POST GAME LAL - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Jaylen Brown Lifts Boston To Fifth Straight Win Vs. Lakers
Boston improves to 30-26 on the season after sweeping their three-game road trip


NESN by Sean T. McGuire


The Boston Celtics defeated the short-handed Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, claiming their fifth consecutive win with a 121-113 verdict.

Boston now has won seven of their last eight games, and swept their three-game trip against the heavy hitters in the Western Conference heavy hitters.

Jaylen Brown led the way against the Lakers, who were without superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis with newcomer Andre Drummond also inactive.

Brown scored a game-high 40 points on an incredibly efficient 17-for-20 from the floor and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. He added nine rebounds and three assists in the effort, too.

All five Celtics starters finished with double figures despite not playing much of the fourth quarter. Jayson Tatum and Tristan Thompson (6-for-8 from the field) scored 14 points while Marcus Smart (13 points, six rebounds, four assists) and Kemba Walker (12 points, seven assists) were impactful.



The Celtics improve to 30-26 with Thursday’s win while the Lakers fell to 34-22.

Here’s how it went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kemba Walker
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jaylen Brown
PF: Jayson Tatum
C: Tristan Thompson

JUMPING OUT TO LEAD
The Celtics got off to an strong start scoring 11 of the game’s first 13 points and taking a 21-7 lead just six minutes into the game.

Boston, who started 11-for-14 from the field, did so behind a scoring effort led by Brown. Brown scored 10 early points while Tatum and Thompson each had four during Boston’s start.



The Celtics also benefitted from making each of their first three shots from long range. Boston assisted on eight of their 12 first-quarters baskets.

The Celtics shot 52 percent (12-for-23) in the quarter while LA shot 40 percent (10-for-25).

Brown led the C’s in scoring with 10 points while Thompson, Walker and Smart each scored five points in the opening quarter.


The Lakers, though, cut Boston’s lead to 31-23 after the first quarter.

PLAYING GREAT D
Boston started off the second quarter much slower on the offensive end and some early turnovers helped the Lakers close their deficit to just 38-34 five minutes into the period.

Fortunately for the Celtics, even though their offense turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, their defensive picked up the slack. They limited LA into just 39 percent from the field and 18 percent from long range in the half.

It helped Boston take a 61-48 lead at the break.

Boston went to the intermission after shooting 56 percent from the floor (25-for-45) and 47 percent (7-for-15) from beyond the arc. The C’s recorded 16 assists on their 25 first-half baskets with an edge on the glass, too.


Brown scored 21 first-half points while Tatum and Thompson each added 10.


JAYLEN CAN’T MISS
Thompson came out and scored four early points for the Celtics before Brown continued his takeover.

Brown made 10 consecutive shots stretching from the second to the third quarter as he was, at one point, 12-for-13 from the floor.

The contributions from those two, along with a 3-pointer from Tatum, a 3-pointer from Smart and a 3-pointer from Walker helped the C’s maintain a 80-69 lead eight minutes into the quarter.

Brown scored the final six points in the quarter as Boston took a 91-79 lead into the fourth. He had 31 points on 13-for-15 shooting heading into the final frame.

All five Celtics starters went into the fourth with double figures, too.

WHO BUT JAYLEN?
Brown led a mini 8-0 scoring stretch over the opening 1:18 to help the Celtics extended their lead to 99-79.


Peyton Pritchard scored eight points in the opening three minutes of the fourth quarter to further extend Boston’s lead to 106-81.


The Celtics took out their starters and, much to the dismay of head coach Brad Stevens, the bench players couldn’t keep it much of a separation.


The Lakers answered with a 19-2 run during a four-minute stretch and cut the deficit to just 115-108 with 1:50 left.

Brown, however, checked in off the bench after sitting a majority of the fourth and finished on a pair of baskets in the paint to push the C’s lead back to seven (twice).

UP NEXT
The Celtics will return to TD Garden to host the Golden State Warriors on Saturday with tip scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Just for giggles, I took it upon myself to keep track of the self imposed announcer AD/Lebron references and camera pans during just this game by quarter.

1st Quarter had 5 mentions and 5 pans, not necessarily at the same time.

2nd Quarter had 7 mentions and 8 pans.

3rd Quarter had 4 more of each. I'm still watching the 4th.

