114-105, the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the NBA season against the Boston Celtics.
A resounding victory was assured if you had looked at the starting lineup for Thursday night’s game between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, longstanding rivals.
For their eagerly awaited game against the Celtics, the Lakers were missing starter Cam Reddish (right ankle) and All-Stars LeBron James (left ankle) and Anthony Davis (Achilles, left hip).
All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown of Boston, along with previous All-Stars Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, comprised the starting lineup. The Celtics have also only dropped two games all season on their home court.
The game ought to be a Boston rout on paper, right?
False!
The Lakers pulled off their biggest upset of the season, defeating the Celtics 114-105, behind a season-high 32 points from Austin Reaves.
Reaves summed up their upset of the Celtics without James and Davis by saying, “Anytime you don’t have those two players it has to be a team effort.” “You’re going to have to come together collectively and just 𝖌rind…this was an opportunity to show the world what you can do.”
Halfway through the first quarter, the Lakers established their first lead and never looked back. They maintained the advantage owing to a scorching 53 percent shooting from outside the arc in the third quarter, when they increased their lead to a game-high 16 points.
The Celtics’ defeat was only their third of the season at TD Garden and their third overall in their previous 11 games.
The Lakers have had a difficult season due to their inconsistent play, but they were in desperate need of a win to prevent their losing from getting worse after suffering back-to-back defeats to the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks.
James stated of the Lakers following their defeat by the Hawks, “We could on any given night bєat any team in the NBA.” And any NBA team could кιcк our αssholes off on any given night. That’s the way things are. What is our track record? We are there at this point.
In the victory, Reaves sank seven three-pointers, a career high, and point guard D’Angelo Russell disheveled 14 assists, a season high.
Russell described his passing against the Celtics as “just trying to get guys the ball because I wasn’t making shots.” “I just tried to keep using what AR [Austin Reaves] had going. I believed that everyone was a тняєαт this evening.”
For the purple gold, Jaxon Hayes had his best performance of the year with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Rui Hachimura ended up with fifteen.
Reaves remarked of Hayes, “This guy was getting DNPs (Did Not Participate) two games ago.” He was among the top players on the court tonight. We decided before the game that the least we could do was play as hard as we could and accept the outcome, so that’s what we did.”
After winning the first-ever In-Season Tournament in December, the Lakers are having difficulty staying afloat, while Boston leads the NBA in record. With the win, the Lakers improved to 25–25, or.500.
In the defeat, Jayson Tatum scored 23 points, while the Celtics made an unusual 15 turnovers.
There are two games left in the Lakers’ annual Grammy road trip; they play the New York Knicks on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden and play LaMelo Ball and the Hornets in Charlotte on Monday.
The team’s final game before the NBA Trade Deadline on February 8th is that one. Before the NBA All-Star break, they will start a four-game homestand after that.