In the midst of getting his statue outdoors of Crypto.com Arena unveiled, former Lakers coach and NBA legend Pat Riley, nonetheless feeling the skilled competitiveness in opposition to the Celtics, had a easy message.
“The time has come to kick some a–,” Riley mentioned. “To kick some Boston a–.”
The message was delivered however not made good on, with the Lakers falling to their longtime rivals 111-89 after being stifled by Boston’s protection your entire sport.
“We did enough defensively,” Lakers coach JJ Redick mentioned. “We were just awful offensively.”
The Lakers have been held to 22 or fewer factors in every of the ultimate three quarters, together with 18 in the fourth, and shot 39.1% from the sector (34 of 87) for his or her second-worst capturing proportion in a sport this season.
Their scoring complete marked simply the second time they have been held to fewer than 90 factors.
“There were opportunities to put more pressure on the rim, particularly in the first half: we took 11 non-paint 2s,” Redick mentioned. “Got some attractiveness [on 3-pointers], we didn’t knock them down.
“A lot of times when teams are on a deeper drop versus all our guys that play pick and roll, it kind of puts you a little bit in a bind of not having the obvious choice to pass, if that makes sense? So we just got to do a better job of just finding guys and moving the ball.”
Luka Doncic completed with 25 factors, 5 rebounds and three assists. LeBron James added 20 factors, 5 assists and 4 rebounds, whereas Austin Reaves recorded 15 factors and 7 rebounds.
But each part of the Lakers’ Big 3 struggled to get the Lakers’ offense going.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 32 factors, eight rebounds and 7 assists.
What it means
The Lakers misplaced the regular-season collection to the Celtics, 0-2, for the primary time because the 2022-23 season.
The Celtics additionally beat the Lakers on Dec. 5 in Boston, with the Lakers not having Dončić or James obtainable for the matchup.
The Lakers additionally fell to 34-22 on the season with Sunday’s loss.
Turning level
When Marcus Smart missed a 3-point try on the 9:32 mark of the fourth quarter.
The Lakers opened the fourth with a 6-2 run, chopping the 13-point deficit they entered the quarter with to 9 after back-to-back close-range photographs from James and Rui Hachimura with momentum on their facet.
But that momentum shortly went away, with the Celtics going on a 6-0 run (back-to-back midrange photographs and a pair of free throws from Payton Pritchard) to take a game-best 15-point lead, 92-77, with simply over eight minutes left.
The Lakers trailed by at the very least double digits for the remainder of the sport.
MVP: Payton Pritchard
Pritchard led the Celtics in the course of the aforementioned stretch that helped seal the victory.
He completed with 30 factors, eight assists and 4 rebounds off the bench.
“He played a great game,” Redick mentioned.
Stat of the sport: 15.4%
That was the Lakers’ 3-point proportion in the second half till coach Redick pulled his essential rotation gamers with 3:22 left after Pritchard’s 3 put the Celtics up 105-83.
The Lakers made 2 of 13 makes an attempt from past the 3-point arc in the primary 20 ½ minutes of the second half.
The Celtics didn’t have the new hand, both, however made thrice as many 3s in the identical stretch.
The Lakers shot 46.7% on their 3s (7 of 15) in the opening two quarters.
Up subsequent
The Lakers will shut their prolonged homestand, which began with a win over the 76ers on Feb. 5, once they host the Magic on Tuesday.
They’ll play in opposition to the Suns in Phoenix on Thursday and the Warriors in San Francisco on Saturday.