I did just see on ESPN the NBA is planning a ticker tape parade NYC style once they are officially back on the court together. The mayor of Los Angeles will make that day an official holiday on the local level and with favorable help from the current administration in Washington the President plans on making it a National Holiday when it FINALLY happens! I don't know about you but I can hardly wait!! This is actually reaching and will soon surpass Lebron's Decision hullabaloo.

By the way, I didn't hear a word from the announcers why RWIII was out until about the 8:04 mark in the 2nd quarter.

What the absolute tragedy of all this is I even have to mention all this on a great night for the Celtics and our team finally playing like a team. I tried to warn everyone in advance.

The final score was no indication of how close this game was. And even if the Lakers had their two clowns back, remember we lost by 1 to them fully loaded in Boston, having them back would have made little difference. This game was over in the first 3-4 minutes.

I didn't know these guys could touch the ball more than a couple of times per possession. I was not officially keeping count but it was easily up in the 5-7 touches/passes per possession. They found that they were wide open all over the court as a result. Please remember this Boston come playoff time!!

Turnovers, while high, were not noticeably capitalized upon by the Lakers.

What was shown in spectacular supernova form was how much our bench misses Fournier. And Brad should have pulled the trigger much earlier in the 4th to stop the fire hose-like bleeding. If he were back, the benches would have been about equal.

We're really close here folks. Except for the excruciating stretch down the end which I'm going to ignore since the game was won long before then, this team will soon get the "tough out" label first. This brand is usually given to teams in the 1st round of the playoffs that have no chance of going beyond the 1st round but will give a top seed a 6-game series.

But if we keep winning, that tone will change into who just might take over the Bucks for 3rd.

But all that aside, what is everybody planning for the the big parade?!! (Where's the VOMIT emoji when I need it?!!!)

Go Celtics!!

db

dbrown4 wrote:
I did just see on ESPN the NBA is planning a ticker tape parade NYC style once they are officially back on the court together.  The mayor of Los Angeles will make that day an official holiday on the local level and with favorable help from the current administration in Washington the President plans on making it a National Holiday when it FINALLY happens!  I don't know about you but I can hardly wait!!  This is actually reaching and will soon surpass Lebron's Decision hullabaloo.
db

Jaylen Jaylen Jaylen Jaylen Jaylen Jaylen Jaylen

We have 2 big money superstar type players that can get up for the big games. Statement game for Mr Brown, 17-19 if you don’t count the heave. Hard to put into words how great/dazzling a display he put on, as and more efficient than any superstar on their best night. What a touch and zone he was in. A clinic on efficiency and versatility in scoring and he did it against the purple and gold!!

We have 2 Alpha dogs on this team!  and maybe 3 if you embrace the Marcus Smart impact.

This has to be our best road trip in a long time.  The Celtics took out 3 playoff teams which is no easy task.

The Hawks got smacked around by the Bucks and today we are tied for 4th place although a tie breaker goes to the Hawks.  

I think that the key to the resurgence begins and ends at the defensive end of the court.  Offensively there appears to be more ball sharing and while unsightly turnovers impact the game, the effort to share the ball has been great!

db is spot on about Evan Fournier.  I cannot wait until he is ready to go because his offense will be a stabilizing presence.  When Boston transitions into the playoffs and if they can stay healthy we should have enough fire power to compete.  Rotations are shortened during the playoffs.

A couple of observations:

Kemba Walker is not shooting as much but he is facilitating the offense more.  During this month in games he has played we are 6-1 and his FGA are down to 12.4 per game but his assists are at 7 and his rebounds are 4.7 per game.  Kemba does not have to be a 20+ PPG scorer for the Celtics to be successful as Shaq declared.

Kornet is not much of a physical presence but he is a skilled shot blocker and I really appreciate his ability to shoot form behind the arc.

Wagner, Edwards and Waters may not play ever again unless we are up 20 with one minute to go in the game.

TT seems to have returned from his Covid episode with a renewed pep to his step.  He looks more like the TT that we hoped to see.

The GSW game tomorrow night may be closer to a road game than an at home game.  

This teams functions so much better when everyone knows where to spread the butter.

I don’t see Wagner Edwards and Waters on the team next year

This was not a close game.  It got close because of the ineptness of our deep bench, more on that later, but otherwise no.

