Hand up. I didn’t see this coming.

Heading into the season, I’ll admit I was just about ready to write Jordan Walsh off. After a flat preseason where he looked tentative and unsure of his place, followed by a string of DNPs to open the year, I had him pegged as expendable - another young piece who just wasn’t going to carve out a meaningful NBA role in Boston.

But Sunday night in Orlando made me eat those words.

And honestly, it tasted pretty good.

With the Celtics (5-6) desperate to avoid a weekend sweep, Walsh played the best game of his young career, punctuating a season-saving 111-107 win over the Magic (4-6) with the biggest shot of the night: a corner three with 12.4 seconds left to put Boston up by five and send the bench into a frenzy.

Walsh let out a yell that seemed to echo everything I, and probably a lot of fans, were feeling: relief, excitement, and maybe a little vindication for the hours of quiet work he’s been putting in behind the scenes.

The box score won’t tell the whole story. 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 assists. Solid, but not spectacular. But every one of those contributions came at a critical moment. His two threes both landed in the fourth quarter. One of his assists set up a clutch basket by Derrick White. His defense was relentless. Walsh finished with a +13 in 26 minutes, the second-best mark on the team.

More importantly, he looked confident.

It’s a subtle but vital shift. The version of Walsh we saw early in the year was hesitant, caught somewhere between overthinking and overtrying in limited action. The version we’re seeing now is a player who knows exactly what his role is - to fly around defensively, use his size and length to switch across multiple positions, and make timely plays that tilt the energy of the game.

Celtics Head coach Joe Mazzulla praised Walsh’s “sense of urgency” afterward, saying he’s playing “like his basketball life is on the line.” That’s exactly how it looks. And it’s exactly the kind of edge Boston needs from its young players in this bridge season.

So yeah, I was wrong about Jordan Walsh. I thought he was cooked. Turns out, he just needed the right moment to light the fire.

If this is the version the Celtics are getting from here on out, I’m more than happy to be wrong. And it’s starting to feel like this won’t be the last time he proves it.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.