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Celtics get back to winning ways by beating Lakers 125-121 in OT

Celtics get back to winning ways by beating Lakers 125-121 in OT

The Boston Celtics swept the season series against the Los Angeles Lakers after the 125-121 overtime win. Jayson Tatum was pretty not good for all but about eight minutes, but as a testament to the level he’s on, he still finished with 30 points and 11 rebounds. Jaylen Brown led all scorers for Boston despite foul trouble, finishing with 37 points and 9 rebounds. For the Lakers, LeBron James. That’s all I have to say (he finished with 41 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists).

The first half was an exercise in frustration for the offense. Jayson Tatum had a slow start, going 2-9 from the field, and the offense mostly devolved to unimaginative and uncreative “my turn, your turn” possessions. While the Celtics held a huge freethrow disparity, the Lakers re-took the edge by taking advantage of second-chance points.

Early in the second, the Tatum + bench unit got off to a quick start (thank you, Russell Westbrook), but that changed as soon as Westbrook hit the bench. Boston got out-worked to a lot of 50-50 balls, and the turnovers really hurt a lot of their efforts. Fortunately for Boston, this Lakers team isn’t elite, so the margin for error is a little larger than against actual playoff teams. Boston never fully fell out of the picture even as shots were barely falling in the second quarter.

Grant Williams (woof) has struggled at times this week, and tonight was no exception. While he did start the game, Malcolm Brogdon (26 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists) started in his place at the beginning of the third. This was a risky move given that Anthony Davis (16 points, 10 rebounds) started the third quarter (after coming off the bench in the first half), but the extra playmaking paid off. The move also allowed for more defensive versatility from Derrick White (14 points), who was able to offer more help defense instead of point-of-attack defense.

As good as that lineup looked to start the quarter, L.A. caught fire from behind the line for a quick 11-0 run, undoing all of the good coming out of halftime. While the Lakers dictated the pace for a lot of the third quarter, back-to-back 3-pointers woke Jayson Tatum up out of his slumber. Further along in the quarter, Boston’s defense forced a few turnovers, pushing the Celtics to a 9-0 run of their own, retaking control of the game. All of Tatum’s 15 points in the quarter (after just scoring 8 in the first half) came after the six-minute mark of the third.

Tatum’s spark faded a bit as the fourth…

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