I cannot wait to see the Comments From The Other Side today.  I know there'll be a lot about "things would be different if we had LBJ and AD", and there's truth to that, but we've missed so many players due to injury and COVID I'm not cutting any team any slack about being short-handed.  People have been screaming for Brad to be fired but minimized the absence of Kemba in his first month, and the time it took for him to get his rhythm back.  Forgot about how Smart was out and how important he is, even as we called him our "heart".  Well, what the Hell did we expect to happen when we lost our heart?  Thompson out with COVID, Fournier out with COVID (protocol), Tatum not only out with COVID but still using an inhaler to offset long-term symptoms.  Well, now we're mostly healthy again and look at our team.  Sam used to say "See me in April".  Yesterday was the Ides of April.

Sean Grande
@SeanGrandePBP
·
6h
620th game of the Brad Stevens era in Boston, only once (@ Utah Feb. 2017) have the Celtics shot it better on the road than they did in L.A. Thursday night.


What a performance by Jaylen Brown!  Woweekazowee!!  17-20, and one of those 3 misses a > halfcourt buzzerbeater.  The one blemish on his game was his 6 turnovers, but otherwise a completely dominating masterpiece.  Frank Vogel was asked about Jaylen in one of the time out interviews and he sounded noticeably peeved about their inability to stop him.  Feel better Frank, nobody was going to stop Jaylen last night.  Remember when he was drafted and he had a weak handle and no shot?  Hard to remember him like that now.  17fgm and I think only a single one of them was a dunk.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 7 minutes ago
Jaylen Brown finishes the night 15/17 (88.2%) from the field, the best shooting performance on 15+ FGA in Celtics history. This is the 32nd time in NBA history a player has shot 88+% from the field on 15+ attempts, per Stathead.
MY NOTE:  This tweet was obviously before Brad had to send the starters back in.

Marc D'Amico @celtics
about 8 hours ago
First player with 40 points on 85% shooting in franchise history pic.twitter.com/dCHfa6pUmC

Marc D'Amico @celtics
about 7 hours ago
Jaylen Brown: “I just wanted to come out and be aggressive. Celtics-Lakers matchup is a matchup that kids dream about being on the floor.”

Stay in green, Jaylen, and you'll have lots more of them.



Thompson was a wrecking ball all night.  Without AD and Drummond they had nobody who could stop him.



On the subject of our bigs, Kornet with 4 blocks in 18 minutes.  Offensively he was 1-4, all 4 fgas were 3s.  It boggles my mind that a 7'2" player would not only have no inside game, but apparently not even have any interest in an inside game.  That peeve aside Kornet played well.  At about :42 of this highlight film you see him get pushed all the way under the basket by 6'7", 215# Aaron McKinnie.  That should not happen.  You need to do more leg presses this summer, Luke.  You're 250#.  Play like it.



Montrezl Harrell was torturing everybody inside.  He's 6'7", 240# and has a better inside game than either 7'2" Kornet or 6'11" Wagner.  He not only outworks everybody else, not just our guys, he has inside moves.  He's a bit of a throwback in that he doesn't spread the floor but is crafty and physical around the boards like Thompson.  Tristan couldn't stop Harrell and Harrell couldn't stop Tristan.  



PP with an excellent game.  15 points on 5-11, 3-6 from 3, 7 rebounds.  That's a lot of rebounds for a 6'2" guard.  3 of those rebounds were offensive, a lot of off his own misses but he would get us another possession.  He is one scrappy little SOB.  50 games into his NBA career and he's 44.3% from the field, 40.4% from 3 and 88.5% from the line.  His assist-to-turnover ratio, a key stat for point guards and one where rookies tend to suffer, is 2.11:1 (1.9:.9).  That's good for a bench point guard.  His stats are bearing out what our eyeballs are seeing, he's doing pretty well despite having had some icy-cold games.





Kemba also had a good game.  Only 12 points, but 5-8 and 3-6 from 3 so he was efficient.  He also had 7 assists and only 2 turnovers.  He also took a charge.  I'll take this version of Kemba.  Efficient scoring, dishing.  We don't need 25-30 points from him like Charlotte did.  What we need is for him not to go 3-14 and be a turnstile on defense.

