10 Things we learned from Celtics-Lakers: Tatum's leap against contenders, 2nd guesses & what about the bench?

A mix of observations and analysis after the Celtics fell short in an instant classic to the Lakers on Sunday afternoon. 

1. Jayson Tatum forced the Lakers to change the way they play defense: The All-Star forward has had a new career-best performance on seemingly a weekly basis for the past month. What he did against a top-3 NBA defense that was at full strength in this contest was something different altogether. Not only did Tatum tie his career-high with 41 points, but he posted a new career-high with 15 free throw attempts, getting to the free-throw line at will over his first three quarters. He punished the Lakers on two fronts: First, he forced them to go small early with Anthony Davis at center instead of a slower Dwight Howard/JaVale McGee that couldn’t handle Tatum in switches.

With Tatum also besting everyone he faced in isolation situations, Frank Vogel elected to throw two defenders at him and force the Celtics supporting cast to beat them. This tactic paid off in the fourth quarter as seven turnovers and some sloppy decision making at points by Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown allowed the Lakers to get away with this tactic. However, doubling Tatum is not a strategy that would work well with a dynamic playmaker like Kemba Walker also on the floor. The C’s defense was better in this one without Walker (since he couldn’t be attacked on defense) but he brings more on the offensive end than he gives away. Tatum did well to make the right pass out of double teams for most of crunch time but this was a learning lesson for Boston late amid a lackluster offensive fourth quarter (25 points).

“If somebody is double-teamed and we make the right play, it should mean easy shots, either layups or wide-open shots,” Gordon Hayward told reporters. "They’re trying to take the ball out of somebody’s hands, so they’re leaving somebody open. We have a lot of weapons, so we should take advantage of that.”

The Celtics got some wide-open looks late but they also settled for contested jumpers out of these double teams. They can be better moving forward on this front. Walker will help.

2. Marcus Smart made the right pass with the game on the line: Two years ago, the Celtics had a chance to beat the Lakers at Staples Center but couldn’t get the ball to their go-to guy with the game on the line in the closing seconds. Instead, Marcus Smart settled for a pull up 3 that missed and the C’s went home.

History was close to repeating itself on Sunday as Smart grabbed the rebound off a missed free throw with six seconds left and sprinted up the floor with the C’s trailing by just two. Instead of trying to win the game himself this time, he made a point of trying to draw defenders in the paint before dishing the ball to Tatum in the midst of a career-night.

It may have seemed like an obvious play but it’s an important one for a player like Smart who has the tendency to try to do too much at times. Tatum deserved that shot with the way he played Sunday and he was set to get a decent look before the offensive foul was called on him by a flopping Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. This kind of recognition by Smart two years later is a promising sign for his development in the midst of what was a solid all-around effort from him (14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals). He took just 11 shots in this one which is exactly where he should be.

3. Not a good night for the Celtics bench: Romeo Langford was the biggest contributor for the Celtics bench unit, which could be considered both good and bad news. Getting anything significant out of Langford this season seemed unlikely as recently as a couple of months ago. On the other hand, leading the bench unit with 5 points in 15 minutes isn’t anything to write home about either. Stevens was forced to rely on two rookies (Langford, Grant Williams) and a 30-year-old journeyman in Brad Wanamaker in this one who has overachieved much of the season but looked overmatched in this one against the Lakers ball pressure. The entire unit combined to score 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting and perhaps more importantly could only be trusted to play a collective 57 minutes.

Life will get easier when Kemba Walker returns (allowing Smart to slide back to the bench) but there are a number of troubling issues that are growing recently with this group. Enes Kanter (0 points in 5 minutes) has been a non-factor in the past couple weeks since returning from a hip injury that appears to be still bothering him. He was bullied by the likes of Howard in this one and it’s hard to find a better matchup for him than that across the NBA. Wanamaker has always struggled with ball pressure in his NBA career and Rondo (five steals) made him pay for it during a big first-half run by creating easy transition bucks. Elsewhere, Williams and Langford are solid defensively but just don’t provide anything reliable from an offensive standpoint. That’s not a big deal when the C’s are at full strength but will be costly in the postseason when opponents take advantage of their inexperience. There is still time for Danny Ainge to add an offensive-minded name to this roster and this performance was a good case to give Brad Stevens more options.

4. A tough miss highlighted a tough night for Gordon Hayward: The swingman led the Celtics in minutes with 40 and flirted with a triple-double (10 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists) but he left a lot of points on the board in this one, none bigger than the final minute. Hayward took off in transition with the visitors holding a two-point lead with 50 seconds remaining and attacked a retreating Lakers defense. He avoided contact with Kyle Kuzma after taking the ball all the way to the rim but missed the bunny, his 10th misfire of the night (5-of-15 from the field).

