Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics 117-102 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers with BSJ insight and analysis.
IN A NUTSHELL
The Celtics stormed out of the gates with Jayson Tatum scoring the first 14 Celtics points of the game but the Lakers, playing just their second game in seven nights, figured themselves out later in the quarter to cut the lead to two. They were in full control of the game in the middle quarters, pushing the lead out to 19 in the third. The end of the Celtics bench made it mildly interesting as the game wound down, but never got the lead below 10.
HEADLINES
C’s destroyed in areas they should have won: Going into the game, I highlighted points in the paint and offensive rebounding as areas Boston needed to win. They gave up 66 points in the paint, 13 offensive boards, and 18 second-chance points.
“Messing up coverages repeatedly,” Robert Williams said. “It's completely on us, me, my teammates. Just messing up those simple coverages.”
Celtics bad habits resurface: The Lakers upped their defensive intensity and parked Anthony Davis at the rim, lulling the C’s into much more isolation than they’ve shown in recent games. They came in feeling good about themselves and, as it usually goes when the C’s are feeling themselves, they relax and bad things happen.
No real help for Tatum: Yeah, Josh Richardson had a spurt early on and Robert Williams caught some lobs and had some putbacks, but that was about it. Tatum dropped another 30 point game but there was no other consistent threat the Celtics could turn to. Dennis Schröder was ineffective, which really put Boston in a bind.
TURNING POINT
Russell Westbrook turned up some vintage Westbrook heat for 15 points in the third quarter. He put some serious distance between the teams with two layups and a dunk over 61 seconds to make it 89-70.
TWO UP
Jayson Tatum: I think we can declare his slump over at this point. 34 points on 13-22 shooting and 5-7 from deep. He was scoring, and early on he was trying to move the ball. I think he got just as frustrated as anyone and got caught up in the isolation as well. He missed some passes that we now expect him to make. He did have some nice defensive plays.
Robert Williams: 13 points, mostly on putbacks and alley oops. I’m going to have to re-watch some of his defensive plays and see how much I regret putting him here.
THREE DOWN
Al Horford: He started to get hot in the third quarter but never provided much of the offense the Celtics needed. The 1-5 from 3 was rough. He did have some nice defensive plays.
Marcus Smart: Same boat as Horford. He did have 6 assists and the alley oop connection with him and Robert Williams is amazing, but his drives were ineffective and the Celtics needed someone to get to the rim. He might argue that there were missed calls, but as the point guard, he needs to be better about organizing the offense on a night like this ... even his own.
Dennis Schröder: I feel like he got drawn into the battle with the crowd and got too far away from what the Celtics needed from him. He settled too quickly for some early jumpers and then when he attacked, he had a really tough time finishing at the rim. He finished 1-6 from the field (0-3 3pt).
TOP PLAY
Human highlight reel @rob_williamsIII pic.twitter.com/YUEywFQczB
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 8, 2021
It’s hard to notice at normal speed, but if you find the slow motion clip you can see Robert Williams pause in mid-air and wait for the ball to clear the cylinder before slamming it home. He actually pulls back his hand and waits. It’s ridiculous.
ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
A step backwards: It feels like the Celtics expected the Lakers of the first game in Boston and they didn’t know how to respond when the Lakers punched them in the mouth. The Celtics gave up an offensive amount of points in the paint and way too many second chances.
“A little disappointed as far as I felt we were out hustled, out-toughed a little bit,” Udoka said. “So that part was disappointing as far as them really wanting to put their head down and get to the basket, get whatever they wanted. And so we said obviously we’re better than that defensively, we’ve shown that. The effort and lack of toughness showed a little bit tonight.”
This feeling has been a bit more infrequent recently than at the beginning of the season. Since the last win over the Lakers kicked off a three-game winning streak, I’d count just the Spurs game as the type of cringey, lack-of-heart type of loss.
So on the plus side, it’s happening less often. Maybe those of us who were feeling those types of losses were a thing of the past were too quick to do so, but you can count me among those surprised by how things went after the opening barrage.
