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Celtics pull away from Lakers despite Anthony…

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Wednesday, September 4th 2024

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Lakers |
Celtics pull away from Lakers despite Anthony Davis’ 40 points

After the Lakers overcome an 18-point first-quarter deficit, Boston scores 68 points in the second half for a 126-115 Christmas Day victory at Crypto.com Arena

The Lakers’ Anthony Davis shoots over the Boston Celtics’ Kristaps Porzingis during the first half on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
The Lakers’ Anthony Davis shoots over the Boston Celtics’ Kristaps Porzingis during the first half on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
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Lakers star LeBron James drives past the Boston Celtics’ Jrue Holiday during the first half on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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LOS ANGELES — Multiple factors led to the Lakers dropping their Christmas Day matchup to the Boston Celtics.

One of the main ones: When the Celtics’ star duo weren’t at their best, their supporting cast provided enough to keep Boston in front.

Battling against an early deficit and an uncharacteristic shooting performance from LeBron James (16 points on 5-of-14 shooting, nine rebounds and eight assists in 37 minutes), the Lakers didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with the Celtics, who entered Monday with a top-five offensive rating and looked the part in their 126-115 win at Crypto.com Arena.

Anthony Davis finished with a regular season-high 40 points (15-for-26 shooting), 13 rebounds and three assists in 39 minutes, but his performance was overshadowed by the depth of the Celtics’ offensive performance.

“You always think about shots you could’ve made, defensive plays you could’ve made, rebounds you could have had, free throws I could’ve made – things like that that could’ve changed the game,” Davis said. “I was thinking about it in the game, I missed a free throw in the third quarter and they end up getting a fastbreak (3-pointer).

“And all I was thinking was, ‘If I make the free throw, that doesn’t happen.’ So throughout a game, and then after when you watch film, you think about what you could’ve done better individually and as a team to try to combat some of the mistakes.”

Boston (23-6), led by Kristaps Porzingis’ 28 points and 11 rebounds, had six players score in double figures, including all of their starting lineup scoring at least 18. Jayson Tatum had 25 points (6-of-15 shooting), eight rebounds and seven assists while Jaylen Brown finished with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting.

The Celtics’ starting backcourt of Derrick White (18 points, 11 assists, two steals and two blocked shots) and Jrue Holiday (18 points and seven assists) combined for 36 points and 18 assists.

“It’s tough with them,” said Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who finished with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists. “They’re obviously a really good basketball team that has a lot of really good basketball players that have bought into what they’re trying to do.”

James took it a step further, suggesting the Lakers do not have what it takes to compete with the best teams in the league at the moment.

“I don’t think we’re healthy right now. I don’t think we’re where we want to be to compete versus the top teams until we continue to get better and better, continue to work out habits,” James said. “For us, we’re still trying to figure our situation out as far as how we want to continue to attack each game, but we’ll get better.”

Rui Hachimura had 12 points off the bench but on 5-of-14 shooting (2 for 9 from behind the arc). D’Angelo Russell, coming off the bench for the second consecutive game, added eight points and six assists in 18 minutes.

The Lakers (16-15), starting the lineup of James, Davis, Taurean Prince (17 points, 5-of-12 shooting from 3-point range), Cam Reddish and Jarred Vanderbilt for the second consecutive game, fell behind early. The Celtics scored 12 unanswered points to open the game before Reddish made a 3-pointer for the Lakers’ first basket after three minutes of play.

“We came back a little bit lethargic, just coming off a long trip, and then the whole Christmas circumstances of the holiday or whatever, took us a little bit of time to get going,” said Lakers coach Darvin Ham, whose team has lost six of its past eight games. “But we had some great looks early. A couple of bad turnovers, but for the most part, I mean, you go back and look at the shots we got, theirs went in and ours didn’t, but we had some really terrific looks at the rim.”

Boston’s lead ballooned to 30-12 late in the first quarter, with the Lakers closing the period on a 9-0 run to take a nine-point deficit into the second.

The Lakers took the momentum into the second, winning the quarter 34-26 to reduce their deficit to 58-57 at halftime. James appeared to suffer a left knee injury while guarding Brown in the second when Brown tripped coming off a screen while James was trailing, with James accidentally kneeing Brown in the back.

James subbed out of the game before quickly reentering but didn’t get himself going from there. He made just four of his 11 shots inside the paint.

“My knee is a little sore right now,” James said. “Finally, the schedule is kind of in our favor with two days before we have to play again. So, just a freak play right there between me and Jaylen Brown. I’m happy I was able to walk off on my own power, but definitely a little sore right now.”

The Lakers took their first lead of the game, 59-58, early in the third but the Celtics went 12 for 14 on free throws in the quarter to take a 99-90 lead going into the fourth – a quarter in which Boston always led by at least seven.

“It’s tough to guard without fouling,” Reaves said. “Especially when you’ve got a team like that that moves the ball and plays the right way and, obviously, has two guys who are super-talented that can go get any bucket that they want or any look that they want. So, we’ve got to do better to not put ourselves in that position.”

The Lakers – who will get Tuesday off before hosting the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night – made too many mistakes to take advantage of a rare instance when they were the better team from long range, shooting 40.6% from behind the arc (13 for 32). Ham said the Lakers have to get better at consistently executing the details of the game.

“We can’t get bored with the details,” Ham added. “Sprinting back each and every time, no matter how difficult it may be. Allow the chance to have the offense in front of you and not be scattered or have them behind you. And not fouling, getting the defensive rebound, not turning the ball over and playing with force offensively.”

James agreed with Ham’s assessment.

“When you don’t have much room for error, you have to be detail-oriented,” James said. “You have to understand each possession. And when you’re able to execute that to as close to perfection [as possible], then you’re going to give yourself a better chance to be successful. So when we play defense for 24 seconds or whatever and we give up an offensive rebound or second-chance points, or we don’t get back in transition and we give them early transition points – whoever it is, don’t matter if it’s the Celtics or any other team – that’s not a good recipe for us, for our success.”

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