Post Game - Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers - Thursday, February 1 (L)

Celtics put on an embarrassing display in a stunning loss to the shorthanded Lakers
By Gary Washburn/Boston Globe - February 2, 2024


Let’s see here: Was it Kristaps Porzingis taking time to admire the rotation on his missed 3-pointer while his defender, Jaxson Hayes, darted down the floor for an uncontested layup, or was it watching Taurean Prince dribble down the floor for an easy bucket after the Celtics had just sliced the deficit to 6 points?

Or how about Jayson Tatum just fouling Lakers in frustration after he missed yet another contested layup?

There were dozens of examples Thursday why the Celtics were soundly defeated by a Lakers team without two of the league’s top 75 players of all time. LeBron James and Anthony Davis watched in street clothes from the sideline and enjoyed their homies pummeling the Celtics, 114-105, with energy, strong defense, and 3-point shooting.

The Celtics knew hours before the game that James and Davis would not play and coach Joe Mazzulla had plenty of time to warn his league-best team about avoiding a letdown. And still, it happened. Still, Austin Reaves looked like Stephen Curry. D’Angelo Russell, as flawed as he is, picked apart the Celtics’ swiss cheese defense with his pinpoint passing.

And Hayes, discarded by the Pelicans for lack of production, scored in the paint with ease. These much-maligned Lakers’ complements were better than their Celtics counterparts because they played harder.

The Celtics didn’t play hard and they should be embarrassed. It’s one thing to miss shots and just have a game in which execution falls short. It’s another not to give enough effort, especially for those fans in the 300 section who may be watching their only Celtics game of the season because they can’t afford the exorbitant prices for NBA games.

Instead of being upset, Mazzulla was strangely chipper. He pointed to the perils of the midseason, when the games run together and the All-Star break looks like a banana to Ms. Pac-Man. Instead of a humiliating loss, it’s an opportunity for the Celtics to improve and reflect on why they are struggling.

He pointed to the perils of the midseason, when the games run together and the All-Star break looks like a banana to Ms. Pac-Man. Instead of a humiliating loss, it’s an opportunity for the Celtics to improve and reflect on why they are struggling.

Instead of being upset that his team lost to the Lakers, who were without two of their stars, Mazzulla was strangely chipper after the game.
But there is a disconnect here. The Celtics knew five hours before game time James and Davis were out. They had time to prepare for the other Lakers and they weren’t prepared. They were exposed and Mazzulla insisted he implored his guys to be prepared for a motivated team, and they didn’t listen.

Mazzulla’s press conference was bizarre, and that’s saying something. He laughed several times. He called the Celtics’ nine first-quarter turnovers, “pretty fun, weren’t they?”

When asked why his team was so careless with the ball, something that allowed the Lakers to take a lead they did not relinquish, Mazzulla said: “I don’t know. Just happens. I think it’s how the game goes sometimes. It was some interesting turnovers, though, weren’t they?”

Now that we’ve established the first-quarter turnovers were fun and interesting, it still does not answer the question why a team with championship aspirations came out so lethargic and unfocused. Why would they be so willing to give away such a winnable game, and then when they lose the No. 1 seed by a game, they’ll be pointing to Feb. 1 and saying, “man, we should have played harder against the Lakers.”

“Stretches of bad basketball happen,” Mazzulla said. “You work your butt off every day to minimize those but stretches of bad basketball and you can’t sit here and act like we’re too entitled for it to happen to us. It happens.”

But this wasn’t bad basketball. This was effortless basketball. This was not giving 100 percent, even when the game was winnable. Every team is due a clunker and the Celtics had one of those last Saturday against the Clippers.

This wasn’t a clunker. This was pure arrogance; disrespecting the opponent.

Effort shouldn’t have to be encouraged or stressed. The Celtics had a day off, so fatigue shouldn’t be an issue. Mazzulla’s message to take their opponent seriously went flat, and he had no reason why that happens, besides to point out that sometimes players don’t listen.

“You know things I tell them [not to do] that still happens?” he asked. “All the time.”

Mazzulla said if the reporter who asked that question had kids, he wouldn’t be asking that question about players not listening. But these aren’t kids he’s dealing with. These are grown men who went out and played their worst game of the season.

In the long run this may not have much significance, but right now, when the Celtics are trying to get back to their elite play and pad some wins on a season-long homestand, it’s significant, more significant than brushing it off with the, “you know young people, they just don’t listen” excuse.

“I’m not happy about it but I’m not concerned by it,” Mazzulla said. “I think it’s unacceptable. But it doesn’t mean that I’m concerned. It’s unacceptable but it’s a matter of holding guys accountable and working through it.”

