Category: Sports News

Full throttle: Walsh, Gonzalez carving out Celtics roles with shared hustle originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The entire Boston Celtics’ roster spilled onto the court in celebration after Jordan Walsh sealed Sunday’s win in Orlando with a late-game, corner 3-pointer.

But it felt notable that the first person to reach him near half court was rookie Hugo Gonzalez.

Walsh and Gonzalez are two young players fighting for the same, sometimes-limited batch of wing minutes. And yet the two seemingly have bonded over their similar skillsets, and apparently have pledged to crank up the chaos factor whenever they touch the floor.

“The standard is to come in and play that hard, try to affect the game,” Walsh told reporters after Sunday’s win in Orlando.

Over the past three games, there’s been a noticeable shift in gears for the 21-year-old Walsh. He’s been relentless in attacking the glass for a Celtics team in desperate need of rebounding aid, and he’s been flying around on the defensive side, generating a whole bunch of deflections while playing steady defense.

The 19-year-old Gonzalez already has carved out his own defense-first role, and the Celtics continue to dispatch him against top-tier talent.

In a season where one of the top priorities should be developing young talent and identifying which of those players can fill rotational roles on Boston’s next title team, the early emergence of Walsh and Gonzalez feels as important as the Celtics being able to lean on the likes of Neemias Queta and Josh Minott in starting roles.

It’s clear how impactful Gonzalez eventually might be, even as coaches spend timeouts screaming at him about rookie mistakes. Walsh has had encouraging stretches during his first two seasons in green, but the last three games feel like the first time he’s really tapped into his full havoc potential.

Here are four ways the young wings are leaving their imprint:

Relentless on the glass

Over the last three games, Walsh is rebounding 20.6 percent of opponents’ missed shots. That’s the best defensive rebound rate on the team in that span, just slightly ahead of the 7-foot Queta (19.5 percent over last three games). Gonzalez isn’t far behind at 15.2 percent, the fourth-best on the team in that span. 

The Celtics’ rebounding woes to start the season are well-documented.

Boston has one of the best first-shot defenses in the NBA, allowing 92.4 points per 100 possessions in the half court. The Celtics are also dead last in points allowed per miss, giving up 28.9 points per 100 missed fields goals, which is 5.2 points per 100 possessions higher than the league average, per Cleaning the Glass data.

Walsh has grabbed at least six rebounds in each of his last three appearances. He has 23 rebounds in 68 minutes of floor time in those outings.

Taking on defensive challenges

Despite being tasked with some tough defensive assignments, Walsh and Gonzalez have held up well on that end over the last three games.

Gonzalez had a part in four different Orlando turnovers during Boston’s second-quarter rally Sunday — all of them generated by simply fighting through screens and being in the right spots. He drew an offensive foul while running through a screen attempt, then harassed Desmond Bane into a traveling call by staying glued to his side throughout an entire possession. 

Walsh is holding his defensive assignments to 43.5 percent shooting — or 4.7 percent below expected output — while defending 7.7 shots per game in that span. Gonzalez held opponents to 1.9 percent below expected output on 2.7 shots in that three-game span, with opponents routinely willing to move the ball instead of trying to shoot against him.

Walsh spent most of his floor time defending Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner during Boston’s double dip in Orlando. The duo combined for 8 points on 3-of-7 shooting with 3 turnovers and a blocked shot. Neither Banchero nor Wagner attempted a shot in the 20 possessions that Gonzalez was deemed the primary defender against them. 

During Walsh’s postgame interview with NBC Sports Boston after Sunday’s win, Xavier Tillman popped over to give Walsh his defensive flowers.

“He’s the king of lockdown. He can guard anybody,” said Tillman. “The bigs, the littles, the wings. It doesn’t matter. Call Jordan, man, he’s your guy.”

Nothing but net (rating)

Walsh now leads the Celtics in net rating among regulars. In his seven appearances and 92 total minutes, the Celtics have outscored opponents by 22.3 points per 100 possessions.

Boston’s offense is 10.8 points per 100 better during Walsh’s floor time, and the defense is 12.2 points better with Boston’s defensive rating plummeting to 102.7 with Walsh on the court. 

Of the 267 players in the NBA who are averaging 13+ minutes per game with at least five appearances, Walsh now tops the league in net rating. He’s right in front of OKC’s Alex Caruso (+21.3) and Denver’s Nikola Jokic (+19.7).

