Lakers break down exhausted Celtics with hot shooting: takeaways

James, somehow, still doing it. He controlled the game and ran Lakers’ violation both as scores and as passersby, and his 14 rebounds had the double effect of ending Celtics’ possessions and jumping-start of Lakers’ possession at a lively pace as he tends to bring The Ball up yourself. James also ended with 20 points and six assists.

The rivalry between James and Celtics seems to have cooled down a bit as James ‘career runs (or at least when we assume it is being run), which is a bit ironic when he joined Celtics’ historic rival.

But an important component of the enmity between James and Celtics was their proximity – when Celtics faced James three times a year during the regular season and once in the Eastern conference final or semi -final, the rivalry built as a pressure cooker. Now they see each other twice a year in matches in regular season that simply don’t mean much to neither Celtics nor James, especially considering the relatively small chances of a showdown after the season.

Still, James seemed to have a small setback energy for his old rival Thursday.

Celtics looked exhausted.

Guilt the schedule producers for giving Celtics an overwhelming stretch of games that made their “rivalry week” road showdown against lakers for their fifth match of seven nights (schedule does not charge from here, otherwise-Celtics Don ‘t has two nights free in a row again until the All-Star break).

Guy Celtics himself for having allowed Wednesday’s game to get away from them and go unnecessary overtime considering the quality of the Clippers program list that pulled out to meet them at the Intuit Dome.

Guy the bench not to appear in a way that would take some weight from the shoulders of Celtics’ stars.

Whatever you decide to blame Thursday’s failures, Celtics simply didn’t look like they had their legs to compete with Lakers, especially in an evening when Lakers lap so well. Celtics played insulating basketball too much – often a reliable indicator of their exhaustion – and their defense discovered Lakers a great lead early and was never tough enough to break their rhythm.

The shooting statistics were brutal.

This deserves its own breakout point separated from the exhaustion, although it appears to be very likely the two points are related.

Celtics ended 38.5 percent from the floor. Kristaps Pozingis was hot early, but cooled late and he was the only starter shooting 50 percent or better.

Jaylen Brown was 7-for-19.

Derrick White and Al Horford were both 1-for-5.

Jue Holiday was 1-for-6.

Payton Pritchard was 2-for-12.

Again, blame it for what you want – Lakers’ defense, the fifth game of seven nights, the unnecessary overtime – but whatever reason you choose, Celtics would simply never win a game where no one outside Tatum, Brown or Porzingis scored in Double, especially when Tatum, Brown and Porzingis were all imperceptible self.

Jaden jumps came in too late.

We are only half joke here: After turning Celtics’ games against Clippers completely upside down by closing Kevin Porter Jr. And beat a couple of clutches 3-Pointers, seemed to have a little extra spring in his step as he entered Thursday’s game of garbage. He ended with 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting and did both of his 3-point attempts, which left us no choice but to wonder what might have been if Mazzulla had simply played his game-changing superstar earlier in the game.

Gabe Vincent loves to play Celtics.

For Gabe Vincent (and apparently Caleb Martin, given What happened Earlier this year), playing Celtics will always be a setback to the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals as he simply couldn’t miss.

Vincent has made four 3-Pointers in another game in the year-one December 18th competition between Lakers and The Kings.

On Thursday, Vincent shot 4-for-7 from deep and ended with 12 points. As a team, Laker’s 15-for-35 (42.9 percent) ended in deep and got 3-for-4 and 4-for-8 performances from Dalton Knecht and Austin Reaves respectively.

The end (of road trip) is in sight.

Celtics now has less than 48 hours to get to Dallas and prepare for their final -match against Mavericks. A win would save a 3-1 road trip that-in-consideration of the circumstances-Ville feels pretty consequences.

When Celtics returns to TD Garden, they face Rockets and Bulls on Monday and Wednesday respectively.

We’ll get more takeaways soon.