And now for that ugly debacle that lasted 5 minutes in the 4th quarter.  That was embarrassing.  We were up 27 points and Brad cleared out the bench.  They proceeded to lose 22 of those 27 points.  The players who played in those 4-5 minutes were Semi, Wagner, Waters, Edwards, Nesmith.  I'm willing to give rookie Nesmith a pass, he should have been surrounded by solid veterans out there, but the others have no excuse.  We had marginal NBA players from both teams going out there in garbage time.  The difference between them was that, with LBJ and AD out for as long as they have been Frank Vogel has had to play those end-of-benchers while Brad Stevens did not.  The Lakers looked like they had some game time rhythm and we didn't.  They also outworked us.  There no excuse for that.  None.  Zero.  As far as I am concerned Brad shouldn't play Tremont or Carsen again this year.  Their game last night was their chance and they blew it.  Not overly impressed with Wagner either.  I will say one thing for him, he took at charge and tried to take another (but was late).  He's giving up his body, that's worth something.  Clean house this summer, Danny.  Give some other marginal players a chance.

Gary Washburn @GwashburnGlobe
about 9 hours ago
Tremont Waters played 3:43 and was a minus-17. #Celtics #Lakers

John Karalis
@RedsArmy_John
·
7h
After the game
@KendrickPerkins
dropped some heat on the Celtics 4th quarter bench unit. This is great perspective



Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
about 8 hours ago
Celtics' assist percentage this season: 56.5 Celtics' assist percentage last 10 games: 63.2


The two players the Lakers needed to come out on fire, Kuzma and Schroder, were a combined 8-22 for 21 points.  Their 2nd year player Talen Horton-Tucker was an eye-opener.  He had 19 points on 7-15.  I looked up his stats.  He's a career 26.2% 3pt shooter.  I've said that shooting is a very teachable skill.  If he gets his 3ptfg% up to 35% he's going to be good because he's aggressive and a nice 6'4".

21 turnovers (6 by Jaylen, 3 by Mo Wagner in just 5 minutes).  Only 8 for the Lakers, which is impressive given how deep into the bench Vogel had to go.  They also had 12 steals.  21 turnovers and 12 steals equals 33 losses of possession by us.  We gave up 26 points off of turnovers.  Steals, by their nature, tend to be live balls and that increases the chances of them running it down our throats.  We cannot play like this in the playoffs, the teams are too good and we cannot count on them being down a few starters.  We need to cherish the ball more.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 5 hours ago
The Celtics have not lost a game since Tristan Thompson called the regular season horseshit. Really makes you think.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307638


Bob


.

I 98% almost thoroughly enjoyed this win! Jaylen was out of his mind. His performance was one that you will rarely see from any player. Amazing. Unforgettable. And damn near perfect. How the hell do you follow up a performance like that? The man was unreal.
Everyone 1-9 played there asses off. And then... Well wait. I was enjoying this so much because of who the opponent was. And then...The bench..the almighty bench practically ruined my entire life. I know that sounds a bit drastic but you have to understand. I hate the Lakers worse than I hate the Klan!!. For the bench to come in and “play” with my emotions (That’s a line from Peabo Bryson’s “Feel the Fire) I was hotter than a bonfire under a Salem Witch. I was wicked hot! And the player that made me the hottest was named Waters. How’s that for irony. That little squirt (pun intended) couldn’t be more less serious about his game than I am about running the Boston Marathon in leggings. Him and his 2 way contract need to be given a one way ticket out of Massachusetts and straight too H E Double Hockey sticks! I hope Carson has saved some money. I like the kid but he and his Thigh thighs need to go bye bye too. That bench gave the Purple and Gold hope. That bench got Bronny and his Brow Friend to grinning and giggling. That bench...Well, hopefully thats the end of them. Wagner, Carson, Waters, Poor Semi, (How did he get mixed up in this) and as Bob H said Nesmith get a pass. They almost blew it. If Brad had even left Grant out there with them we probably would have not seen quite the debacle. Brad waited way too long to pull em. But we won. We beat the most hated franchise in sports and I don’t care who didn’t play, we were winning that game last night and we will win again tomorrow night. I think we are just about there.

This and other recent games prove that planning roster changes for next season is easy.

We thought we needed bigs. If RWIII and Thompson can stay healthy, we may be OK.

We thought we needed PGs. If Walker can stay healthy, Smart can donate a few minutes per game on the ball and Pritchard can improve his consistency, we may be OK.

It's the bench. Simple. We need a bench.

Fournier, if we keep him, Thompson and Pritchard could be a part of it. After that, the search begins.

Get a bench and get real competitive, real fast. Simple. Well... easy enough to say. We'll see how hard it is to do. It will have to be a near total bench replacement. Tricky surgery, but easier than needing to lure a top shelf star player.