It’s a very small sample and includes a fair amount of trash time. But the Celtics also have a +18 net rating in Walsh’s 68 minutes over the past three games.

The only regular with a better number in that span? Gonzalez at +22.3 in his 38 minutes. 

Double trouble

Given those individual numbers, it’s probably no surprise that, in the 44 minutes that Walsh and Gonzalez have shared the floor this season, the Celtics are outscoring opponents by a staggering 32.5 points per 100 possessions.

Those numbers were juiced Sunday in Orlando when Walsh and Gonzalez shared a lineup with Anfernee Simons during his first-half scoring outburst that saw the Celtics outscored the Magic by 12 points in a four-minute span. 

That has helped Boston produce a sizzling 139.8 offensive rating when Walsh and Gonzalez have shared the floor. Their willingness to rebound has helped Boston go small and maximize offensive skill on the court around them.

Undeniably, a larger sample size is needed to know if Walsh and Gonzalez can maintain this sort of impact. Walsh seemed to be ready to kick down the playing time door coming out of training camp last season, but never quite harnessed the full-throttle nature required to keep him on the court. Now we have three straight games where he has embraced the speed and intensity necessary to keep him on the court.

Both Walsh and Gonzalez have had rough patches, sometimes flying around so fast that they make mistakes. But that sort of intensity has more often produced some inspired play. 

Now both players simply have to stay in high gear.

Warriors have plenty to prove during upcoming daunting six-game road trip originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – The first two-plus weeks of the 2025-26 NBA regular season has been an obstacle course of a schedule for the Warriors to navigate, trying their damnedest to make it through rough waters to not swim upstream months from now. What they’re about to face next is getting off a plane to a path of fiery coals, only to see a brick wall at the end. 

In less than three weeks, the Warriors already have played 11 games, including three back-to-backs. They’ve boarded a flight for the second night of a back-to-back, hopped on a bus for one and been able to sleep in their own beds only once for a home back-to-back. Their toughest test yet comes Tuesday night against the defending champions before another flight to play the gargantuan future of basketball the next night. 

The Warriors have played six road games thus far, with two being one-offs and the other four coming from two separate two-game road trips, going 1-5. This six-game road trip that features a back-to-back at the front and the end has stops in Oklahoma City, San Antonio (for two games), New Orleans, Orlando and Miami over 10 days for their longest span away from home.

These are trips no team looks forward to. These also are the kind of challenges championship contenders can learn plenty from this early into a season.

Jimmy Butler’s one-word description of the trip is “exciting.” 

“We play some really good teams on the road. But you gotta win some of these to show that you can compete with the best of them,” Butler said. “Obviously if we got 30 (Stephen Curry) our chances of winning goes up drastically. But even if he isn’t ready to go we still got to go out there and we got to compete because it’s very possible that we can win.”

Curry on Sunday night missed his third straight game because of an illness. The Warriors went 1-2 in those games with two consecutive road losses against the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets prior to beating the Indiana Pacers 114-83 back at Chase Center. The 31-point win was the Warriors’ largest margin of victory without Curry since he came into the league.

But it also was against a Pacers team down 10 players, and the game looked like it could be the worst loss of the Warriors’ season until they took the lead late in the third quarter and never looked back. 

The good news for them is coach Steve Kerr after the win said he expects Curry to play Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. Curry went through an intense workout Sunday night on the Warriors’ practice court, and another Monday morning. He was on the bench in street clothes Sunday cheering his teammates on after not traveling to Sacramento or Denver. 

“Yeah, I hope so,” Al Horford said regarding Curry’s impending return. “It changes completely. It changes completely. It’s a privilege, a luxury – whatever you want to call it – but it’s that big of a difference when he’s not in. I know that it’s the NBA and we have to find ways, but we can’t wait for him to get back out there, and hopefully it’s Tuesday.” 

Horford is coming off his best game with the Warriors. He credited Butler for feeding him open passes and pushing him to shoot past any previous struggles, scoring 12 points on four 3-pointers, while also having four rebounds and three blocked shots. The 19-year veteran in his first season as a Warrior understands the gauntlet in front of them, and what it would mean to come out the other side proving themselves as a true threat. 

