Three Studs, Two Duds As Lakers Control Celtics On Back-To-Back

The Boston Celtics continued their West Coast road trip Thursday night with the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.

Boston entered after empowering wins over the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Celtics came in a step behind after those games and tried to play catch up throughout the night against the Lakers. The longtime rival took advantage and paced the game early on to the tune of a 17-5 run in the first quarter. Boston went on to trail by the most they have all season hovering around 40 points in a fourth-quarter deficit.

The Celtics had a mini-rally with the three-point ball in the third quarter, but the Lakers held on to secure the 117-96 win. Boston fell to 31-14, while Los Angeles improved to 24-18.

Here are three studs and two duds from Boston’s loss:

STUDS
LeBron James
The 40-year-old continues to push aside Father Time with continued performance on the floor. He attacked the Celtics early and often to pace the Lakers in an efficient first half offensively and threw down multiple impact dunks.

The four-time NBA champion posted 20 points and 14 rebounds on the night against the Celtics.

Kristaps Porzingis
Boston’s big man got the scoring started with an early triple and posted 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the first quarter. Porzingis marked a rare bright spot from the perimeter for the Celtics on 2-of-5 shooting from deep with 22 points.

Uniform combinations
Boston sported its full green uniforms, while the Lakers wore their home yellow combination. That combination set the tone for several aesthetically pleasing NBA Finals matchups for decades, as recently as the meetings between the Celtics and the Lakers in the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals.

DUDS
Jayson Tatum
Tatum did not have a good night from the floor and remained off the scoreboard for a large portion of the first half. His night reflected the general struggles of the Celtics to get shots to fall early as the Lakers cruised in their scoring rhythm.

Tatum finished the night with 16 points and a minus-13 rating.

Three-point discrepancy
Boston got a taste of its own medicine.

The Celtics rely on elite three-point shooting to dominate opponents, and the Lakers took their turn flipping the script Thursday night. Los Angeles shot 55% from the perimeter in the first half compared to just 30% for Boston.