The greatest rivalry in NBA history continued on Christmas Day when the Boston Celtics visited the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers came in with a 16-14 record and were still in serious need of wins in bunches, while Boston had won seven of its last eight contests and had scored over 140 points in each of its last two games.
The Celtics came out scorching, as they scored the first 12 points of the game before the Lakers could seemingly blink. Boston led 32-14 before the Lakers scored nine unanswered points to come to within 32-23 at the end of the first quarter. Los Angeles finally tied the score with just over two minutes left in the second quarter and trailed by just one at halftime.
Boston, however, regained control of the game afterward by outscoring the home team 41-33 in the third quarter and going up 99-90 heading into the final period. It led by as many as 15 down the stretch and claimed a 126-115 win.
While the Lakers outshot Boston 40.6% to 31.0% on 3-pointers, Boston had the edge in free throws, fast-break points, points in the paint and second-chance points. It just seemed the men in green had more players who could do damage offensively, even though L.A. has arguably more depth overall.
With a 16-15 record, L.A. is in ninth place in the Western Conference, and the championship hopes they had to start the season are starting to fade.
Anthony Davis: A-plus
Davis was the one Lakers player the Celtics had no answers for. He attacked from the start and went at Kristaps Porziņģis without fear or hesitation. The superstar big man scored 40 points on 15-of-26 shooting while grabbing 13 rebounds and adding four assists and one blocked shot. Those 40 points were a season-high for him.
One encouraging thing about Davis’ play lately is the resurrection of his 3-point shot. That aspect of his game had been weak the previous three seasons, but in December, he has been hot from downtown. He went 2-of-4 from that distance on Monday, making him 8-of-16 this month in that category.
Cam Reddish: C/C-plus
Reddish did a pretty good job on Jayson Tatum, as Tatum never really got going offensively and was forced to be more of a facilitator than a scorer.
But the Lakers needed more from Reddish offensively. He attempted just two shots and made one of them, which was a 3-pointer. He finished with five points.
Jarred Vanderbilt: B/B-plus
When Vanderbilt was in the game, Tatum had trouble hitting shots. Overall, Tatum shot just 6-of-15 and he was only 1-of-6 from downtown, and while he had seven assists, the Lakers did a pretty good job on him and prevented him from doing his usual amount of damage.
Vanderbilt grabbed six rebounds, four of them on the offensive boards, and he even shot 3-of-5 from the field to score six points in 23 minutes. Offense will be the key for him, as the Lakers know he will play excellent defense and often make a nice effort to crash the boards. How Vanderbilt figures out to not be an offensive liability, at the very least, is the big question for him.
Taurean Prince: A-minus
Prince continues to spit out fire from 3-point range. On Monday he went 5-of-12 from that distance, although he missed all four of his 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter as Boston pulled away. He finished with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal.
LeBron James: C/C-minus
James shot just 2-of-7 in the first half. He scored the Lakers’ first basket of the second half to give them their first lead of the game, but he was 3-of-9 through three quarters, and he never found his game offensively.
He finished the game scoring just 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting, and it seemed like every time he got into the paint, the Celtics made him take shots in major traffic. James did contribute nine rebounds and eight assists in 37 minutes to help L.A.’s cause.
Austin Reaves: B/B-minus
Reaves shot 4-of-9 overall and 2-of-3 from downtown, and like James, he wasn’t able to consistently convert inside of the painted area. He scored 11 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a steal, but the Lakers needed much more offense from him in this game.
Rui Hachimura: C/C-minus
Hachimura was pretty aggressive, but although he scored a solid 12 points in 29 minutes, he shot only 5-of-14. He missed each of his first seven 3-pointers before hitting back-to-back treys in garbage time.
The fact that the Lakers shot 40.6% from 3-point land was deceiving. With only Prince and Reaves, and to a certain extent Davis, hitting threes with any consistency, they were unable to prevent Boston from collapsing into the paint when they looked to attack the basket.
Jaxson Hayes: D
In nine minutes, Hayes only contributed one rebound and missed his lone field goal attempt. When Davis is resting, it is clear the Lakers are at a disadvantage because of Hayes’ lack of production and the fact that Christian Wood has been getting only sporadic playing time over the last few weeks.
