BOSTON — The Celtics’ win over the Lakers on Saturday night came in large part due to a massive run coming out of intermission. The hosts erupted for a 19-2 start to the period, turning what had been a very tight first half into a relative blowout within six minutes. The Lakers eventually put up a fight in the fourth quarter but they were unable to erase that 22-point deficit once LeBron James went down with a groin injury.
Boston ultimately held the Lakers to 13 third quarter points on 21.7 percent shooting from the field in the period. The Lakers were even worse from 3-point range, going 1-of-10 from deep while turning the ball over six times. The Celtics doubled up the visitors in the frame by a 29-13 margin, showing off a championship caliber.
When asked about those third quarter struggles after the loss, JJ Redick pointed to an unexpected factor that disrupted his team at the start of a long road trip.
“We missed three layups, missed all our catch and shoot threes,” Redick said. ‘I think we were one for whatever we were in that quarter. Just we weren’t generating enough force to put any pressure on the rim and to get better looks.
“I think sometimes in these games, you never know what to chalk these things up to, but I think start of an East Coast trip some brain fog execution wise for us. It was a little out of character for us, and I think that contributed as well to that third quarter where just we would call a play, and we wouldn’t actually run the play. We would drop an ATO, we would not have the right defender in the right spot. It was just out of character, and that got us stagnated.”
The Lakers bounced back with 34 points in the fourth quarter but it wasn’t enough to dig out of the deep hole created by their third quarter ‘brain fog.’
On the other side, Joe Mazzulla credited his team’s work on the margins for flustering the Lakers early in the second half.
“You have to play good offense to keep them out of transition,” Mazzulla said. “They got a couple leak outs, but we were able to take that away. We kept them off the free-throw line, we took away their corner threes, and we were able to limit them to one shot. So playing against a great team like that, the margins and those things are very important.”
The victory put a stop to the Lakers’ eight-game winning streak but it did not deter the team’s belief that they are a threat to the defending champions come June.
“We can compete versus anyone in this league,” James said. “So we’ll be fine. We got to continue to build our habits. We’re not where they are, the defending champion. And they’ve been playing basketball together for a long time. And they got a great chemistry and know what they want to do.
“We made an acquisition late in the season, and we’re still trying to build. And we want to get full. That’s the number one objective for us, how we can get full and get all our guys together and see exactly what we look like. So we feel like we can compete versus anybody.”
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