BOSTON — As Johnny Furphy went to inbound the ball with 4:22 to go in the third quarter, Andrew Nembhard was awaiting the pass. Simultaneously, he was trying to swat a fly off his shoulder.
That fly was Hugo Gonzalez.
The Boston Celtics’ rookie was pressing Nembhard full-court. He didn’t give him an inch of space. As soon as Nembhard lifted his elbow to push him away, Gonzalez took a bump any WWE star would be proud of, crashing into the hardwood.
Nembhard was called for the offensive foul, and Gonzalez sat up from the ground like the Undertaker. On his face? The biggest smile of the night.
“I think it was a funny thing,” Gonzalez said post-game. “I think people liked it.”
Baylor Scheierman jawed at Nembhard, who earned himself a technical foul that compounded his first mistake. Anfernee Simons made the ensuing free throw, cutting the Pacers’ lead to nine.
It was the first time the Celtics were within single digits in 19:19 of in-game action.
Celtics depth is helping them become something special
Heading into Monday night, the Pacers were the least efficient team in the NBA. They were shooting a woeful 41.3% from the field and 32.3% from distance, notching only one quarter all year with at least seven made threes.
They started the game 8-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Everything was coming up Indy. Shots were falling, offense was flowing, and calls were going their way. By the end of the first half, Derrick White and Neemias Queta were having conversations with the referees, upset by the physicality being allowed (one way, in particular).
As the game trickled onward from the first to the second, the Pacers’ lead grew larger by the minute. Pascal Siakam was unconscious, shooting 8-of-11 in the first half. The Celtics walked into the locker room at halftime thoroughly beaten down. And it wasn’t much better to open the third.
Indiana took a 20-point lead into the early stages of the second half. And within the first 2:37 of action in the third, Boston allowed three offensive rebounds, the final of which was a Bennedict Mathurin put-back.
That’s when it all changed.
Joe Mazzulla called a timeout, and after the break, the Celtics looked completely different. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Neemias Queta—Boston’s core four starters—were subbed out.
In the wake of their absence was Gonzalez, the lone holdover from the start of the third, Simons, Scheierman, and Luka Garza.
Brown was angry.
“To be honest, I was pissed,” he said. “I was ready to play. It felt like we were mailing it in. It was only three minutes in. But we trust our coaching staff.
But it worked.
“It was the right decision with that second group,” Brown said. “It's the reason why we won the game. Garza, Sam Hugo, we won tonight, but it was because of those guys. So, it was a great call by Joe.”
From that point forward, the Celtics flipped the game on its head. “Just create havoc,” said Garza. “Just junk up the game. Try to get some pressure on them. Make the little plays, effort plays.”
Garza’s offensive rebounding helped spearhead the comeback. Boston’s shots still weren’t falling in large quantities, but they had a safety valve on the floor. If Indiana misstepped by a millisecond, Garza was there to make them pay.
He vacuumed up nearly every rebound that came his way, and when he didn’t get a hand on the ball, it was usually because a Pacer fouled him.
Every scouting report in the NBA has to have Garza’s offensive rebounding abilities listed in bold letters. Yet no one has found the key to slowing him down.
“It's one thing to know, then another thing to want to box out every single time,” Garza said. “There's a lot of games, there's a lot of different things that go into it, and I'm going every single time, so I think that just gives me the advantage.”
Garza ended the night with five offensive rebounds, and that’s without counting the numerous second-chance opportunities he created by drawing fouls.
Sam Hauser, Anfernee Simons, and Luka Garza
Dec 22, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics center Luka Garza (52) reacts with guard Anfernee Simons (4) after a basket during the second half against the Indiana Pacers at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images | Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Simons left a mark in his own way. “Ant has been really good for us the last couple of games as well, and he gets kind of put under the radar a little bit,” said Mazzulla. “But I thought some of his scoring stretch tonight and where he's grown defensively helped that unit as well.”
Boston needed Garza’s offensive rebounding. It needed Gonzalez’s hustle. Scheierman’s energy. Hauser’s floor-spacing. But someone had to run the show for that group, and Simons got the call.
He unloaded a nine-point third quarter, playing 8:07 straight and igniting the Celtics’ comeback.
“Tonight, it was his scoring and just his overall presence defensively,” said Mazzulla. “Just his ability to impact the ball, his ability to ball pressure. He just played well for us. And we talk about depth, we talk about guys sacrificing, and all that. I mean, there's no one that's done that more than him over the transition, and I thought he's handled it really well.
“I think when he's aggressive for us, it makes us a little bit of a different team in those second units, and you kind of saw that tonight.”
Scheierman nailed a massive three in transition, screaming to the TD Garden crowd as Rick Carlisle was forced to call a timeout. Haused nabbed the steal that led to the entire play. Everybody in that five-man unit played their part.
But none was more essential than Gonzalez’s.
Hugo Gonzalez
Indiana Pacers v Boston Celtics | Brian Babineau/GettyImages
Hugo Gonzalez has been a revelation for Celtics
With Jordan Walsh sidelined, Josh Minott got the start. Gonzalez got plenty of first-half minutes, primarily in the second quarter, but Mazzulla was still mixing it up.
