Rivalries still matter in sports, especially for the Los Angeles Lakers as they’re part of arguably the most famous one in all of sports with the Boston Celtics.
The Lakers and Celtics are regarded as the gold standard of the league as the franchises have combined for 35 championships. NBA history is littered with title matchups between Los Angeles and Boston, producing some of the best Finals ever.
On the day the purple and gold paid homage to Pat Riley with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers squared off against the Celtics. While the first quarter was a draw, Boston dominated the rest of the way and left Los Angeles licking their wounds after a 111-89 throttling.
Normally the team’s defense is to blame for a loss, but this time around it was the offense that wasn’t up to standard. Head coach JJ Redick emphasized L.A.’s offensive execution was nowhere near good enough to beat Boston.
“I think going against this team and their offense. Made the subs at 3:22 in the fourth quarter. They’ve got 105 points and they’re 12-for-32 from three, and they’re shooting 47%. We did a good job limiting their fast break points [and] did a good job limiting their points in the paint under 50. So, we did enough defensively. We were just awful offensively tonight,” Redick said.
As for what actually happened on the floor, Redick felt the Lakers settled too many times and failed to move the basketball to the open man.
“Yeah, there were opportunities, I think, to put more pressure on the rim,” he added. “Particularly in the first half. We took 11 non-paint twos. We were 13-for-29 on paint twos, non-rim paint twos. That’s not normally what we shoot. And then [we] got some good looks from three; we didn’t knock them down. So just, you gotta make shots in this league. [We] took care of the basketball.
“Now the one thing, I think a lot of times when teams are on that deeper draw versus all our guys that play pick-and-roll, it kind of puts you a little bit in a bind of not having the obvious choice to pass, if that makes sense. So, we’ve just gotta do a better job of just, finding guys and moving the ball.”
The Lakers’ offensive woes start with the stars as Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves shot just 22-of-53 from the field. Reaves, in particular, struggled as he had just 15 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the floor.
The rest of the supporting cast offered little help as no one could find much to operate against Boston’s defense. Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart combined for four points, with the latter going scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting. Meanwhile, the bench was also almost non-existent save for Luke Kennard who had nine points.
Los Angeles has struggled throughout the 2025-26 season against title contenders, a concerning sign for a team that still thinks it has a shot to win a championship. Redick and the rest of the coaching staff will need to find ways to get the offense back on track come Tuesday against the Orlando Magic.
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