LOS ANGELES — The stars were shining bright in Los Angeles. On the night that legendary Lakers coach Pat Riley got his statue outside the Crypto.com Arena, inside the arena was filled with hoops royalty: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dwayne Wade and James Worthy (not to mention the NBC crew of Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Reggie Miller).
On the court, there were plenty of stars, too: LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Jaylen Brown were playing in the All-Star Game just last weekend.
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However, it was the Celtics’ role players who were the difference in a comfortable 111-89 Boston win, particularly Payton Pritchard, who scored 30 off the bench and was a force down the stretch.
«I think we have a lot of underrated players that people didn’t know that were this good, and were ready for that moment,» Pritchard said of the bench play. «And so I think they’re just seeing it.»
Boston Defense
Where Boston’s depth really started to show up was on defense — Baylor Scheierman got the start for the Celtics, Hugo Gonzalez came off the bench, and both were ball hawks all night, pressuring Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves, making them really work for their points. Boston wanted to pressure the ball, get out and run and wear the Lakers down. It worked as the Lakers shot less than 40% as a team.
What really stood out — and a key difference in this game — was Boston’s game-plan discipline. Celtics’ defenders pressured LeBron (20 points on 21 true shot attempts) and Doncic (25 points on 25 true shot attempts) but dared the Lakers’ role players to beat them, often with good looks. Lakers not born in Slovenia shot 21.7% from 3-point range (5-of-23).
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«I mean, sometimes you just have to make shots,» LeBron said. «They made timely shots when we didn’t. We didn’t give ourselves a good chance on the offensive end. Defensively, we held firm for as long as we could, but offensively we didn’t give ourselves a good chance.»
That lack of shooting has been an issue for the Lakers all season, which is why they traded for Luke Kennard at the deadline (nine points on Sunday, taking only two 3-point attempts in 22 minutes). Boston’s pressure defense was the story of the night, exacerbating Los Angeles’ shooting issues.
«Offensively, we’re starting to find our footing, but defensively, we got to make sure that we keep that same mentality. We saw it carried out through tonight. Hugo made some big plays for us. Baylor was amazing tonight.»
The first half was largely close, but Boston created some space late in the second quarter because it was generating better looks and, with that, shooting a higher percentage. It was 60-50 Boston at the half despite 18 from Doncic.
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It was during the second half that the depth issues really started to catch up with Los Angeles, as they had opportunities but could not close the gap on Boston. For the night, Pritchard alone outscored the Lakers’ bench, and by the end was hitting 3-pointers and barking at NBC’s Reggie Miller as he ran back up court.
Then there was Jaylen Brown. Boston’s All-Star and MVP candidate led all scorers with 32 points, and he was the aggressor all night, getting downhill and drawing fouls in the paint (he was 9-of-12 from the free throw line).
Lakers coach JJ Redick thought his team played well enough on defense to be in the game, but 89 points isn’t going to win in the NBA, especially against a top-two team in the East like Boston.
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Boston got a dozen points and eight assists from Derrick White, while Neemias Queta had 10 points and 12 boards. Austin Reaves added 15 for the Lakers.
«We did enough defensively, we’re just awful offensively tonight,» Redick said.
The Lakers stars can help with that, but Redick is going to need a lot more from his role players if the Lakers are going to be any kind of threat in the West.
