Saturday night’s Boston Celtics-LA Clippers battle marked the first time in 21 games that Jordan Walsh wasn’t in the starting lineup for the Celts. The 21-year-old has experienced his breakout season in 2025-26, and he’s added a ton of value to Joe Mazzulla’s team in the process.
Part of the magic of this Celtics squad, though, is how many different role players are capable of stepping up on a nightly basis. As an opponent, you know to focus on Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard, but what you don’t know is who of the remaining Celtics are about to go off and really hurt you.
Walsh has been that guy on plenty of nights during his 20-game stretch of starting. He saw his minutes reduced against the Sacramento Kings the other night when Sam Hauser was playing well. This spilled over into Mazzulla’s starting lineup selection for the Clippers game, which didn’t feature Walsh.
According to a new report from The Athletic’s Jay King, however, Walsh has the ideal mindset to handle his changing role.
“It was definitely a good spurt (in the starting lineup) for sure, but staying even keel is what’s more important,” Walsh said, per King. “Never getting too high, never getting too low.”
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“I’m no stranger to this, you know what I’m saying? I started where I had to always stay ready for my next opportunity. And if that’s the situation I’m in again now, that’s what I got to be ready for.”
Walsh also understands that it’s not who starts, but who finishes, that matters. He ended up playing 30 minutes against the Clippers, and he registered a beefy stat sheet with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds.
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Featured image via Mike Watters/Imagn Images
