After their overtime win over the LA Clippers on Wednesday night, the Boston Celtics moved parts of the city for a game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Boston was looking to win a third game in a row since the turn of the new year, but from the very start of the game, the Lakers were outworking them.
The Celtics failed to bring adequate defensive pressure, and their offense was extremely predictable. Hunting matchups is useful, but not when it’s the only facet of the offense, which was the case for Boston on Thursday night. LA controlled the entire game and walked out of Crypto.com Arena with a 117-96 victory.
Here are three studs and three duds from the game.
Stud - Kristaps Porzingis
It feels like the Celtics’ only consistent source of offense for the past few weeks has been Kristaps Porzingis. The big man is an absolute cheat code in the post, and the Lakers had to learn that the hard way.
Highlighted by an impressive first half, Porzingis consistently used his size to make the most of mismatches for the Celtics. He was scoring at will once he got the ball on the low block.
Having a guy as big and skilled as Porzingis is a massive advantage for the Celtics, and since the Lakers weren’t guarding him with Anthony Davis a lot of the time, Boston made the most of the situation they were presented with.
Dud - Defense
This was one of the worst defensive games the Celtics have played all season.
The Lakers seemingly had free reign to waltz wherever they wanted on the offensive end. Whether it was pulling up from three, getting to the mid-range, or cutting to the rim, Boston failed to send pressure anywhere.
Much like their lackluster defense against the Clippers, the Celtics just didn’t make the Lakers uncomfortable enough. Instead, everything looked easy for LA.
The Celtics weren’t keeping pace in transition, they weren’t guarding the pick-and-roll well, and they certainly weren’t doing a good enough job keeping the Lakers off the glass.
Defensive pressure just didn’t exist for the Celtics on Thursday night.
Stud - First quarter Jaylen Brown
Much like how the Celtics used Porzingis as an offensive funnel, Jaylen Brown provided them with a similar advantage. He has been doing a great job of picking his spots lately, especially in the first quarter.
After a fairly rough stretch of play in recent weeks, Brown’s scoring has surged lately. He looked good against the Golden State Warriors, his offense was very intentional against the Clippers (despite his messy finish), and it was more of the same against the Lakers.
Brown’s not taking nearly as many threes, instead choosing to get downhill and into the spots where he’s more comfortable. And it’s working for him. Getting more minutes in the first quarter has done wonders for his scoring, too.
Though his efficiency waned a bit as the game went on, he was still one of the Celtics’ only real sources of offense on Thursday. And from the looks of it, Brown's dip in efficiency likely had to do with the fact that nobody else could score, so Brown was pressing a bit.
Dud - Jayson Tatum
For the second game in a row, Jayson Tatum looked off. He just wasn’t making the same high-level decisions that Celtics fans are used to seeing from him.
Instead, a lot of his offense is devolving into the shot-chucking that came up from time to time years ago. He wasn’t the all-around offensive hub that he’s become against the Lakers.
He still dished out plenty of assists. Those will come when the ball is in a guy’s hands as much as it’s in Tatum’s. But his decision-making wasn’t top-tier, and neither was his shot selection.
Tatum had a nice stretch of play in the third quarter, but it was still a relatively rough game for the superstar.
Stud - The Lakers
The Celtics were so bad on Thursday night that there weren't three players or things deserving of studs. So instead, it'll go to the Lakers, who did a great job exploiting the Celtics' awful play.
Led by James and Davis, the Lakers were everywhere on both ends of the floor. They moved the ball well, got good looks, fought for second-chance opportunities, and stalled the Celtics' three-point attack.
They did everything they needed to do, and Boston did none of it.
Dud - Celtics role players
This one goes out to Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Payton Pritchard, none of whom could hit a shot on Thursday night.
White looked invisible for most of the game, which has happened a couple of times in recent weeks. Horford was way off, too, as nothing was falling for him.
Pritchard couldn't find a rhythm anywhere. Whether he was driving, shooting, or trying tohandle the ball, nothing was going right for the sparkplug scorer.
And something about Holiday was off on Thursday night. He didn’t look like himself on either end of the floor. Maybe he’s still dealing with the remnants of the shoulder issue that kept him out on Wednesday against the Clippers, but Holiday wasn’t great on against the Lakers.