Jordan Walsh couldn’t help but let out a yell. He had just hit the biggest shot of his NBA career, a corner three with 12.4 seconds left to put the Boston Celtics up by five and all but seal Sunday night’s 111-107 win over the Orlando Magic.
Walsh’s six points Sunday might not leap off the page, but he was a crucial piece in this much-needed bounce-back win, helping the Celtics avoid the two-game weekend sweep down in Orlando. He hit both of his threes in the fourth quarter. He had two big assists down the stretch, including on a Derrick White three with 45 seconds left. He had six rebounds and was very good defensively, including a pair of steals. Walsh played a season-high 26 minutes and was a plus-13, second-best on the team.
After playing just five minutes total in six Celtics games in October, Walsh has begun to carve out a role for himself over the last week, topping 18 minutes in four of the last five games.
“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,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of Walsh in his postgame press conference. “And he should play that way. It’s a credit to him. One of the reasons I trusted him and went with him is because of his work ethic behind the scenes.”
Walsh wasn’t alone when it came to Celtics bench players making starter-like impacts Sunday. In fact, the bench was the story of the game on a quiet night for Celtics starters not named White or Brown.
In the first half, it was the Anfernee Simons show. In a dramatic reversal from Friday night, when he got benched for all but two minutes in the first half, Simons exploded for 25 first-half points Sunday. He came off the bench to score nine in the first quarter, and then got even hotter in the second with 16 more. At one point, he scored 17 straight points for the Celtics in just a 2:33 stretch to flip a six-point deficit to a nine-point lead.
Simons didn’t score at all in the second half, but Mazzulla still liked the impact he was making.
“I think Anfernee in the first half really got us going,” Mazzulla said. “He also made them change their pick-and-roll coverage, which was great. He had 25 in the first half. Didn’t score, but he constantly gave us a 2-on-1 in the second half in his minutes.”
In the fourth quarter, along with Walsh, Luka Garza stepped up in a big way. He entered the game with 8:27 to go, and over the next three and a half minutes, he had six points, three rebounds, a steal and an assist as part of a 13-0 Celtics run. He re-entered the game with 3:30 left after Neemias Queta fouled out, and a minute later came up with a huge put-back off a Jaylen Brown miss to put Boston up by five. Garza matched a season high with 16 points while also pulling down a season-high eight rebounds.
Hugo Gonzalez also contributed 13 good minutes, knocking down a three in the fourth quarter and recording two steals, a rebound and an assist. He was a team-best plus-19 during those minutes.
“I think coaches put that responsibility on all of the guys who come off the bench to come in with energy and make the scrappy plays and play harder than the guys we’re playing against,” Garza said. “That’s where we’re trying to make our bread and butter for us guys that come off the bench.”
They did that Sunday, and ultimately outscored the Orlando bench 50-18. For a Celtics team that doesn’t have nearly as much star power as last year, and that is looking for ways to take a little bit of pressure off Brown, the bench will need to keep bringing the energy, scrappiness and winning plays.