After incredible rally, depth-challenged Lakers run out of steam late.
Another night, another disappointing result for Lakers fans.
Like Friday’s game against another Eastern Conference contender, tonight’s contest against the Boston Celtics could have been ended by the Lakers in regulation — but critical late bricked free throws took the game into a bonus frame, where the minutes load of L.A.’s “Big Three” caught up with it.
Speaking of that Big Three, All-NBA center Anthony Davis (37 points on 13-of-25 shooting, 12 rebounds), All-Star power forward LeBron James (33 points on 14-of-25 shooting, nine assists, nine rebounds), Russell Westbrook (20 points on 7-of-19 shooting, 14 rebounds, five assists) played relatively well, combining to score 90 of L.A.’s 118 points, but it didn’t even matter.
The Boston Celtics, even without their starting frontcourt of Al Horford and Robert Williams III, managed to hold on in overtime to secure a 122-118 victory at Crypto.com Arena.
L.A. was down by as much as 20 points halfway through the third quarter, but head coach Darvin Ham rode his stars’ energetic two-way play to get L.A. back in the game. The Lakers led by double digits late, but failed to close Boston out in regulation, and the Celtics took over in the extra frame.
Let’s get into some of the positives from a Lakers fan’s perspective.
LeBron James looked quite spry for at least most of the first four quarters. Though he did settle for jumpers a lot more than he would have in years past, he also did this:
On the last contest of a six-game road trip and the second night of a back-to-back, the fatigue started to show for the Celtics in the second half, as Boston let the Lakers all the way back into the game.
The Celtics led by 20, 81-61, halfway through the third quarter. But suddenly the Celtics couldn’t hit a shot, thanks in large part to an aggressive and scrambling Lakers defensive effort.
A 17-4 Lakers run to close the quarter got L.A. within six points (88-82), sparked by intense defense on the other end.
Russell Westbrook showed that, age aside, he’s still got more hops than half the league. He nabbed four blocks in the game, including three on Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown:
LeBron James also did a pretty good job of turning defense into above-the-rim offense, just two weeks removed from his 38th birthday:
The Lakers continued their push through the start of the fourth quarter, with Russell Westbrook and LeBron James making big threes in the early going.
Suddenly, spectacularly, the Lakers found themselves in the midst of a 45-12 scoring run. Careless Celtics turnovers and massive Lakers advantages in free throw attempts (30-16, perhaps helped by being at home), points in the paint (68-46) and fast break points (26-16) helped L.A. get back into the game.
L.A. got the Crpyto.com Arena crowd amped thanks to a 13-point edge with 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. And then things started to fall apart.
A 15-4 Celtics run got the Celtics down just two points, 110-108. Anthony Davis, an 82.4% free throw shooter, was fouled by deep-bench Celtics big Luke Kornet with 28 seconds left and astoundingly missed both his tries. Suddenly, missing last-minute pressure free throws is becoming something of a pattern for AD, who went 1-for-2 during a late game charity stripe effort against the Philadelphia 76ers last Friday that also fell apart in overtime.
This crazy baseline turnaround fadeaway Jayson Tatum jumper knotted up the game.
At the end of regulation, LeBron James forced up a long range heave that never looked like it had much of a chance. The game was headed to overtime, and the momentum had definitively swung to the team with the younger legs.
In a risky gamble, Ham would let James, Davis, and Westbrook play every second of the fourth quarter. That came back to bite them at the end of regulation and throughout the overtime period.
Westbrook scored all but two of the Lakers’ OT points.
Jaylen Brown scored the final points for Boston, and despite some valiant hustle from Russell Westbrook to help L.A. chip the lead to just 122-118, this trey was pretty much the dagger:
In the bonus period, the Lakers let Russell Westbrook try to take over, and he did Russell Westbrook-in-pressure situations things late, forcing up questionable takes and failing to swing the rock to the team’s best player, Anthony Davis, for automatic buckets in the paint. Darvin Ham opted to surround them with Austin Reaves and Troy Brown Jr. for much of the fourth quarter and overtime periods.
Somewhat surprisingly, another really competent two-way Laker, Lonnie Walker IV (who is currently starting over Brown), played for just 23:28, far below Reaves’s 35:35 or even Brown’s 30:48.
Big picture, there are two glaring problems for this Lakers roster that were on full display in this game: the team can’t really make three-pointers, and it is lacking quality depth that Ham trusts.
L.A. shot just 8-of-29 from long range (27.6%), while Boston went 19-for-48 (39.6%). The disparity in both frequency and consistency is pretty glaring. Ham was clearly aware of this to an extent, and countered by having the Lakers run a lot of plays in the paint, where Anthony Davis can be pretty darn hard to defend.
Only six Lakers — Davis, James, Reaves, Westbrook, Brown and Walker — played for 20 minutes or more. Only the first five of those players saw the floor in the fourth quarter, while Walker also made a cameo in overtime. Starting guards Patrick Beverley and Dennis Schroder played poorly in limited minutes, and one wonders if Reaves and/or Brown could be headed into the team’s starting five before too long. Davis and James both played for over 40 minutes in a game they wound up losing anyway. It’s not a sustainable model for team success.
Prioritizing the athleticism and passing (and… defense?) of Westbrook, the defense and shooting of Reaves and and the size and length of Brown over those relatively one-dimensional veteran guards makes sense. It also speaks to the bigger issue: Darvin Ham needs more reliable personnel, ideally players who can spread the floor.
L.A. fell to a 11-16 record on the season with the defeat.
