WASHINGTON D.C. — For the vast majority of basketball players, nothing is more energizing than scoring. The sound of the ball swishing through the net. The points on the scoreboard. The dejected look on the opponent’s face. The rousing cheers.

It’s no secret; how many times have you heard coaches lament how missed shots impacted their team’s energy and effort in a defeat?

But for 21-year-old Jordan Walsh, it’s exactly the opposite.

It’s big defensive plays that get him up, that fill him with adrenaline.

The offense? He hardly even notices it.

“Honestly, I be forgetting what happened on offense,” Walsh said with a smile after the Celtics’ 146-101 win over the Washington Wizards. “Like, when I score, I lowkey forget what happened. I’m so focused on getting back on defense, so then it leaves my mind. But whenever I get a steal and a dunk, or like a steal and a rebound, that stays with me. I don’t know why.”

That defense-first mindset propelled Walsh toward the most pivotal month of his basketball career. In early November, the Arkansas product was accruing DNPs, and seemed to be on the cusp of a third-straight season completely out of the Celtics’ rotation.

Then, he broke through. First, it was productive garbage time minutes against the Houston Rockets. Then playing big-time minutes off the bench in back-to-back games in Orlando.

Since November 12th, Walsh has started 10 consecutive games. And, the Celtics are 8-2 in that span, best of any team in the Eastern Conference.

Walsh’s defensive impact has been almost revolutionary for Boston; whether the assignment was Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, Paolo Banchero, or Jaren Jackson Jr, he’s excelled.

Joe Mazzulla credited Walsh for the tone he set on the defensive end in the victory over the Wizards, in which he was largely tasked with guarding Khris Middleton. He racked up two steals and a block.

“He was unscreenable,” said the Celtics head coach. “He did a great job making plays defensively.”

But there was another noteworthy element to Walsh’s big night. Alongside his defense, Walsh managed to do the one thing he’s been least focused on so far as a pro: score in bunches.

The third-year Celtic finished the game with a career-best 22 points, pouring in 13 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting in the second quarter. He followed that up with 7 points in the third quarter, before sitting for the entire fourth, the game out of reach. When he checked out for good, Walsh received a raucous ovation from a Capital One Arena crowd inundated with Celtics fans.

Fittingly, he was hardly aware of his own scoring throughout the game.

“In the game, I didn’t feel like I was scoring that much, which is weird,” he said. “But I looked up and saw it, and was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’”

When Walsh was drafted in 2023, the Celtics hoped he could blossom into a defensive specialist. But now, he’s beginning to show some offensive flashes; in his last 10 games, he’s averaging 8.2 points, shooting 60% from the field.

On the season, he’s shooting a very respectable 37% from three.

But when Walsh thinks about momentum, he doesn’t think about how one three-pointer leads to the next, or how a handful of buckets can turn into a 20+ point night.

Instead, he considers how one defensive stop leads to the next, how a steal might rattle an opponent.

“If I press up, and press up on you and get a steal, then the next three possessions I’m going to do the same thing, and I’m going to try and get another steal,” Walsh said. “If I get another one, it’s another three more possessions — I’m just going to keep doing it until it stops working. I’m gonna eat off of it. The team feels the energy off of it.”

For those on the outside, it may feel like Walsh’s leap came out of nowhere

But in the eyes of Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics, it’s long been brewing behind the scenes. Walsh’s work ethic, professionalism, and attention to detail have long stood out.

“The games are the most important, and that’s what you guys cover the most,” Mazzulla said. “But if we shoot around at 10:30, the workout that starts at 9:45 is just as important as the game. The 30 minutes before practice are just as important. The way you do a shootaround is as important, [or] a film session. He’s chipped away at just taking advantage of every possible moment that he knows he has to get better. And so it hasn’t come as a surprise at all. He takes it very seriously. If it’s a 15-minute workout, a 30-minute workout, he takes that seriously.”

Derrick White said that Walsh has consistently improved, and that is the first time he’s had a real on-court chance.

“This league’s all about opportunity,” White said. “And I wouldn’t really say he’s had much of an opportunity his first two years. And so, he’s got it now — and he’s definitely making the most of it.”

For Walsh, on-court success as an NBA starter is becoming a new normal. His offensive ceiling remains to be seen; it seems that right now, he’s outdoing himself every week.

But, irrespective of a career-scoring night, Walsh remains most energized by his own defense. It’s the stops, the deflections, the blocks, and the steals that make him tick:

“If I just hit a shot, I never celebrate. I always just immediately run back,” Walsh said.

“It’s weird for me, but that’s how it happens. I just kind of forget and then move on to defense. And then defense always sticks with me.”