The Celtics used the vacation stage to state their case because the NBA’s finest crew and the favorites to win the 2024 title by instantly seizing management in opposition to their archrivals at Crypto.com Area. Boston improved its document to a league-best 23-6, flashing improved stability on the heels of a splashy offseason that included trades for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Vacation. All 5 Celtics starters scored in double figures, and so they put away the Lakers (16-15) with suffocating protection within the second half.
The brand new-and-improved Celtics, who rank third in offensive effectivity, fifth in defensive effectivity and second in level differential, have displayed better consistency because of the league’s most gifted beginning lineup. Boston can rating in quantity even when star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown wrestle from the sector as they did Monday, and its protection boasts measurement, athleticism, size and loads of postseason expertise.
“We anticipated to be good,” Tatum mentioned. “We all know what our final aim is. Everyone knows how one can play the sport. It was solely a matter of time for us jelling. We’ve been taking part in actually, very well. … We haven’t had a low-post presence like [Porzingis] since I’ve been on the Celtics. He creates so many issues [for opposing defenses].”
Monday was emblematic of Boston’s potential to seek out profitable counters and auxiliary choices. Going through persistent questions on its dependence on the three-point shot, the Celtics went 13 for 42 (31 %) from deep but nonetheless cruised to the win because of a diverse assault that utilized fixed stress to the Lakers’ inside protection and a defensive effort that held the Los Angeles supporting solid in test.
Porzingis, who completed with a team-high 28 factors and 11 rebounds, confirmed off his midrange sport and his potential to complete on the rim. Vacation added 18 factors, seven rebounds and 7 assists, and Derrick White posted 18 factors and 11 assists to go together with a number of key defensive stops down the stretch.
“We’re like a extremely highly effective engine,” Porzingis mentioned. “We simply have that margin. If the threes had been falling tonight, it might have been a plus-20 or plus-25 sport for us. … We’ve been beginning to run a bit extra, get out in transition extra. We’re much more harmful once we get out and run.”
Boston sought to spoil the centerpiece of the NBA’s Christmas quintuple-header as quickly because it began, racing to a 12-Zero lead within the first three minutes. Shifting the ball forward of a Lakers protection that was a step gradual, the Celtics prolonged their result in 18 factors earlier than the primary quarter ended.
“We got here again somewhat torpid,” Lakers Coach Darvin Ham mentioned, noting his crew had performed six of its earlier seven video games on the highway. “The entire Christmas circumstances of the vacation [and an] early sport, it took us somewhat time getting going. … Now we have a whole lot of work to do. It’s not a lot our stage of expertise or our competitors. We are able to’t skip the small print. We are able to’t get uninterested in the small print.”
Los Angeles pulled again into the competition throughout a second quarter marked by accidents and controversy. With 4 minutes left earlier than halftime, Brown stumbled close to midcourt as he tried to shake free for a go and was rear-ended by Lakers ahead LeBron James. The celebrities lay on the court docket facet by facet for an prolonged stretch; Brown favored his decrease again as James held his left knee. The scene introduced a hush to a festive constructing and conjured recollections of James’s groin damage in opposition to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas 2018.
James exited the sport however returned after a short respite; Brown left Boston’s bench space and sat out for the remainder of the half earlier than reentering to start out the third quarter.
Moments after the collision, James made it clear he was feeling no unwell results by hovering for a chase-down block of Tatum. To James’s dismay, he was whistled for a foul, prompting a coach’s problem. The referees dominated that James had cleanly blocked Tatum however that Lakers ahead Taurean Prince had dedicated a foul in the course of the sequence. The ruling put Tatum on the free throw line and prompted boos from the house crowd.
Regardless of the damage scare and the spotlight block that went for naught, the Lakers whittled the Celtics’ result in one at halftime and took their first lead when James made a leap hook shortly after the break.
Anthony Davis was the Lakers’ driving drive, posting a game-high 40 factors to go together with 13 rebounds and 4 assists. However the Lakers struggled to crack Boston’s switching protection because the Celtics reasserted themselves within the third quarter.
“They had been simply clicking on all cylinders,” Davis mentioned. “The turnovers [and] the transition sport harm us tonight. In opposition to a crew like that, the most effective crew within the league, they make you pay for it.”
Boston’s defensive scheme used Vacation and Brown to hound James whereas deploying the 7-foot-2 Porzingis close to the rim as a assist defender. Although Davis excelled, James completed with simply 16 factors, tied for his season low, to go together with 9 rebounds and eight assists. The four-time MVP checked out with almost three minutes remaining and the end in hand for Boston as Los Angeles fell to 2-6 since successful the inaugural in-season match.
“I don’t suppose we’re the place we wish to be to compete versus the highest groups till we proceed to get higher and higher,” James mentioned. “My knee is somewhat sore proper now. The most effective factor is that lastly the schedule is in our favor with two days earlier than we’ve got to play once more. Only a freak play proper there between me and Jaylen Brown — comfortable I used to be capable of stroll off underneath my energy.”
Elsewhere on Christmas, Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 38 factors to guide the New York Knicks to a 129-122 residence victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, avenging three head-to-head losses this season. Milwaukee stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard scored 32 factors apiece, however the Bucks, in all probability the most important risk to the Celtics within the Japanese Convention, had no solutions for Brunson and conceded 72 factors within the paint.
The Denver Nuggets held off the Golden State Warriors, 120-114, in a uneven and over-officiated contest by which Nikola Jokic and Stephen Curry struggled from the sector. Jamal Murray scored a game-high 28 factors, together with back-to-back clutch jumpers within the last 4 minutes, to carry Denver to its fifth straight win. Nonetheless, this wasn’t a signature efficiency for the defending champions, who enter Tuesday because the Western Convention’s No. 2 seed — two video games behind the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Miami Warmth constructed a 21-point lead and held off a Philadelphia 76ers comeback bid for a 119-113 residence win, however the contest lacked a lot relevance with headliners Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler sidelined with accidents. Warmth rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the best way with a game-high 31 factors, and 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey endured a 4-for-20 capturing night time.
Accidents to Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal took a few of the luster off the Dallas Mavericks’ 128-114 highway victory over the Phoenix Suns within the nightcap, although Luka Doncic turned in Christmas’s finest particular person efficiency. The four-time all-star, who beforehand authored an unimaginable second-round collection victory over the Suns in 2022, completed with 50 factors, six rebounds and 15 assists, singlehandedly outscoring Phoenix stars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker mixed. Doncic additionally reached 10,000 profession factors in his 358th sport, surpassing James (368) amongst lively gamers because the quickest to succeed in the scoring milestone.
Even so, Doncic’s fascinating exhibiting got here in opposition to the reeling Suns, who slipped beneath .500 with the loss. By the tip of an unexpectedly anticlimactic day of basketball, which suffered by comparability to the depth of the in-season match’s knockout spherical, Boston stood because the clear winner.
“A four-game highway journey on the West Coast presents completely different challenges,” Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla mentioned. “We got here out 3-1, and even in our loss we had been taking part in the appropriate model of basketball on each ends of the ground. It’s not all the time going to be excellent. We got here in with the theme of reinventing our offense so far as off-ball exercise and the power to execute. I believed we did that. I believed we maintained our defensive identification, too. This time of yr is about establishing our identification and sticking to it.”