The hope is the Celtics learn from this embarrassment and ensure that these nights don’t happen again. Not the missing shots or playing poor defense part; the not giving 100 percent part, or expecting an opponent to relent simply because they’re shorthanded and on paper, you’re better.

The Lakers, without two future Hall of Famers, were the better team and that’s not something to laugh off.

Against a Lakers team missing its star performers, Celtics act up and lose on ‘tough night’
By Adam Himmelsbach/Boston Globe - February 1, 2024


When Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis were ruled out against the Celtics Thursday, the basketball world collectively sighed because one of the signature rivalries in sports had suddenly lost its sizzle for a night.

But in the Celtics locker room, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday were wary.

“[We] looked at each other like, ‘Phew, it’s going to be a tough one,’ " Porzingis said. “We know these kinds of games are tough. It can go smoothly at the beginning for a team like us. But it can also be a tough night. And tonight was one of those nights that was a tough night.”

Porzingis said when secondary pieces become primary options for a few hours, it can provide a jolt of confidence and carefree play. And a few hours after Porzingis sent up a warning flare, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla walked into the TD Garden interview room following his team’s surprising 114-105 loss.

“Welcome to the NBA,” Mazzulla said with a faint smile.

The Celtics (37-12) still own the NBA’s best record, 2½ games better than the next closest team. This has been a long, grueling stretch that will now ease up a bit.

Nevertheless, some flaws may have been masked recently. After being throttled by the Clippers last Saturday, the Celtics needed to claw back from a 17-point deficit Monday to defeat the Pelicans and then coughed up a 20-point lead before escaping Tuesday against the Pacers. Now, there is this home loss against an undermanned Lakers team that has been mediocre even when at full strength.

Mazzulla acknowledged that it has been an imperfect segment. But he stressed that it did not concern him.

“Oh, it’s great,” Mazzulla said. “It’s good. I just think you look at and it happens. Stretches of bad basketball happen. You work your butt off every day to minimize those, but stretches of bad basketball happen, and we can’t sit here and act like we’re too entitled for it to happen to us. It’s a matter of how we respond to it.”

While Mazzulla struck an upbeat tone, the game provided evidence of his irritation.

Three minutes into the third quarter Lakers center Jaxson Hayes gobbled up a pair of offensive rebounds before converting a three-point play that gave his team a 16-point lead, and Mazzulla appeared disturbed by his team’s effort. He immediately removed Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White and kept them out for the remainder of the quarter. It was not unprecedented, but it was unusual.

Brown, who was named an All-Star reserve earlier in the night, mostly shrugged when asked about being pulled, but acknowledged that his play had been “lackadaisical.” Porzingis said Mazzulla’s choice made sense.

“We deserved it,” Porzingis said. “Of course we were [mad]. We’re [mad] at ourselves, and I completely understood. I never want to come out of the game, but I completely understood we had to change something.”

Sam Hauser started the comeback after the lineup change by drilling three 3-pointers, but the Celtics could not quite build a truly game-shifting run, and the Lakers took an 88-78 lead to the fourth quarter.

The Celtics scored consecutive baskets to slice the deficit to 88-82 before once again being exposed by their lack of intensity and awareness.

Taurean Prince broke free for a fast-break layup after a made Celtics basket, causing an exasperated Mazzulla to put his palms in the air. Then Rui Hachimura slid behind the defense for an easy dunk, helping the Lakers stretch the lead back to 97-85 with 9:53 left. The Celtics never really threatened again.

As Porzingis mentioned, if the Celtics had pummeled the Lakers at the start they probably could have turned it into a low-stress night. Instead, they committed nine turnovers in the opening quarter, both crippling their own rhythm and giving the Lakers defense hope against one of the NBA’s elite offenses.

From there, the Lakers poured in 3-pointers, beat the Celtics to the hoop with simple cuts, and simply showed more effort.

The Lakers, who entered the night averaging 11.2 3-pointers per game, 28th in the NBA, connected on 19 of 36, with Austin Reaves hitting 7 of 10 en route to 32 points. They also attempted 19 more free throws than the Celtics, putting added stress on perimeter shooting.

By game’s end, many Celtics fans had shuffled to the exits, leaving noticeable pockets of purple and gold sprinkled around TD Garden. Those fans were probably dismayed earlier in the day when they realized they were missing their chance to see James and Davis play here this year. But the night had a satisfying end for them anyway.

The Celtics, meanwhile, vowed to regroup.

