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Celtics Nightly · podcast · every game night, two hours before tip-off

Celtics Tip-Off

Two hours before tip-off: who plays, what decides it, where to watch. 5 minutes with The host and The analyst, on the nights the Celtics play and never in between.

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The voices
HThe host · runs the show
Opens with the one thing that decides tonight, keeps the pace, believes in the team until the numbers say otherwise.
AThe analyst · brings the numbers
Lineups, on/off, cap sheets. Every figure he says is in the brief on this site, or he doesn't say it.
Produced by the club's desk from the data on this site. The host and the analyst are roles, not people: no real person is portrayed, and every number in the show is on the page it links to.
3episodes
16minutes of Celtics talk
Oct 8on the air since

Latest episode

1 d ago
Celtics NightlyCelticsTip-Off6:22
Tue, Oct 20 · Celtics Tip-Off · 6:22

Opening Night in Detroit: Cunningham, Duren and a Lineup That Can't Play

Boston opens the 2026-27 season in Detroit on NBC and Peacock with the starters rested, Devin Carter out until November 8 and the payroll sitting under the tax line. The matchup is Derrick White on Cade Cunningham, and the number of the day is the +17.9 lineup Boston can no longer put on the floor.

Transcript, chapters and sources →

How the show works

Celtics Tip-Off is the pregame show, 5 minutes, and it exists only on the nights the Celtics play: the one thing that decides tonight, the opponent and the matchup that settles it, the injury report and who plays, the number of the day, the last game as the reason tonight looks the way it does, when it tips off and where to watch it, and one report from the insiders, always attributed. There is no show on the days without a game: nothing would have happened worth five minutes of your time.

Two voices carry it: the host runs the show, the analyst brings the numbers. They are roles of the Celtics Nightly desk, not people, and they never say a figure that is not on this site. Every episode has a full transcript with timestamps you can click to jump the audio, chapter markers, and the pages behind each number, so a claim in the show can always be checked on the page it comes from.

The episode is published two hours before tip-off, preseason included — after the league posts its official injury report, which is what makes the lineup talk worth anything. Subscribe with the RSS feed above in any podcast app; it is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube too (the buttons at the top), and short vertical clips go out on the Celtics Nightly social accounts. The archive on this page keeps every episode of the season, newest first.

All episodes

3
20OctTip-Off · 6:22Opening Night in Detroit: Cunningham, Duren and a Lineup That Can't PlayBoston opens the 2026-27 season in Detroit on NBC and Peacock with the starters rested, Devin Carter out until November 8 and the payroll sitting under the tax line. The matchup is Derrick White on Cade Cunningham, and the number of the day is the +17.9 lineup Boston can no longer put on the floor.10OctTip-Off · 4:21Sixers Come to the Garden, and Pritchard Is ClearedTwo days after beating Cleveland in Boston's preseason opener, the Celtics host Philadelphia at the Garden on NBA TV with seven players held out as rest and Payton Pritchard cleared off the injury report hours before tip-off. Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown, the two biggest names on the other bench, headline who Boston won't see tonight.8OctTip-Off · 4:52Tatum's Return, Mobley's Boards: Celtics Open in ClevelandJayson Tatum takes the floor tonight for the first time since playing just sixteen games last season, and Boston's undersized frontcourt faces Cleveland's Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Paul George gets his first look in green as the roster sits above the luxury tax, two days before coming home to face Philadelphia.