The time management decision made this one particularly tough. If the Celtics hold the ball there and run clock, they can get the game clock down to 35 seconds with a two-point lead. That essentially gives them a great chance of ending up with the ball to end the game with a chance to win (if the Lakers tied it up after a miss) or forcing the Lakers to foul if they managed to get a Lakers stop.

Hayward had good intentions by pushing the ball here but he really has to make this shot if he’s going to fire early. With the three fourth-quarter turnovers and a bunch of missed open 3s, it was a tough off night from the 29-year-old, capped off by this sequence

5. A questionable Brad Stevens challenge: Much like challenges in the NFL, coach’s challenges in the NBA are a slippery slope. Unless, it’s absolutely obvious (particularly on a foul call) not a lot gets overturned. Despite this, Brad Stevens elected to use a challenge with 37 seconds in this one on a Jaylen Brown foul of LeBron James during a postup attempt. It was a weak call but this is LeBron James we are talking about here. Any kind of contact involving him is not going to get overturned. The foul was upheld and LeBron got his free throws. More importantly, the Celtics lost one of their last two timeouts, which proved costly on the ensuing possession when Jaylen Brown threw the ball out of bounds while trying to get the ball to Tatum.

Stevens clearly looks for guidance down the bench on whether to challenge calls after viewing replays but this was a costly misfire. Against a tough defense like the Lakers late, drawing up plays in a half court set is essential. Another timeout may not have won the Celtics the game but it would have helped down the stretch get some better offense going.

6. Officiating almost ruined the last two minutes of this instant classic: The Celtics had plenty of chances to win this game on their own by the zebras were the real losers of this game in the aftermath, with some ugly calls for both sides. There were two blown goaltending calls (one benefitting each side) early but things went comically against the Celtics in the final few minutes, starting with Jaylen Brown being whistled for stepping out of bounds after colliding with a referee (he was not out of bounds). That was followed by a final minute that featured a tough foul call against Brown that led to LeBron free throws, an out of bounds review that appeared to show the ball going off Anthony Davis (but the ball still going the Lakers) and a technical foul against Brad Stevens in the aftermath of a no-call that led to a Celtics turnover.

The technical foul was the most egregious situation of them all here given that it was a one-point game. Barring a coach charging a ref in that situation, the refs should swallow their whistles rather than let a borderline tech decide a game. Luckily for Boston, Anthony Davis missed the free throw, keeping things a one-possession game after the subsequent fouling but the entire two-minute report should be a mess on Monday. The game was overshadowed by the refs late and that’s not a good thing for the league.

7. Stevens is leaning heavily on the starters: The All-Star Break mitigates some of the returns on this front, along with the fact that Brad Stevens is going to push the envelope more in national games against elite opponents like this one. However, the lack of production from the bench of late (combined with injuries) is starting to put a heavier toll on the starting five beyond just the scoring. Over the past seven games, both Tatum (38 minutes vs. LAL) and Hayward (40 minutes vs. LAL) are averaging 38 minutes per game, far higher than Stevens likes to push both (they average 33-34 for the year). This should come back under control against once Walker returns to the lineup but anytime any key rotation player is out for the remainder of the season, Stevens is going to have to weigh chasing the No. 2 seed versus giving these guys their usual rest if the bench isn’t producing. Perhaps this will give Danny Ainge more incentive to add a scoring-minded piece in the next week or two but in the meantime, Stevens is leaning heavily on his starting wings.

8. Turnover issues cost the Celtics the game in the second half: The Celtics shot 50 percent from the field in the second half, 53 percent from 3-point range and went 13-of-14 from the free-throw line. So how exactly did they lose? Coughing up 13 of their 17 turnovers after intermission, including seven in the fourth quarter loomed large. Some of those were ref miscues (out of bounds calls) but the C’s should have learned a lesson in this one

9. Jayson Tatum was the best player on the floor in this game: That’s now twice in the past two weeks that Tatum has been the best player on the court in a game involving Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. When it comes to wondering whether Tatum can sustain the type of All-Star leap he’s shown over the past month, these types of things matter. In fact, look at the numbers he has put up this year in four games against the LA teams this year:

34.3 ppg,
56.5% FG
54.3% 3pt
7.5 FT attempts/G
6.3 rpg

The Celtics may have lost this one, but their stock as a potential contender continues to rise with performances like these.

10. Jaylen Brown did some great work guarding up in the post: The fourth-year wing has embraced the power forward spot since playing for Team USA this summer and he did a hell of a job in this contest fighting against Anthony Davis and LeBron James for much of the night. The duo combined for 61 points but many of them didn’t come efficiently thanks to Brown’s strength and discipline in the post. Davis was 10-of-25 from the field as the C’s made life tough for him around the rim while James was forced into tough turnarounds that fell through much of the night. Davis and James didn’t take over the game at any point and that’s a credit to Brown and the C’s defense on both.