That ended in the second half.
Gonzalez started in place of Minott to open the third, and even when Mazzulla pulled his entire first five, the rookie stayed on the floor. In fact, he never left it.
Outside of a 21-second stretch once the Pacers were forced to play the free-throw game, Gonzalez played the entire second half. Dating back to the final few minutes of the second quarter, he stayed on the floor for 26:45 straight of game time.
He spent those minutes sprinting around the court, blocking shots, getting out in transition, and checking Siakam, Indiana’s best player. Yet he never seemed to miss a beat. He never seemed to get tired.
Looks can be deceiving.
“Yes,” Gonzalez said with certainty when asked if he ever gets tired.
Though, he can’t explain how he hides it. Instead, he offered an answer even Mazzulla would be proud of: There’s no time to be tired.
For Gonzalez, exhaustion is an option.
“I don't even know what to say. Probably, I don't know, just try to get over it,” Gonzalez said. “We got a lot of days until the next game, so you just try to push until it's over, and then you got enough time to rest. So, you got enough time to rest whenever you're not playing.”
Gonzalez guarded Nembhard, followed him around the perimeter, and still had time to help on James Wiseman, who shifted over from the dunker spot.
Block.
He stopped a Nembhard drive in its tracks, gunned it to the corner, contested an Ethan Thompson three, then Euro-stepped Siakam on the ensuing fast break.
Bucket.
There is no wasted motion. Mistakes are inevitable for the 19-year-old Spaniard. Yet they’re consistently minimized by the incessant hustle he exudes whenever his feet touch the basketball court.
Once that five-man unit did its job, it was time for Brown to do his.
“I feel like we just kind of jolted the game with energy and effort, and then everybody came in and took care of the rest, and JB was unreal down the stretch,” said Garza.
As soon as he checked back into the game, everything was different.
Jaylen Brown
Indiana Pacers v Boston Celtics | Brian Babineau/GettyImages
Jaylen Brown and TD Garden worked together beautifully
Brown traded his mid-ranges for drives. Pull-ups for rim attempts.
“I was just kind of casually get into my shots in the first half,” Brown said. “I felt like they were good looks. I missed some shots that you guys have probably seen me make over and over again all season, but I feel like I just wasn't a threat enough downhill. So, second half, I just was like, 'You know what, I'm getting to the basket.'”
He drove the ball straight down Mathurin’s throat, building on the beef that began in the first half.
“One dude in particular was talking a little crazy,” Brown said without naming a Pacer. (Though their pushing and shoving throughout most of the evening made it a relatively obvious assumption.)
Bucket after bucket, Brown built on the momentum that Gonzalez and the others gifted the Celtics.
With each basket, it made life harder and harder for the Pacers, who had now found themselves on the wrong end of an impossible battle: Stop the momentum.
“I speak about momentum a lot because it's a metric that doesn't get measured in analytics, but it definitely has an impact on the game,” Brown said. “You can feel it out there. Might not be able to explain it, but it definitely has an impact on the game.
“It might not come up in the analytics department, but momentum can really dominate a game, or the other way around. So, when they had momentum, it just seemed like we was just getting subpar looks. Nothing was going down. And then, the momentum, the energy shifted, and then we were off to the races.”
Brown ended the fourth with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, bringing his total to 31 on the night. He finished the job that Gonzalez, Scheierman, Simons, Garza, and Hauser started. But they didn’t do it alone.
When Gonzalez drew the offensive foul on Nembhard, he smiled. He enjoyed the moment. He relished the chance to get under Indiana’s skin. But he also recognized the opportunity it created.
“I thought that it was a great time to engage the Garden,” he said. “They help us a lot. They pushed us, whenever we're coming back, they took a lot of pride [in that]. They can take a lot of pride in this victory, because they pushed a lot. I think that it was also a way to get them engaged in the game, and they push in the fourth quarter.”
With 8:26 to go in the final frame, Gonzalez soared through the sky to corral an offensive rebound. He found Pritchard on the baseline, who kicked it out to White on the wing. Three.
TD Garden went absolutely berserk.
On the next Pacers possession, Siakam drove to the right, around Gonzalez and White, but Brown met him at the rim. Block.
The crowd got even louder.
As Boston pushed and pushed and pushed, all the fans did was cheer. Every block, bucket, and forced timeout created more and more chaos. TD Garden fueled the fire.
“The crowd was great tonight,” Brown said. “So, I think the crowd helped us out. Being on our own floor. Don't want to take that for granted. When the crowd gets behind us, the Garden can be one of the harder places to play. So, once we got it going a little bit, the crowd got it going, I think it made it a little bit tougher on Indiana.”
Joe Mazzulla
Boston Celtics v Toronto Raptors | Cole Burston/GettyImages
Celtics are putting the NBA on notice
Monday night wasn’t pretty. Indiana has yet to beat a team with an above-500 record this season. The loss moved them to 1-13 on the road. They are 6-23 in total. On paper, Boston should have beaten them handily.
