The Boston Celtics continued their West Coast highway journey Thursday evening with the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Enviornment.
Boston entered after empowering wins over the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Celtics got here in a step behind after these video games and tried to play catch up all through the evening towards the Lakers. The longtime rival took benefit and paced the sport early on to the tune of a 17-5 run within the first quarter. Boston went on to path by probably the most they’ve all season hovering round 40 factors in a fourth-quarter deficit.
The Celtics had a mini-rally with the three-point ball within the third quarter, however the Lakers held on to safe the 117-96 win. Boston fell to 31-14, whereas Los Angeles improved to 24-18.
Listed here are three studs and two duds from Boston’s loss:
STUDS
LeBron James
The 40-year-old continues to push apart Father Time with continued efficiency on the ground. He attacked the Celtics early and sometimes to tempo the Lakers in an environment friendly first half offensively and threw down a number of influence dunks.
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The four-time NBA champion posted 20 factors and 14 rebounds on the evening towards the Celtics.
Kristaps Porzingis
Boston’s large man acquired the scoring began with an early triple and posted 11 factors on 5-of-6 capturing within the first quarter. Porzingis marked a uncommon vibrant spot from the perimeter for the Celtics on 2-of-5 capturing from deep with 22 factors.
Uniform mixtures
Boston sported its full inexperienced uniforms, whereas the Lakers wore their residence yellow mixture. That mixture set the tone for a number of aesthetically pleasing NBA Finals matchups for many years, as just lately because the conferences between the Celtics and the Lakers within the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals.
DUDS
Jayson Tatum
Tatum didn’t have a great evening from the ground and remained off the scoreboard for a big portion of the primary half. His evening mirrored the final struggles of the Celtics to get pictures to fall early because the Lakers cruised of their scoring rhythm.
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Tatum completed the evening with 16 factors and a minus-13 score.
Three-point discrepancy
Boston acquired a style of its personal drugs.
The Celtics depend on elite three-point capturing to dominate opponents, and the Lakers took their flip flipping the script Thursday evening. Los Angeles shot 55% from the perimeter within the first half in comparison with simply 30% for Boston.
