Celtics
Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 71 points in Saturday's win.
The Celtics ended the Lakers' eight-game winning streak in what was an exciting nationally-televised matchup. AP Photo/Mark Stockwell
Jayson Tatum scored 40 points, and the Celtics snapped the Lakers’ eight-game winning streak with a 111-101 victory at TD Garden on Saturday in one of the biggest (at least narratively) games of the season.
Here are the takeaways.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were brilliant.
Separating Tatum and Brown in the takeaways would necessitate placing one above the other, which doesn’t seem particularly appropriate.
Tatum was phenomenal – masterful on the offensive end with 40 points on 12-for-28 shooting, including several huge 3-pointers and 12 trips to the free-throw line. His numbers this season haven’t been career-highs, but the level to which he manipulates and dominates offensively is unlike anything he’s achieved so far in his already decorated career. The Celtics can torture teams with matchup hunting because Tatum is so singularly gifted, and because they have surrounded him with players who take advantage of his gifts.
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Brown, meanwhile, was similarly great on the offensive end – 31 points on 13-for-25 shooting – but defensively, he once again made Luka Doncic’s life difficult. Doncic scored 34 points (and we’ll get to him in a minute), but he worked hard for all of them, and the effort he put into the offensive end clearly subtracted from what he could do defensively (which, not-so-incidentally, was also the case in June).
The Celtics are incredibly fortunate to employ two players for whom that isn’t the case.
“The toll that it takes – the mental and emotional and physical toughness that it takes to do what Jaylen is able to do like he did tonight is just high-level by him,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Jayson’s ability to take pride in his individual defense, when your best players – and you saw the possessions that Al [Horford] had – when your best players take pride in individual defense, I think it sets a tone for your team. Those guys take on that challenge, and JB thrives taking on that challenge.”
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Brown was asked what it takes to guard Doncic and still score.
“You’ve got to be in incredible shape, first off,” Brown said. “I think that pretty much sums it up. You’ve got to be in great shape.”
Brown later praised Doncic, calling him “one of the greats” and “one of those generational talents,” but by describing how to guard Doncic, he also accidentally called Doncic out a little bit.
The Lakers have some familiar issues against the Celtics.
Anyone who has watched the Celtics often this year could have told you how they would attack the Lakers – they would go at Doncic whenever possible to zap him of any energy. Austin Reaves would be a nice secondary target. Any mismatch would get hunted over and over again until JJ Redick made an adjustment, at which point the new mismatch created by the adjustment would get hunted and hunted until JJ Redick made an adjustment, etc.
Doncic has, of course, turned the Lakers back into a contender. He’s a great offensive player, and the Lakers look energized by his presence. Health will be a factor – LeBron James exited Saturday’s game in the fourth quarter with a groin injury, and Doncic appeared bothered by his back – but a healthy Lakers team is a threatening one for the Western Conference.
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But the Celtics have answers for this type of team. If the Lakers meet them in the Finals, they will need to have ways to keep some of the defensive responsibility off Doncic, and they will need to be able to do so while hiding their smaller defenders as well (Reaves, Dalton Knecht, Gabe Vincent, etc.).
If you need evidence that the Celtics can take a couple of mismatches and win an entire playoff series by clubbing them to death, well, the Lakers don’t need to look far to find a witness.
This Celtics team is so familiar to fans that we often feel like we’re repeating ourselves.
But honestly, how can we not repeat ourselves in praising Al Horford? The 38-year-old played 37 minutes and contributed some of the best defense of his season, switching comfortably onto James and Doncic whenever he was called upon. His defense against James forced the Lakers star into several highly difficult shots, including one high-visibility sequence at the end of the second quarter in which James backed out and iso’d on Horford, only for Horford to stymy him at the rim which sparked a fast-break dunk by Tatum.
The Lakers may think twice about targeting Horford if they see the Celtics again this year.
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“I think when people do it, it motivates him,” Mazzulla said. “I got to watch five possessions of him defending at a high level, and at one point, I wasn’t coaching. I was just watching him, and I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s a future Hall of Famer. I get to watch this for free.’”
Or, put more simply like Horford did: “You kind of have to prove yourself out there, and I don’t mind doing that.”
Horford’s defense was remarkable nine years ago when he first arrived in Boston. It remains remarkable now, nearly a decade later.
