On this Tuesday night in Los Angeles, the Lakers welcomed a battle against a familiar foe — the Boston Celtics were in town. What started as a battle became a blatant display of Laker dominance as they defeated Boston 117-102.
LeBron James (30 pts) and Jayson Tatum (34 pts, 8 reb) commanded their respective teams. Tatum struck first with a slew of triples and then Bron answered with a couple of his own — and then some. LBJ’s drives to the rim were special tonight. They were dripping in deceptive details. “We locked in from that point on,” James said of the game following the first seven minutes.
Like their leader, the Lakers found much of their scoring success around Boston’s board. In fact, the Lake Show outscored the C’s by 24 in the paint.
A 13-point lead came in the third quarter following a King James’ fastbreak and Russell Westbrook (24 pts, 11 ast) three. The Lakers’ game flourished from there, especially that of Westbrook whose frantic play transformed into a tireless pursuit to victory, and a double-double on top of it.
Anthony Davis (17 pts, 16 reb) entered the starting lineup at the five tonight. AD had a rocky start, but got back to business in the second half. “Bron told me to scrap it, everyone said it was one half, second half let’s go,” Davis said. For 35 minutes, the big fella was adamant at giving his team some extra pizazz in the rebounding department. He had about 1/3 of the Lakers’ total defensive rebounds. And he approached the second half by “just trying to do the intangibles.”
Said intangibles assisted in Davis’ superior performance. Their 13-point lead grew to 20 at one point. And where the offense was charged, the really beautiful thing to see was this Laker defense. When they play like this, “we’re a tough team to beat,” Davis said postgame.
Five of the Lakers’ next six are on the road, they’re traveling tomorrow to face the Grizzlies Thursday.