“Everybody had just a bad week of work,” Jayson Tatum (23 points) said. “Everybody here’s got a job. Nobody has great days every day. We’re no different. This is our job. We would love to be perfect. We would love to win every game, make every shot. But it’s just not the case. We’ve got to be better and look at ourselves in the mirror, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Celtics hear boos in ugly, inexcusable loss to undermanned Lakers
By Steve Hewitt/Boston Herald - Februrary 1, 2024


Joe Mazzulla walked into a crowded TD Garden press conference room with a smile on his face. Moments after a dismal Celtics loss, he was anything but dejected.

“Welcome to the NBA,” Mazzulla said as he stepped to the podium.

Over the last week, Mazzulla has embraced his team’s struggles. It started with a blowout loss, a rare dud against the Clippers. Back-to-back wins over the Pelicans and Pacers masked some of their difficulties. But their next effort was eye-opening, but not in a good way.

Early Thursday afternoon’s news that Lakers superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis should have led to one of the Celtics’ easiest wins of the season. Instead, it turned into one of their worst. From start to finish, the Celtics were outplayed, outhustled and outworked. They were punked by the undermanned Lakers in one of the more shocking results of this NBA season. They were booed by their home crowd in an ugly 114-105 loss that put an exclamation mark on their worst week of the year.

Mazzulla certainly wasn’t hiding from it.

“It’s great. It’s good. It happens,” Mazzulla said. “Stretches of bad basketball happen. You work your butt off every day to minimize those, but stretches of bad basketball happen, and we can’t sit here and act like we’re too entitled for it to happen to us. It happens. It’s a matter of how we respond to it, and can we work through it. It’s constant daily choices, daily habits that you have to commit to every single day.

“To think we’re not going to go through difficult times during an 82-game NBA season is not the right way to look at it. So am I pissed about losing? Yes. But am I ecstatic about the opportunity for us to grow as a team? I’m even happier about that.”

With James and Davis on the bench in street clothes, the Celtics let Austin Reaves torch them as he finished with 32 points and seven 3-pointers. They let Jaxson Hayes dominate them on the glass with 16 points and 10 rebounds. They let D’Angelo Russell carve them up for 14 assists.

Each member of the Celtics’ vaunted starting five finished with a negative plus/minus. Newly minted All-Star Jaylen Brown had one of his worst games, with eight points and five fouls. The Lakers played more inspired with their sudden opportunity against the league’s best team. As much as the Celtics tried to push away human nature, the absences of James and Davis certainly had an effect on them. They were too relaxed, and let the Lakers be too comfortable. They paid the price.

“I’m very frustrated,” Brown said. “Tonight was a rough night.”

The Celtics looked lazy and uninspired from the tip. They committed nine turnovers in the first quarter, including five in a two-minute span. They gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the period to the hungrier Lakers. Somehow, they were only down three after the quarter.

“It felt like we should have been down a lot more,” Mazzulla said.

Even when they responded, the Lakers continued to answer them. The Celtics briefly took a lead early in the second quarter behind their bench unit, but the Lakers caught fire from deep as they dominated the Celtics’ starting unit. The Lakers made eight 3-pointers in the second and built a 14-point halftime lead as the Celtics’ offense went into a lull. The C’s played catch-up the rest of the night and never could as their energy level was never there. It forced Mazzulla to try some desperate measures early in the second half.

Hayes continued to torch the Celtics on the glass and grabbed two offensive rebounds on the same play amidst a crowd of defenders before finishing a three-point play that put the Lakers up 16 with 9:04 left in the quarter.

With Boston’s starting unit clearly not cutting it, Mazzulla pulled Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday out of the game and inserted Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Al Horford.

“We deserved it,” Porzingis said. “Of course we were pissed off. We’re pissed off at ourselves and I completely understood. I never want to come out of the game, but I completely understood we had to change something.”

That trio played the rest of the quarter alongside Jayson Tatum and one of Derrick White or Holiday and had some moments. They trailed 75-59 before a string of 3-pointers brought them back. Tatum’s step-back triple cut Boston’s deficit to six at 77-71. On the Lakers’ next possession, Tatum dove to the floor to force a jump ball with Rui Hachimura. Despite the whistle, Tatum was intent on getting the ball and emerged from the pile with it, which sparked a roar from the crowd.

It looked like it might be a turning point. But the Celtics couldn’t string together enough stops to carve deeper into their deficit and still trailed by 10 heading into the fourth.