But basketball isn’t played on paper. And a couple of months ago, there was no “should” for these Celtics.
External expectations were set low for this Boston group. No Jayson Tatum. A departed core of Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet. Five of their top nine rotation players from the prior season are gone.
A 0-3 start to the year was disappointing, but not entirely unexpected to some. But zero percent of those “some” were a part of the Celtics.
Brad Stevens and Mazzulla concocted this roster with a vision. A new vision. The goal? Win basketball games by any means necessary. But perhaps more importantly, find a group of guys who were willing to do that.
That’s exactly what they’ve found.
“Eighty-two games is a long time,” Mazzulla said. “The season's long. The standard that we have to play at, the effort that we have to play at, is hard. It's difficult. And we need everybody to be able to do it.
Down 20 points to the Pacers on a Monday night in December. Some teams would have thrown in the towel. A lot of teams would have thrown in the towel. But if this iteration of the Celtics wants to reach the heights they believe they can reach, they can’t afford to do that.
“You have to earn wins. It's the NBA,” Mazzulla said. “We were down 12 in the middle of the third. That's almost a tie game in the NBA. I mean, 12 points is like, once you get past the emotion of—Even a 20-point game in the third is nothing. I mean, it triggers an emotion, and in reality, you just have to have a perspective of like, there's so many possessions left in the game. A 12 to 20-point game in the third quarter is nothing. And so, you have to earn wins in this league, and you have to earn them differently.
“That's the mental toughness that we have to continue to build. But I mean, being down 12 in third quarter, I'm pretty comfortable with that, just because you've seen it around the league all the time, and how many possessions are left. You just got to chip away.”
How Boston gets there will almost never look the same. Some nights, it will be Gonzalez’s defense. Others, Walsh will provide the spark. A random Simons 20-ball. Garza snagging a hoard of offensive rebounds.
That’s the beauty of what the Celtics have built. It’s always anyone’s night.
“He's kind of made sure we all know that he's going to use every player in this locker at one point or another,” said Garza. “There's going to be stretches where he leans on different guys, but he likes to lean into the depth that we have.”
And it’s more than just the team’s willingness to buy into that mentality. It’s also Mazzulla’s willingness to trust them to do so.
“I think in times like that, if you get it to 12, then you do something ignorant, and then it goes back. We didn't do that,” Mazzulla said. “Every time out, we came back, we chipped away at it. And so, it's just having an understanding that we have to earn it one possession at a time. It went from 20, then it was 12, and it was eight, and it was four, and then our guys did what they did. So, we just got to keep that perspective.”
Mutual trust is what makes this Celtics group tick. Mazzulla trusts his entire roster to deliver when called upon and to be ready to do so at a moment’s notice. In turn, they trust him implicitly.
Even when Brown, who is heading for an All-NBA First Team campaign as the Celtics’ unquestioned leader, is upset at getting benched, he leans into trust. Trust that the coaching staff can lead just as much as he can.
In turn, the entire organization trusts him.
“It means everything,” Brown said of this season. “I think this has been my favorite season so far, being able to get an opportunity to lead a group of guys who, some of us, we have some championship experience, but we have five or six new guys who haven't really played NBA basketball.
“And now, we look like one of the better teams in the league, and that's just credit to our coaching staff and credit to our leadership, that we've been able to get those guys comfortable, and we're playing some good basketball right now. So, it means everything.”
This Celtics group has been in the gym together for months. They knew what it would take to rebrand. To reshape everything that Celtics basketball has been about for the past three seasons with Mazzulla at the helm. But they did it.
Almost everything Boston is doing this season is a complete 180 from the past three years. Slow, simple offense replaced by quick, set-heavy possessions. Risk-averse defense replaced by a help, rotate, and recovery scheme that stresses the turnover margin.
It’s a new world. But the Celtics have never been more determined to make it work. And it starts from the top down.
“Mentality. There's been a lot of education,” Brown said. “We call it like, well, me and Joe call it Celtics University. Where it's like, you're in class, and you got to pay attention. Sometimes you got to clap your hands, wake up, Josh, something like that. But it's like being in school, and then, we're going through breaking down the footage and trying to really expand our knowledge for the game.”
Winning will never look the same on a night-to-night basis. That’s the reality these Celtics have been forced to accept. A mindset they’ve welcomed with open arms.
“Be the smarter playing team,” Brown said. “We've been saying it from the beginning. Sometimes it doesn't look like it, but we look [at] how to approach each and every game from a strategy, tactic standpoint. And I feel like, from the start of the season to where we're at now, our basketball IQ has increased, our poise has increased, our understanding of the game has increased, and that's really what it's about.
“Continue to grow and get better. And I feel like I'm watching these guys become better basketball players in the matter of three months.”
The Celtics have changed.
Star-studded casts of years past have faded away into the CBA abyss.
But in their place is a group willing to live and die by their actions on the hardwood. And that’s a basketball team this city can be proud of.