The Celtics absolutely clamped the Lakers in the third quarter.
The Lakers rallied a bit in the fourth quarter to draw within four points before the Celtics pushed the lead back out, but the Celtics were the team that really issued a statement with their dominant third quarter performance. After taking a 58-54 lead into halftime, the Celtics outscored the Lakers 29-13 in the third, allowing the Lakers just 5-for-23 shooting, 1-for-10 from three and 13 points. Doncic scored the bulk of the free throws, but he also found himself swarmed and uncomfortable as the Celtics raced out to a double-digit lead.
Jrue Holiday returned from injury.
Holiday got 34 minutes in his first game back on the floor after suffering a finger injury in the Celtics’ loss to the Pistons last month, and he scored seven points on 3-for-6 shooting. Afterward, he told reporters he felt fine, even playing with a “little brace on it, just in case I get hit or something.”
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“Once they tell me to take it off, I’ll take it off,” he added. “I don’t want my finger to be crooked.”
The Celtics were happy to have him back.“We’re a much better team when Jrue is out there with us,” Tatum said. “Obviously we were still missing [Kristaps Porzingis], but it was just great to have Jrue out there making plays on both ends of the floor.”
Jaylen Brown got hit with an unjust technical.
With 3:03 remaining in the second quarter, Brown took a drive directly at Doncic and elevated straight through Doncic’s face, knocking the Lakers star backward with an inadvertent elbow to the face.
Initially, Brown was called for an offensive foul, which he (and the Celtics’ bench) vehemently protested. Brown didn’t extend his elbow outward, and he appeared to go up for his shot in a straight line as Doncic stuck his head into Brown’s path.
After a review, the officials agreed.
The only problem? Brown had already been called for a technical foul arguing with the officials before the timeout in which the Celtics challenged. Brown’s layup counted (the officials opted not to call Doncic for a foul), but the Lakers let Austin Reaves shoot a technical free throw, which he made.
Once the Celtics challenged, Brown probably should have stopped arguing with the official, but replays showed that he was right about the call, it’s a tough look for the officials to have doled out a technical that they couldn’t take back.
The Celtics can’t do that often … but it’s the Lakers.
Jayson Tatum played 45 minutes. Jaylen Brown played 41. Horford played 37.
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The Celtics really can’t do that often, and they are certainly aware of that. No regular-season game is worth risking the health of their incredibly expensive, incredibly talented championship contender. No rivalry victory in March would be as sweet as a championship victory in June.
But when 38-year-old Al Horford checked out in the final minutes with the victory clinched and 37 additional NBA minutes on his old legs, he did so with a broad smile. A sweat-drenched Tatum informed ABC’s Lisa Salters after the game that he was tired, but he acknowledged that it is an “honor” to be part of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry.
Much has been made of how the NBA doesn’t matter in the regular season (and too much has been made about the league’s ratings at this point), but if there was ever to be a meaningful regular-season game, it would be a Celtics-Lakers showdown on an ABC Saturday night as the defending champion Celtics take their first crack at a Lakers team led by LeBron James – making one of his last pushes for an NBA title – and their superstar acquisition Luka Doncic, who got bullied out of the Finals by the Celtics last season.
The Celtics downplayed the significance of Saturday a bit ahead of time, but Brown and Tatum would not combine for 86 minutes against the Hornets. This group has cemented themselves in Celtics history, and a critical part of Celtics history is Celtics vs. Lakers.
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“It’s still just regular season, they all count as one, but it’s special,” Tatum said. “It’s special to be a part of this rivalry with the guys that we have on both sides. You want to be a part of moments like this. As a basketball fan, I’m certain they enjoyed it. It was just two really good teams going at it on both ends of the floor.”
Mazzulla, meanwhile, was asked if the big minutes were his way of letting his team know that Saturday wasn’t just any game.
“It’s my way of saying that you better win,” he answered. “And I like watching them play.”
Saturday’s game was technically one of 82, but Tatum, Brown, and Mazzulla clearly understand that in context, it certainly isn’t.
More Western Conference opponents ahead.
The Celtics will wrap up their five-game homestand with two more games against Western Conference opponents. On Monday, the Cooper-Flagg-hopeful Utah Jazz will visit TD Garden, but on Wednesday, the Celtics will host another marquee matchup when they look to avenge their ugly loss to the Thunder in January.
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