The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers are the NBA’s two most-historic franchises. They’ve got 35 NBA Championships and 55 NBA Finals appearances between them. Heading into Sunday’s matchup, if you were working for NBC, which had the game in a primetime slot, it’d be easy to market Boston's stars against L.A.’s.
Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard match up with LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves.
Over the course of 48 minutes, the Celtics showed everyone exactly what the difference between them and the Lakers is this season, despite both sides having solid fire power at the top.
Boston’s roster is well coached and well constructed from the top down. No matter who it is, if they’re sitting on Joe Mazzulla’s bench, they’re able to play minutes, compete, defend, and make shots when the opportunities find them. Plus, Brown, White, and Pritchard carry a winning mentality as leaders.
The same can’t be said for Los Angeles. Their roster has significant holes, specifically on the defensive side of the floor, while the players at the top don’t lead the same way as Boston’s. James has had a great career, but he’s 41 and too tired to care when things don’t go his team’s way. His running mate, Doncic, plays with no motor and complains anytime something doesn’t go his way.
The Celtics saw a weakness and pounced on it... literally
What did the Celtics do Sunday?
They exposed that en route to their 22-point stomping of the Lakers.
Right from the opening tip, the Celtics sent aggressive defense at both stars, picking them up full court and forcing them to expend energy to even get the ball across to their end. Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, and Hugo Gonzalez deserve a ton of credit for the consistent pressure they applied.
Playing defense of that intensity so far away from the basket isn’t easy.
“You're never going to stop [players like James and Doncic] in the league,” Mazzulla explained postgame. “[The question is], do you have the manpower and the wherewithal to just chip away, chip away?”
For Boston, the answer was yes.
The manpower part proved important and served as a reminder of their depth. Scheierman, Gonzalez, and Walsh could rotate that responsibility amongst themselves to ensure their motors continued to run high.
Mazzulla shared that Brown had taken the group aside on Saturday and stressed the importance of their defensive contributions.
“Offensively, we're starting to find our footing, but defensively, we got to make sure that we keep that same mentality,” Brown stressed to reporters in the lockerroom at Crypto.com Arena. “We saw it carried out through tonight. Hugo made some big plays for us. Baylor was amazing tonight. So defense is what we got to continue to elevate our game as well as we elevate on offense.”
Gonzalez, Scheierman, and Walsh combined for just nine points in Sunday’s win.
Yet, their defensive pressure made a glaring difference. Not only did James (20 points on 9-21 shooting) and Doncic (25 points 9-22) struggle to create for themselves, but also combined for just eight assists compared to a shared average of 15.8 per outing.
It goes without say that neither player had the gas in the tank to play impactful defense, either. Mazzulla, his coaching staff, and the Celtics saw a pair of breakable stars and broke them.
Though the trio involved doesn’t have a ton of NBA experience, Gonzalez as a rookie, and Scheierman and Walsh having spent their young careers looking on from the bench, they’ve still inherited winning habits.
“It's very important,” Pritchard said of the defensive effort from his younger teammates. “We've had such a dominant team for the last two years, and an older team, so these guys have been watching and learning and growing from them, but they just haven't had an opportunity. So this year, you're seeing those guys step up and add to winning.”
Adding to winning isn’t new to these guys. They’ve done it all year long. If that wasn’t the case, then they wouldn’t be seeing consistent minutes. Scheierman has gone from hardly playing in the early weeks of the season to starting in six of Boston’s previous eight games.
Walsh and Gonzalez have impressed in their sporadic opportunities as well.
By delivering time and time again, they’ve earned the trust of their teammates and coaches. A trust that they're willing to do whatever it takes to win. A trust that they care and they're going to compete.
“It's the trust from the other guys,” Mazzulla continued. “It's an understanding of, ‘You're not going to be perfect, but here's what you do. Here's what you have to do over the course of 48 minutes.’ It's a huge part, huge component, of our team. So it's a credit to them.”