In the NBA classic, the Boston Celtics have humiliated the Los Angeles Lakers tonight at the TD Garden, 139-107. Brad Stevens’ boys rolled over the best team in the Western Conference, inflicting purple and gold their heaviest defeat of the season.
“It was just a good old-fashioned butt whuppin’. That’s all,” LeBron James described what happened tonight.
In each aspect of the game, the home team posted better numbers than the LAL. Boston had higher shooting percentages, more rebounds, forced more turnovers, etc. Eventually, they’ve scored 139 points, which is the season-high against LeBron and the crew.
“We needed to play well. That doesn’t guarantee results but this morning we had a great film session, like, there was a lot of things we need to control,” said Brad Stevens at the press conference.
Jaylen Brown on LeBron 👀 pic.twitter.com/TYTFMIxX91
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 21, 2020
This was the largest winning margin for the Celtics over the purple and gold since November 1963, and the one which might boost their morale before the upcoming challenges. Boston needed something like this in order to show that they have the potential to beat the best, and now they just need to find consistency.
We haven’t seen the Lakers this bad in a long time. Everything was ok in the first period, and that sequence ended with the C’s being up three points, 33-30. Yet the guests just fell apart in the second, once they allowed a 12-3 run midway through the period. In no time, the hosts went to plus 14, 69-55, to hit the locker rooms for a break.
For inexplicable reasons, the Lakers’ ship just sank, quickly allowing their greatest rivals to reach up to 30+ points of advantage. LeBron and the guys were helpless, with the King himself being dunked on by Jaylen Brown at one moment.
There wasn’t a better way to picture this humiliation, than this slam.
“I love a good extra pass as much as a good dunk, so I’m probably the wrong person to ask,” Stevens stated after being asked to comment Brown’s masterpiece.
JaVale McGee had a team-high for the Lakers, 18 points, while shooting 7-for-9. LeBron had 15 and 13 assists with 7 boards. Kuzma and Rondo both posted 13 buckets apiece, with the note that the latter one added 10 assists also. All in all, it was too modest for a title contender to play like this.
Among the hosts, Jason Tatum dropped 27, 10-for-18 from the field, and with five threes. Brown had 20 with 6 assists and Kemba Walker had the same number of points with 7 dimes. This was his first career win over LeBron after 28 losses.
Hayward added 16 buckets, while Enes Kanter posted a double-double off the bench 18 points and 11 boards.
“The offensive rebounding was a result of ball movement and body movement. And then Enes’ effort,” Celtics’ head coach added.
The Celtics (28-14) now await the Memphis Grizzlies at home on Wednesday, and after that head on a three-game road trip which starts at Orlando, then extends to New Orleans and closes in Miami.
The home team didn’t allow the rival to breathe at certain stages of the match, as they simply had more energy than the LAL. LeBron tried to find a teammate who might be in the mood for playing tonight, but none showed up.
As for the Lakers (34-9), they too have three more road contests. The first is at the Madison Square Garden vs. the Knicks also on Wednesday, followed by one in Brooklyn and Philadelphia who defeated the Nets tonight.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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