtics piled up stops, Brown took over on the other end of the court, scoring 18 points in the quarter. With 4:46 left before halftime, he forced a New York timeout by driving for a dunk that gave the Celtics their first lead. Before turning toward the Boston huddle, he raised his arm to call for cheers from the crowd. The fans were loud already. The Celtics added to their advantage from there to enter halftime ahead 58-52.
THROW DOWN BROWN 😤 pic.twitter.com/RGm2VsT2wX
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 3, 2025
Brown, who shot 16 for 24 from the field, kept pressure on the Knicks throughout the third quarter. On the final possession of the period, he waved away his teammates after noticing Robinson was defending him.
Moments earlier, after doing the same thing, Brown had unveiled a nifty combination of dribble moves to free himself for a jumper over Robinson. The Knicks weren’t going to let Robinson guard Brown on an island again. They sent a second defender toward Brown, but he had the answer for that coverage, too. As Tyler Kolek approached with the double team, Brown whipped a pass to Derrick White on the left wing. Splash.
DERRICK WHITE TRIPLE 👌
CELTICS END THE THIRD ON A 12-0 RUN! pic.twitter.com/aBbW0T8jUj
— NBA (@NBA) December 3, 2025
As White’s shot fell through the hoop, Brown spun around to celebrate with the crowd. He stood at center court, screaming, gesturing, reveling in the big Boston run.
As much as Brown has experienced throughout his career, parts of this season have been new for him, too.
“Obviously, this year, I have more responsibility,” Brown said. “My responsibility hasn’t been the same in the past. So, you know, this year I’m in a new position, and I’m still figuring it out. So I’ll just take what the defense gives me, learning when to be aggressive, learning when to get off the ball. It’s all stuff that I’m still getting better at every game.”
Brown has been dominant lately, with two 40-point games and a triple-double in his last three outings. He exercised patience early in the season when the Celtics dropped several close games, but likes where his team is headed now. Over the last week, they have beaten the Pistons, Cavaliers and Knicks, with their lone loss in that stretch coming in Minnesota.
“It’s easy to focus on what you see now,” Brown said, “but if you go back to preseason, before the season, we’re in a much different space now. You can see the difference if you go back and look at some of those early games in the season. It’s only been 20 games, and there’s been a huge amount of growth from a lot of guys — Neemi, Jordan, Josh, even Baylor (Scheierman), Payton (Pritchard). So we’re continuing to take it just one step at a time, but the best is yet to come, so we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