While there were some moments of resilience, the Celtics never got over the hump. They cut it to six early in the fourth on a White layup. But then Taurean Prince beat everyone down the floor for a layup. The Celtics never got it closer. They were beaten too often with effort plays like that.

Mazzulla waved the white flag with two minutes left, leaving his starters to stew on the bench in the final moments of this bad loss, a rare performance where their effort was questioned in what’s otherwise been a consistent season.

“I’m not concerned by it. I’m not happy about it, but I’m not concerned by it,” Mazzulla said. “I think it’s unacceptable. Doesn’t mean I’m concerned. We’ll work through it. I think part of a bad stretch of basketball is physical just as much as mental, and I think those two things go hand in hand.

“So I think it’s unacceptable for those things to happen, but if you take a look at the whole scope of our season, they happen very little. So to look at everything with just this lens of two games or a stretch or a week or whatever the case may be doesn’t do justice to the process of what we do over a long period of time. So it’s unacceptable, make sure you know that, but at the same time, it’s going to happen, and it’s a matter of holding guys accountable and working through it.”

Inside the locker room, the players weren’t overreacting to this loss, either. Porzingis put it in some perspective.

“This is the NBA. This is almost like a script,” Porzingis said. “You’re going to lose this type of game and fans are going to think it’s the end of the world, and we lost to the Lakers without AD and LeBron, like, end of the season. Boom. Done. But it’s just a loss. It’s just a loss which we have to learn from. And which we will. We’re going to get a couple days rest which I think a lot of guys especially will be really useful for and we bounce back hungry and full energy.”

The Celtics know that while this stretch, and this loss, certainly aren’t up to their standard, they also know that even the best go through some rough patches. And they hope they’ll be stronger from it.

“Everybody had just a bad week of work,” Tatum said. “Everybody’s here got a job. Nobody has great days every day. We’re no different. This is our job. We would love to be perfect. We would love to win every game, make every shot. But it’s just not the case. We gotta be better and look at ourselves in the mirror, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585312

The Celtics were simply outplayed.

Lakers were the better team and their defense made the difference.

Celtic players need to reach down deep and address their apparent mental softness now.

This is not a deep lineup and if those first seven can’t find consistency in the part of the game played between their ears, they’re not going to come out on top of a seven game series this spring.

Toughen up, guys. Each opponent guns for the team with the best record and this is no way to keep that record. This was one to learn a lesson from.

Coach Joe is a weird cat. Brad Stevens obviously has faith in him, and I think the players do too so I’ll leave it at that.

https://www.thecoldwire.com/charles-barkley-says-1-nba-team-is-mentally-weak/

Sure, the Celtics have won 37 games. But of their 12 losses, this one to the Lakers was the worst.
By Chad Finn/Boston Globe - February 2, 2024


At least the Lakers revealed a few hours before tipoff that superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis would not be participating in Thursday night’s matchup with the Celtics, the 300th in the franchises’ storied history.

The Celtics? They didn’t even have the courtesy to tell anyone they weren’t showing up.

Under some circumstances, the Celtics’ 114-105 loss to James’s Supporting Cast at TD Garden could be written off as an aberration, a random lousy Thursday night in a long season. But those circumstances don’t exist at this particular moment, even in context of this mostly excellent season.

This was the Celtics’ worst loss of their 12 so far. Yes, they have 37 victories and a comfortable lead atop the Eastern Conference. It’s not that they lost. It’s to whom, and especially how.

Against a Lakers team missing its star performers, Celtics act up and lose on ‘tough night’
Showdowns with the Lakers always matter. They carry weight no matter which players are playing and which ones are putting on a fashion show on the end of the bench. The weight of this one got dropped on the Celtics like an anvil, and it’s their own fault for underestimating their opponent. They should know better.

Worse, the ugly and frustrating losses — the self-inflicted kind, where they’re careless with the ball and too casual in their shot-selection, the exact kind that doomed them deep into recent postseasons — have been more frequent recently. And it’s happening at a time when someone that believes in this team or deeply wants to was hoping to see them become few and far between, if not eliminated from their repertoire altogether.

Now we have to ask again: Is this just a rut, or does it remain a part of their DNA, even with agent of chaos Marcus Smart in Memphis and Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis now Celtics?

I’m going rut. This is the best Celtics starting five since Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were in green and still spry. But it sure would be reassuring if they could escape it soon.

The Celtics started 20-0 at home. They have since lost three of five on the parquet, starting with a 2-point loss to the champion Nuggets on January 19. Nothing wrong with that. But Saturday, they no-showed against the Clippers. And now this against the extremely shorthanded Lakers, who were an injury or two away from having to give Smush Parker and Mark Landesberger meaningful minutes. It kind of feels like the Celtics’ then-surprising no-show in Milwaukee in a 33-point loss on Jan. 11 started a trend.

