4 takeaways as Celtics loses to lakers in a fantastic blowout

Los Angeles-Celtics finished their trip to Los Angeles on an ugly tone and was dominated for most of 48 minutes in a 117-96 loss to Los Angeles Lakers at 1 p.m. Crypto.com Arena in their worst losses of the season.

The hosts took control of the game late in the first quarter with a 10-2 race to build a double-digit lead and did not look back from there. Celtics came behind with a full 21 points in the first half in a gloomy offensive shooting from the team’s supportive crew.

Boston showed some signs of life at the start of the second half with a 14-7 race from the starters, trimming the deficit to 12 points. Boston’s offensive fell from there again and became pointless in a distance of 4:34 late in the third quarter, allowed Lakers to push their lead back to 19 points.

Boston did not get any closer than 15 points the rest of the way, as Lakers led with 27 points in the round.

Kristaps Porzingis led Celtics with a team-high 22 points in the setback, but only three Boston players scored in double digits. Anthony Davis led Lakers with 24 points, while LeBron James added a double double with 20 points and 14 rebounds.

The uninspired show comes for Boston at the end of their toughest schedule of the season, with Thursday’s loss marking their fifth match of seven nights.

Boston will try to finish their trip with a record of 3-1 on Saturday afternoon when they are going to Dallas for a revenge match in the NBA final.

Here are four Celtics takeaways from Thursday’s match:

Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown get no help early: A few of Boston’s stars brought their offensive games to a heavyweight tilt with lakers? The rest of the rotation not so much. Porzingis and Brown together for 29 points in the first half of 59 percent shooting. However, the rest of Boston’s lineup was basically a no show when the rest of the team combined to make only five baskets in the first half. This group joined a total of 5-of-24 from the field (20.8 percent), which led to Boston’s worst offensive half on the road trip and the season’s biggest break deficit of 19 points. Standing one of the worst defense in the NBA this year was a gloomy show. Things didn’t get much better in the second half when Boston’s bench only achieved 35 points all night and most of them came under the garbage time.

Celtic’s defense looks one step slowly: Lakers came to their seats at will early in this one, where LeBron James and Anthony Davis took turns partying against the fight. The Drive-and-Kick game lived in the best of Lakers, when Boston first sent help, the hosts made them pay with Lakers who shot burning 55 percent from 3-point reach in the first half without any brands from James or Davis. Instead, it was the support role that beat Boston from the depths of Gabe Vincent, Austin Reaves, Max Christie and Dalton Knecht, who all beat several 3s. The hot shooting slowed down for Lakers in the second half from the perimeter, but they still managed to find easy attacks in the paint and on the offensive glass. The lack of physics from Boston was remarkable all night and Lakers took advantage of it.

No energy on the glass: Lakers are one of the worst rebound teams in the NBA, but they dominated Boston on the glass in this one. They grabbed offensive rebounds of 41 percent of their misses in the first half. Meanwhile, Celtics showed no real obligation to crash, and only grabbed five offensive rebounds in the first half despite showing a mere 39 percent from the field. A brutal stretch of the schedule (five matches of seven nights) could be blamed for some of the matte effort, but this is an area moving in the wrong direction for this team over the past month without uneven game.

Starting back course remains out of sync: Derrick White and Jue Holiday earned almost $ 55 million this year, but they reached only six combined points in 44 minutes. The duo shot a gloomy 2-AF-11 from the field with a couple of missed layups mixed. Holiday has scored two -digit in only three of its last nine games, while White has shot over 42 percent in just one of its last nine games. There are many reasons for Boston’s uneven games over the past month, but the inconsistent game from this duo is moving up the list. Whether it is burnout from the Olympics or something else, the team must get these two back in synchronization to avoid getting out of their 0.500 wheel tracks in the past month.

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