Former Celtics guard has nightmarish performance against former team

The Celtics went into Crypto.com Arena on Sunday and handled the rival Los Angeles Lakers comfortably with a 111-89 win over the hosts on Pat Reilly Day.

Here's what stood out:

A season sweep of the Lakers

The Celtics’ win in Los Angeles gave them their first season sweep of the Lakers since the 2022-23 season. It’s only the third time in the last decade that there’s been a sweep in the season-series, with Boston holding all three.

We were all blessed with a tremendous jersey matchup

This is a simple first takeaway. With all of the alternate jerseys and lack of home and away uniform structure in today’s NBA, the jersey matchup for Sunday’s game in Los Angeles was fantastic.

The traditional Celtics’ away greens against the Lakers’ Sunday whites was a treat for the eyes.

'36 is with us'

Former Celtics guard Marcus Smart faced off against his former team for just the second time since being traded for Kristaps Porzingis in June of 2023.

If you ask some people, they'd argue that he wasn't playing against them on Sunday. Smart finished the afternoon with zero points on 0-7 from the field, as the Lakers fell to the Celtics.

At least Boston fans don't have to be upset with the former Defensive Player of the Year

Lakers fans will see Payton Pritchard in their nightmares

It’s been the worst-kept secret in the NBA that Payton Pritchard has taken his game to another level since returning to the sixth-man role he held last season. Entering Sunday’s game he’d averaged 22.5 points and 6.2 assists per game on 52/43% shooting splits off the bench.

Pritchard maintained his hot streak against the Lakers, to say the very least. There were long stretches in this game where he was head-and-shoulders the most-reliable offensive creator for the Celtics.

By halftime, he’d already poured in 10 points for the Cs, including this buzzer-beater over Luka Doncic.

The reigning Sixth Man of the Year sank a barrage of threes in L.A., finishing the afternoon with a total of six.

The Lakers were so worried about Pritchard that they were throwing double-teams at him early in the fourth quarter. There was a possessions where Jake LaRavia helped off of Sam Hauser, who screened for Nikola Vucevic and created a wide-open layup for the big man.

Pritchard finished the day with 30 points, eight assists, and four rebounds on an elite 10-13 from the field.

This was a strong Derrick White game

Derrick White has gotten plenty of love from Celtics fans this season because of the things he does that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet. There’s also of course, the things that do, like blocks and steals.

His defense has been solid as ever, as has his decision-making. His shooting numbers, however, have dipped with the increased offensive burden he’s been asked to carry at times this year.

White brought everything to the table against the Lakers, including shot making. He finished the afternoon with 12 points but that doesn’t tell the entire story.

The NBA needs to have a weighted shooting percentage stat, where it takes into account the magnitude of certain makes. For example, it felt like White sank every important shot he took in this game. If the Lakers were making a push and the ball found his hands, it was going in.