Celtics Do Lakers Bad In Front of Pat Riley

Written by Malcolm Xavier of The Lakers Room

Getting beat in front of your uncles is crazy. Lakers defense is questionable at best. Pat Riley was honored with a statue prior to the game, along with being honored at halftime. All I could think during the pre game ceremony outside Crypto was, what the hell is Dwyane Wade doing on stage. Showtime Lakers were in the House - Magic Johnson, Byron Scott Kareem and more. Anyways, the Lakers were anything but honorable after Tip-off.

The Lakers took an early 10-5 lead in the first thanks to 4 quick LeBron points to start. Luka capped the first run with a twelve foot fadeaway. The C's countered with four points on two driving layups from Neemias Quetta and Jaylen brown to cut it to 10-9. The Celtics countered with a 16-9 run overall to take a 21-19 lead before a Luka stepback three gave the Lakers a 22-21 lead with 4:12 left in the first. Vucevic and Derrick White engineered a 7-3 run themselves to take a 28-25 lead sandwiching a Luke Kennard three pointer. Austin Reaves was fouled on a 3 pointer and hit all three free throws to tie the score 28-28 after one.

Payton Pritchard hit two threes to start the second, Jared Vanderbilt countered one for LA along with Ayton scoring down low to give the Celtics a 34-33 lead before Boston took over in the second, turning a one point game into a 10 point halftime deficit. Jaylen Brown scored 8 points in the closing run on the quarter (six at the line) along with two first half bombs from Pritchard and Derrick White closed the half to give all momentum to the Celtics and put the pressure on LA to come out strong in the second half.

LA cut the lead to 65-58 on a LeBron James driving layup. Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser pushed it back to double digits 69-58 with four quick points, two at the line one on a technical. LeBron scored on one more and one after another three by pritchard to get it back to 72-65. The Lakers were never that close again. The Celtics closed on a 12-6 run to lead 84-71 after three. Capped by a Jaylen Brown three on a Derrick White dish. All of the momentum and pre game fesitivity energy was gone and the fourth quarter wasn't much different.

Payton Pritchard was the story of the fourth quarter. He scored 11 points and had 3 assist in the fourth quarter ALONE. The Lakers offense mustered only 18 points in the fourth in a game where they only scored 89 points vs their arch rival. Luka Doncic was held to two points in the fourth quarter. LA falls to 34-22 with the loss.