Saturday night gave us all the first installment of the next chapter in the NBA’s most-storied rivalry — Celtics vs. Lakers.
It rocked.
Heading into the game, there was an added buzz at TD Garden. Fans were locked in and loud, with both teams playing at a high level and carrying championship aspirations into the matchup.
This was the first time the two franchises had met since Los Angeles acquired Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks last month. The trade broke the internet, but more importantly (and unfortunately, if you’re on this side of the fence), it set the Lakers up for an extended stretch of relevancy.
Prior to the deal, the franchise lacked direction. With LeBron James on the other side of 40 and a lack of draft picks to help fill the King’s void when he eventually retires, it felt like a dark age could be imminent in L.A.
Instead, the trade has rejuvenated this season’s team while also giving them hope for the future. They entered Saturday’s primetime game on an eight-game winning streak as the #2 seed in the West. Yet, the Celtics wouldn’t let on that the meeting would mean anything more than the other 81 regular-season games.
After Boston’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, head coach Joe Mazzulla acknowledged the Celtics-Lakers rivalry but explained that all games should feel like the most important game. On the same note, Jayson Tatum pointed out that the Celtics haven’t had many high-stakes matchups with the Lakers during his tenure and cited teams like the 76ers, who Boston has played multiple times in the postseason, as more relevant rivals to him.
Well, the Celtics’ actions didn’t quite align with their words.
For starters, Mazzulla ran a tight rotation, playing Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown 45 and 41 minutes, respectively.
“It’s my way of saying that you better win,” he said of the long minutes for his stars.
Mazzulla added that he wanted to give his guys the opportunity to make a legacy for themselves in this storied rivalry.
Tatum and Brown understood Mazzulla’s message and did just that.
Brown played with a tremendous “Celtic Pride.” He set the tone for a physical night with his aggressive defense on Doncic, which was similar to what we saw from him in the NBA Finals.
“Obviously, the history between the Celtics and Lakers is prevalent,” Brown explained. “Tonight I feel like both sides, both teams, came in and brought it from the jump.”
About midway through the opening frame, we got this electric sequence. Brown poked the ball away from Luka, ran the break, and hit Al Horford for a loud slam.
The exclamation point was Horford clipping Doncic with his leg while he stopped his momentum by hanging on the rim.
Brown kept the defensive pressure up for the entirety of his extended run, and his intensity never wavered. JB credited his conditioning for allowing him to give it his all on both ends. He went at Doncic all night and even traded baskets with him down the stretch after L.A. stormed back. JB finished the night with an impressive 31 points and was pivotal in the rivalry win.
As for Tatum, he continued his inspired stretch of play since the All-Star Break. He logged a game-high 40 points to go along with 12 rebounds and eight assists.
He was LOCKED in.
Tatum poured in 13 of his 40 in the first 12 minutes. Aside from the Lakers’ late push, this stretch felt like it had the highest stakes. L.A. was playing well, getting buckets from a lot of their role players, and threatening to create some distance between themselves and Boston.
Every time the Celtics needed offense, Tatum had their back.
On top of that, he was just playing loud basketball.
This might be a silly way to measure the intensity that a given player brought to the game, but JT had three loud dunks in this game. It was clear that he was looking to make those moments be felt by the fans, as well as those playing in the game.
“I’ve been around Joe long enough to know where his mind is that going into certain games,” Tatum said of his extended shift. “I knew tonight was going to be one of those 40 plus minute nights... It’s still the regular season. They all count as one, but it’s special to be a part of this rivalry with the guys that you know we have on both sides. You want to be a part of moments like this.”
This game was so fun to watch because of the way Boston put their effort into overdrive. Aside from the Jays, Al Horford was so good that he had the NBA social media team putting together highlight reels of him defending LeBron and Luka.
Horford’s teammates followed suit. Both Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser buckled down and fought anytime the Lakers tried to hunt them in switches. It says a lot about the character of this team as a whole when guys are taking fewer shots (Pritchard five, Hauser just one) and still doing everything possible to win their defensive battles.
It may sound like it should be a given, but I can assure you that there are plenty of NBA players who wouldn’t be as engaged without an ample amount of offensive involvement.
Maybe it was something of Mazzulla's mind games, but the Celtics clearly cared about this game more than the rest — even if they wanted to pretend like they didn’t heading into it. This is what rivalries should be about. These teams should play with some extra pride even if the game only counts once in the win/loss column.
This new edition of Celtics-Lakers is truly the perfect storm. The stars involved and their playoff battles (LeBron with several against Boston and Luka with last season’s Finals) add so much extra juice to classic feud between the laundry.
Hopefully, this was a sign of great games to come.