Remember that affirming West Coast trip not so long ago, back in December, when they lost in overtime to the Warriors on the Steph Curry moonscraper, then averaged 138 points per game and a 24-point margin of victory over the Kings, Clippers, and Lakers? That’s starting to feel like an aberration of excellence rather than confirmation of who they actually are.

Thursday, the hosts’ vaunted starting five — which officially includes a second All-Star, Jaylen Brown, announced as a reserve Thursday — was outclassed by a makeshift but determined Lakers lineup that included Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt, Taurean Prince, D’Angelo Russell, and Austin Reaves, who to Lakers fans with cataracts must have looked exactly like Jerry West on this night. (The real-life ‘60s Laker golden boy, not the raging HBO “Winning Time” version.)

Reaves scored 32 points, one more than Jayson Tatum (23) and Jaylen Brown (8, 6 coming in the first three minutes) combined. Reaves hit 7 of 10 3-pointers — the Lakers were a sizzling 19 of 36 from deep overall — while no Celtics starter other than Tatum knocked down a 3 until Kristaps Porzingis, who played his most awkward game as a Celtic, finally hit one early in the fourth quarter.

The Celtics were sloppy from the start, as if they saw the Lakers starting lineup and figured they could play it cool and still prevail. They committed eight turnovers before the Lakers committed one, finishing the first quarter with an abysmal nine. That led to a major shot-attempt discrepancy. The Celtics took 21 shots in the first quarter. The Lakers took 33.

The anticipated rally never really arrived. The Celtics took a 31-30 lead early in the second quarter, but the Lakers ripped off a 10-0 run. That was the recurring plot all night. Every time the Celtics got close, or had a moment of true inspiration, such as Jayson Tatum diving for a loose ball and amping up the crowd with just under 4 minutes left and the Celtics down 6 in the third quarter, it never sustained.

The Celtics shot OK but too often from 3, terribly from 2, and got to the line seven times. They threw the ball away carelessly, didn’t win enough battles for it when it was loose, and for some reason — back-in-my-day alert — are allergic to boxing out. And we can all admit. We’ll never totally trust the coach until a banner is secured.

This is not meant to suggest whatsoever that they cannot secure that banner. This is a well-constructed team that has made some progress in muting its bad habits.

Bob Lobel’s panic button remains in the top drawer for now. But here’s hoping this one holds up as the worst loss of the season for a while. It’s hard to imagine, at least during the regular season, one that could look and feel worse.

Under the circumstances, this may be the worse loss of the season.

NYCelt pretty much nailed down the real reason.   Lack of mental toughness.  That is probably the most difficult attribute for a team to sustain over an entire season. That also goes for the coach.

There were several low energy points in this game when I was hoping CJ would insert Brissett into the game.  One play here or there like an offensive rebounds out of nowhere are the type of things that a team needs when they are playing in mud (inside their heads)  It is interesting that this malady hit most of the team right between the ears.

Starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with a pattern that seems to be taking form.  In the end, this may be nothing more than the impact of physical fatigue combined with limitation on the teams mental fortitude.  Dealing with these curves will really determine if the DNA of this  Celtics team is of championship lineage.

The Lakers, now at .500, remain a pathetic collection of Hollywood Swingers.  

My parting shot.

Sickening, that is the only word I can use. I am the biggest defender they have, maybe they should put me in that damn locker room for a few minutes. The NBA is watching boys, this weakness you are displaying is now on every clipboard and chalkboard in the NBA. There were no smiles last night, hardly any running for that matter. I was truly disappointed in the way they came out. Where do they go from here???? Are there eyes on Las Vegas and vacation land//// If so, when you come back, it will be the same unless you smarten up. What is it you say in that commercial for the Celtics JT "IT IS DIFFERENT HERE" Right now it is not, same old, same old. I am going to have all I can do to watch Sunday's game, but will mostly because I am sure they will have a tribute to the former heart and soul of our team. Who is holding who accountable now? NO ONE

I don't think it was lack of effort as much as it was lack of energy. The first few minutes , our guys looked like they were trying to replicate a really inferior version of the Globetrotters. After that, I think they bore down, but just stunk. There is some truth , I think to Joe's assertion that the midseason blues have set in, but I'm not sure why he is so determined to give the players cover. Just as an aside,why do we throw in zones for no apparent reason, and then get out of them after one or two defensive sequences?