Banner Town Breakdown: Lakers Squeak by in a Hard Fought Battle Between Rivals
Kirby Lee | USA TODAY Sports
The Celtics renewed their rivalry with the Lakers tonight, with both teams being tied at 17 titles apiece after LA’s championship run in the bubble last season. The Lakers were 14-6 coming into this one, while the C’s sat at 10-7. With Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker finally getting to play together in the last game against San Antonio, Brad Stevens kept the same starting five in this one - Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Tatum, and Daniel Theis. Meanwhile, Frank Vogel went with Dennis Schroder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Marc Gasol.
Boston’s injury report was identical to what it was on Wednesday against the Spurs - Payton Pritchard (MCL) and Romeo Langford (wrist) out. Meanwhile. Davis almost didn’t play for the Lakers after missing their last game against Detroit. Luckily for them, he ended up being available for the game. Their final injury report listed Jared Dudley (calf) and Kostas Antetokounmpo (knee) as out.
Boston’s young wing duo did exactly what they needed to do in this one - control the offense. In past games, we’ve seen some hesitation at times from each of them, but they both knew that they had to be the focal points tonight. In the first half alone Tatum had 16 points and Brown had 13.
Brown really turned things on in the third quarter, starting to get super aggressive on the offensive end. He was nailing threes and driving to the rack at will, leading Boston’s offensive attack. He’s been the most consistent player on the Celtics this season and made sure that that narrative remained true in this one.
Meanwhile, Theis was another surprising spark on the offensive end, coming out the gates red hot. He nailed a couple of corner threes and was looking extremely confident on the offensive end. His mid-range shot has looked great all season long, and he had the chance to do a bit more than usual in this one. Even as the game progressed he remained in attack mode, turning into a legitimate scoring threat for Boston in this one.
On the other end of the floor, Semi Ojeleye played a huge role. His defense against James and Davis was massive for the C’s, especially in the second quarter. The Lakers went on a bit of a run to start the second, but some great defense from Ojeleye and Aaron Nesmith helped slow them down and allowed the C’s to climb back into it. It was great to see some role players play a big part in the Celtics’ success.
While James was doing his normal great things, Davis was the real issue for Boston to deal with in this one. In the first half alone he corralled 10 rebounds, while also scoring 18 points. The Celtics’ size was really rearing its ugly head in this one, with Davis exposing their lack of it as a major flaw. The Lakers were killing Boston on the offensive glass, and while the C’s were able to limit the second-chance points with some solid help defense, boxing out LA’s bigs was a big task for Boston’s undersized big man lineup. Davis’ dominance continued throughout the game, as LA’s game plan seemed to be to feed him the ball in the high post as much as possible. His fadeaway was practically unguardable.
As the game moved into the fourth quarter, it was hard to stay focused as a Celtics fan. Smart, the heart and soul of the city, went down early in the fourth after trying to stop Montrezl Harrell at the rim. After seeing the replay, the injury looked scarily similar to Kevin Durant’s injury in the playoffs two years ago, which ended up being a torn Achilles. It was announced all over Twitter that he would be out with a left calf strain, but there obviously has to be more testing done. All love goes out to Smart. Hoping for a speedy recovery.
Regardless of the injury, the Celtics’ offense was completely stagnant to start out the fourth quarter. To make matters worse, James and the Lakers got cooking to take a lead mid-way through the quarter. This has been a constant issue all season long - the Celtics going cold in the fourth while the other team heats up. The massive amount of fourth-quarter turnovers didn’t help much either.
The energy on the floor was never the same after Smart went down. James led his team on a massive charge to regain momentum and had the Lakers playing great in the fourth quarter. While Boston’s defense was still solid, their offense continued to be absent all throughout the final quarter of play. Despite this, they still stayed within three to five points of the Lakers as the game began to wind down. A big shot from Tatum and some spectacular defensive play from Ojeleye had Boston in a position to tie the game with less than a minute remaining. Instead, however, Tatum brought them to within one with just over 30 seconds remaining with a beautiful floater.
Those last 30 seconds went by in a whirlwind of dramatics. Walker forced a turnover on Davis, but the Celtics were unable to get a couple of good looks to go. Walker had the chance to win it with a classic “Cardiac Kemba” step back, and Theis even had the chance at a tip-in. Unfortunately, neither went down and the Lakers managed to squeak by with a 96-95 victory.
Onto the next for the C’s, who have now dropped two in a row. They played a solid game in this one, but sometimes the final shot just doesn’t go your way. They take on Stephen Curry and the Warriors on Tuesday, February 2nd at 10:00 PM EST on TNT.
Standout Performers
Jayson Tatum: 30 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl
Jaylen Brown: 28 pts, 1 reb, 3 ast
Daniel Theis: 14 pts, 7 reb, 1 ast
Robert Williams: 10 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk
Semi Ojeleye: Not in stat sheet, great defense on LeBron and AD
Anthony Davis: 27 pts, 14 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl
Lebron James: 21 pts, 7 reb, 7 ast
Montrezl Harrell: 16 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk
Dennis Schroder: 12 pts, 3 reb, 7 ast
