Celtics' relentless gameplan is breaking the will of star players

The Celtics rolled into Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night and spanked the Lakers, 111-89 in dominant fashion, almost from start to finish. By the end of the night, the stats mounted up. It’s easy to look at Jaylen Brown putting up another MVP-level performance with 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists or Payton Pritchard with 30 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists, and point to those contributions as big reasons for the win, which they certainly were.

But this game was won on the defensive end and on the glass with Boston’s relentless effort, energy, and intensity. It starts from the leaders, Jaylen Brown and Joe Mazzulla, but you can see it trickling down to every single player. 

The Cs decided they were going to be the aggressors in their matchups with the Lakers’ stars, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves. They hounded them all game, often all 94 feet up the court, and made life miserable for them from start to finish.

They battered them with physicality and refused to give them an inch. Eventually, you could see the frustrations mounting for Doncic, James, and Reaves, and they broke. They didn’t want to match the Celtics’ intensity; they got pushed and didn’t want to push back, and they were more concerned with whining and complaining to the refs than with playing basketball and joining the fight.

Celtics’ wing mob is wearing teams down

Somehow, Baylor Scheierman has become an ace defender in the starting lineup, drawing the Luka assignment and not yielding an inch. Baylor uses his size and strength, moving his feet surprisingly well, and just bringing it. Constantly. He went toe-to-toe with whichever Laker he was guarding and made their night hell.

When it wasn’t Scheierman, it was Hugo Gonzalez or Jordan Walsh. And sometimes it was more than one at a time. Somebody was picking up a Lakers ballhandler full-court, and it was destroying their offensive rhythm.

The best part is that those guys can go out and burn their motors for every second they’re on the court, allowing JB, Pritchard, Derrick White, and others to focus more on the offensive end, while still making their usual massive defensive impact with less of a burden to carry.

The contrast on Sunday night was incredibly jarring. On the one end, you’ve got the Celtics on offense, with Brown and Pritchard having a tough choice of which defender to target, with appealing options like Doncic, Reaves, Luke Kennard, and others.

Meanwhile, on the other end, Doncic, James, and Reaves are calling for screens and cycling from one hounding defender to another on switches. There are really no good options to attack Boston, and replacing Anfernee Simons with even more size has only made it tougher for opponents.

Holding that full-strength Lakers team under 90 points in the Crypt is noteworthy, but this is how the Celtics have been playing for a while now. As their confidence grows and everyone continues settling into their roles, it should only get better, and the Cs defense is trending towards elite just in time for the stretch run.