BSJ Game Report: Celtics 130, Lakers 108 - C's progress comes together in blowout

Everything you need to know about the Celtics 130-108 win over the Los Angeles Lakers with BSJ insight and analysis:

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out and played a comically bad first quarter. The mistakes were ridiculous. Guys looked like they were sleepwalking. It had all the makings of a bad night. 

Then they started attacking, driving at a weak Lakers defense and punishing them inside for the rest of the night. Nearly half their offense came in the paint and almost all of it at the rim. The inside-out offense resulted in some more made 3-pointers, and the Celtics cruised to the win. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

Jayson Tatum heating up: You should read that in the NBA Jam “he’s heating up” voice. After breaking out of his funk in the loss to Atlanta, Tatum was on fire once again. Could this be part of a breakout stretch? 

The bench (and Marcus Smart) made an impact: History may forget the early struggles in this game, but things were looking bad with Tatum and Dennis Schröder hitting the bench early with foul trouble. But Smart and the bench turned the tide and set the attacking tone for the rest of the night. 

The Lakers are not good right now: Their defense is atrocious and they settled for fadeaway jumpers all night long. This was a much-needed win for the Celtics, but the Lakers were very complicit in this. 

TURNING POINT

Marcus Smart saved an ugly first quarter with a 5-7 shooting performance for 11 points. The Celtics followed his lead in the second quarter and the Lakers never really challenged.

FIVE UP 

Jayson Tatum: He started the first quarter like he was asleep. The best thing to happen to him might have been the early foul trouble because he came back into the game and snapped back into superstar mode. He finished 13-26 (4-9 3pt), for 37 points, 11 points, and 2 assists. 

Marcus Smart: He was the catalyst early. 

“He put his head down, especially when Davis and some of those guys went out, he really attacked their bigs when they were back a little further and he got some of their guards on his hip,” Ime Udoka said. “He was extra aggressive and we needed it at the time. When you look at what he did with our bench production, we had guys with plus-27, plus-19 and plus-21 so they really came in and shaved some points off that lead. They got us back in the game and had a great defensive second quarter.”

Al Horford: As usual, he had some monster defensive possessions that won’t show up in the box score. 

“He has fingerprints all over every game, pretty much. He does so many things for the group,” Udoka said. “He does everything every night, he's been great for us all year and he's been a steady presence with guys in and out of the lineup and he brought some of the same tonight.”

Dennis Schröder: The four turnovers are a problem, but 21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists were not.

Josh Richardson: Part of some very aggressive bench units. He was a game-high +27 as he did a great job attacking and drawing fouls. 

NONE DOWN 

It’s Friday night and the Celtics blew the Lakers out in front of Bill Russell and Paul Pierce. We’ve been dealing with a million things “down” all season long. I’m not going to ruin this moment.

Take a break. We’re not nitpicking this one.

TOP PLAYS

This is not a top play but anything Evan Turner gets into this recap somehow. This was a fun postgame moment.

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

The formula for a strong finish stands: As I laid out the other day ...

If they beat the bad teams (OKC, Houston, San Antonio), beat Toronto again knowing what they know about them, and grab one of the Atlanta/Los Angeles/Brooklyn games, that’s 5-2 and a 12-9 record heading into December. 

So they got the Lakers game. That’s part one. OKC tomorrow will start part two. At 8-8 Boston is now just one game behind the sixth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers. 

They’re 6-3 over their last nine games. Their defense is second in the league over that stretch. Their offense, thanks to this game, is right in the middle of the pack and their net rating is +7, third in the league. 

“We felt we could be in better shape record-wise, but we liked the way we were trending,” Udoka said. “Being in those games with the way we were not scoring offensively, we knew we could rely on the defense. We knew where we had been, number one in transition, number one in guarding the 3-pointer over those games and we wanted to carry that into tonight. And after the first quarter, I felt like we did that.”

As I’ve said before, the early season is prone to these kinds of wild swings, and all of the progress can be erased tomorrow night. For now, it really is moving in the right direction. 

“We’re not perfect, but the fight is in us,” Smart said. “It might not look like it right now, but we’re going to turn things around.”