“I mean, I think it’s significant,” Horford said. “I know it’s still November, but it’s a big challenge for our group and the way to address it, and I know that we will. We’ll take it a game at a time, and we can’t overlook anyone. You know, all I’m thinking about is OKC. They’re playing at home, they play really well, defending champs. 

“So we can’t even think about the rest of it, just have to focus on that first one. That’s going to be great to see kind of where we’re at as a group.”

Though Horford says he doesn’t know which night of the back-to-back in Oklahoma City and San Antonio he’ll play, facing the 10-1 Thunder as close to full strength as possible would be beneficial to everybody. The Warriors felt like they had a real shot against the Thunder last season in the playoffs if they were to make it to the Western Conference Finals and went 2-1 against them in the regular season. 

None of those games were after the Warriors acquired Butler, and Horford, of course, still was on the Boston Celtics. 

There also is a guarantee Horford will miss at least two of the Warriors’ six games on the road since they have two back-to-backs. Curry, Butler and Draymond Green missing at least one game also is a strong possibility. Younger players like Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga will have to be to hold the line and push the Warriors forward. 

The 6-5 Warriors enter Monday 19th in offensive rating (114.0) and seventh in defensive rating (111.4), making them 11th in net rating (2.6). Statement wins have been celebrated, and letdown losses have been scrutinized for a team that will have played five back-to-backs in 17 games at the end of the upcoming road trip when no other team will have played more than three by then. 

“Overall, we haven’t played real well. But I’m very confident in this team,” Kerr said. “It’s going to be a tough trip, two back-to-backs. We kind of felt like getting through this early part of the schedule, in one piece, and if we’re healthy and win our share of games, it sets up the rest of the season well for us. Obviously, we gave a couple of games away, but all in all, we’re pretty healthy, we’re going to get there. 

“I can picture the team, I can see what kind of team we’re going to be, but we don’t really have our identity yet.”

What will amount to a successful road trip? 5-1? 4-2? Splitting the six games? 

The level of focus, fire and purpose as a product the Warriors bring to five different arenas in building the identity they want to become will prove as much to themselves and the outside than the record they come home with.

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‘Hella smart' Will Richard earns praise from Warriors after impressive game originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Will Richard didn’t need long to make an impact.

In the Warriors’ 114–83 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night at Chase Center, the rookie guard impressed once again, finishing with 15 points in 19 minutes, while adding one assist and one steal. He also knocked down 7 of his 8 free-throw attempts, helping Golden State improve to 6–5 on the season while Indiana dropped to 1–9.

Teammates and coaches continue to praise how quickly Richard has carved out a role.

“It’s amazing because he’ll go from not playing or not having any stretch. And then when he comes in, he’s ready,” Al Horford said postgame. “He’s cutting, he’s hitting threes, he’s getting on the break, he’s defending; he does a little bit of everything. I’ve been very impressed with his maturity and how he’s been able to handle all the tasks that we throw at him because it’s very unpredictable.”

Richard has echoed a simple approach: Do whatever is needed.

“Just making an impact, whether that’s on the offensive or defensive end,” Richard explained. “Spreading the floor and doing stuff like that. I grew up watching the Warriors, so for me, Steph [Curry] and [Draymond Green] and all of them, they made my childhood. So I feel like every time I’m on the court, I need to pay that back by going out there and playing as hard as I can.”

The 22-year-old guard began his college career at Belmont before transferring to Florida. He was selected 56th overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Golden State later acquired his draft rights in a multi-asset trade, and Richard signed with the Warriors on Sept. 29, 2025. He made his first career start just weeks later on Nov. 5, scoring a career-high 30 points.

Coach Steve Kerr said that polish was evident from the beginning of training camp.

“Early on in camp, you could see he really knew how to play,” Kerr noted. “He’s constantly making the right cut, the right pass, he’s solid. His fundamentals are fantastic; you can see all the experience he’s had in big games. Will, he’s a ball player, and we’re excited to have him. He’s going to contribute quite a bit for us this year.”

Teammate Jimmy Butler offered his own endorsement, focusing on Richard’s approach.

“He’s hella smart,” Butler said. “But the thing I love most about Will is his ability to listen. You tell him what to do to the best of his ability, he’s going to do it. Whether it’s on offense or it’s on defense. It’s really hard to try to please everybody … but he’s going to do it. And he just looks incredible.”

For a rookie still finding his place, Richard’s impact already is clear — and the Warriors are taking notice.

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