NYCelt wrote:This and other recent games prove that planning roster changes for next season is easy.

We thought we needed bigs. If RWIII and Thompson can stay healthy, we may be OK.

We thought we needed PGs. If Walker can stay healthy, Smart can donate a few minutes per game on the ball and Pritchard can improve his consistency, we may be OK.

It's the bench. Simple. We need a bench.

Fournier, if we keep him, Thompson and Pritchard could be a part of it. After that, the search begins.

Get a bench and get real competitive, real fast. Simple. Well... easy enough to say. We'll see how hard it is to do. It will have to be a near total bench replacement. Tricky surgery, but easier than needing to lure a top shelf star player.

Jared Butler

Bob,

It really makes me think TT should have called the regular season horseshit at the start of the season!!! It could have saved us all a lot of agony and turmoil!!

db

NYCelt wrote:This and other recent games prove that planning roster changes for next season is easy.

We thought we needed bigs. If RWIII and Thompson can stay healthy, we may be OK.

We thought we needed PGs. If Walker can stay healthy, Smart can donate a few minutes per game on the ball and Pritchard can improve his consistency, we may be OK.

It's the bench. Simple. We need a bench.

Fournier, if we keep him, Thompson and Pritchard could be a part of it. After that, the search begins.

Get a bench and get real competitive, real fast. Simple. Well... easy enough to say. We'll see how hard it is to do. It will have to be a near total bench replacement. Tricky surgery, but easier than needing to lure a top shelf star player.

Might be jumping the gun here, but we need to sign Frenchy, he does everything Hayward seemed to do, playing with our stars getting so much attention he gets easy looks. Romeo and Nesmith are just getting started, one of them will make a big jump next year.

+1 to Cowens post

I was so ticked off at that bench!! I totally have decided Tremont Waters is not a fit here, if anywhere. Edwards the same. It just should have been a 20 point win, if they had come in and done their jobs, killed the clock, moved the ball and scored a few baskets. Instead it was bombs away.

Got that off my chest....Now about the real game. Jaylen could smell it right from the beginning. Something about the Staples Center pushes him and Tatum most of the time. What I liked was that they realized he was on, and fed him the ball. He made some ridiculous shots. Thompson played great, Kemba distributed the ball well, hit a few good shots and was on the bench for a good part of the fourth quarter.

Just think of hitting our stride and Fournier coming back. Our offense should be terrific Makes those games they lost down in Atlanta a thorn in their side. But I am totally impressed with this three game road trip success. They are playing the way we know they are capable of.

Now bring on Curry, somebody take that wiggle away from him please!!!!!!!!! (Smart?)

RosalieTCeltics wrote:I was so ticked off at that bench!!  I totally have decided Tremont Waters is not a fit here, if anywhere.  Edwards the same.  It just should have been a 20 point win, if they had come in and done their jobs, killed the clock, moved the ball and scored a few baskets. Instead it was bombs away.

Got that off my chest....Now about the real game. Jaylen could smell it right from the beginning. Something about the Staples Center pushes him and Tatum most of the time. What I liked was that they realized he was on, and fed him the ball.  He made some ridiculous shots.  Thompson played great, Kemba distributed the ball well, hit a few good shots and was on the bench for a good part of the fourth quarter.

Just think of hitting our stride and Fournier coming back.  Our offense should be terrific  Makes those games they lost down in Atlanta a thorn in their side.  But I am totally impressed with this three game road trip success.  They are playing the way we know they are capable of.

Now bring on Curry, somebody take that wiggle away from him please!!!!!!!!! (Smart?)

My son and I were texting about the game, and I mentioned how much we loved that Pierce would always get up for the Lakers, well both these J’s are not just stars, they are big game players that love these moments and love going against the best. These kids love going right at Lebron as much as Pierce went after Kobe!!

I have not watched the entire game yet so will not comment on the bench performance, apart from it being my main issue with Danny all year.

I hope Jaylen has someone in his life that will play him a highlight reel of this game EVERY single time he starts to think his game should revolve on shooting 10+ THREES a game.

This is how he stays aggressive, how he takes the next step on the star ladder and how he helps the Celtics win banners! AND how he can keep his focus and defensive intensity up as well if he needs it!

More than happy with 40 points on 3-4 (do not count half count heaves as attempted 3s) 3PT attempts !