The Boston Celtics were victorious against the Lakers on Thursday night by a final score of 121-113. It was all Celtics for almost the entire duration as the Lakers nearly pulled off a historic comeback, but the Celtics offense was too much for the shorthanded Lakers.
The Celtics came out hot from the start as they were shooting 6-7 from the gate. They were dominating the Lakers in all three phases to start this game. The Celtics displayed great ball movement and they were very physical on the defensive end. The Celtics ended the first quarter with a 31-23 lead.
LA did not have an answer for the Celtics hot offense, the Celtics were scoring anyway they wanted. The Celtics have continued to play modern basketball, with driving and kicking the ball out. At the half the Celtics had a commanding 62-48 lead.
In the third quarter, The Celtics came out flat on both ends floor, as the Lakers went on a 7-0 run cutting the Celtics lead 67-60 with 7:21 remaining in the third. as the Celtics would go on a surge extending their lead 80-69 with 4:24 remaining in the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter the Celtics continued to keep the gas pedal going as they lead 91-79.
This Celtics run was guided by Jaylen Brown and him dominating on the offensive end. and getting stops on the offensive side of the ball, and the defense was lights out towards the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Lakers would start to heat up as the Celtics built a 27 point lead in the start of the fourth quarter. Midway through the quarter the Lakers would cut the Celtics lead 113-94 and the Lakers would start to get confident as they went on a 24-5 run in that span.
In the final minutes the Lakers would continue to give the Celtics 3rd unit trouble as with 1:18 remaining in the fourth the Lakers cut the lead to just five. That would lead to the Celtics bringing back their starters, but the Celtics would hold on for the victory.
The Celtics had five players score in double figures. Leading the way for the Celtics was Jaylen Brown with 40 points on 17-20 shooting, also scoring for the Celtics was Jayson Tatum had 14 points on 6-14 shooting, Tristan Thompson also had 14 points on 6-8 shooting while adding 6 rebounds. Also scoring was Kemba Walker with 12 points on 4-7 shooting, Marcus Smart had 15 points on 5-8 shooting.
The Lakers just had two starters scoring in double figures. Leading the way for the Lakers was Kyle Kuzma with 13 points on 5-14 shooting, Dennis Schroder also scored 8 points on 3-8 shooting. and Marc Gasol scored 18 points on 7-10 shooting.
The Celtics improve to 30-26 on the season, and will head back to the Garden to face the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at 8:30PM EST