The Los Angeles Lakers honored a franchise legend on Sunday afternoon when they unveiled the statue of former head coach Pat Riley in a private ceremony.
The best way to honor Riley though would be by beating the rival Boston Celtics, and they had a chance to do exactly that. Unfortunately though, the Celtics were the more aggressive team and were able to leave Los Angeles with a 111-89 victory.
LeBron James was looking spry early as he had the first four points of the game to get the Lakers off to a quick start. The Celtics were hot from deep early, but Luka Doncic also hit a pair of his own to match them.
Offense slowed down to end the first quarter as both teams were playing sloppy. Austin Reaves drew a foul to beat the buzzer, tying the game at 28 going into the second.
Jarred Vanderbilt was playing hard to start the second quarter, drawing a charge and then hitting a 3-pointer to regain the lead.
The Lakers were frustrated with the officiating as Reaves and Marcus Smart both picked up technicals after the latter was called for a foul despite being elbowed in the face by Jaylen Brown. That led to a 7-0 run by the Celtics before Doncic scored to end it.
Much like the end of the first, the second quarter was a rock fight with the officials letting them play super physical. The Lakers weren’t really able to adjust to that and the Celtics took a 60-50 lead into the halftime locker room as a result.
After finally getting fully healthy for the first time all season, the Lakers ruled out Jaxson Hayes at halftime with a right ankle issue, putting them down a big man.
Not much changed in the third quarter as the Celtics kept up their physicality and the Lakers continued to struggle offensively. Boston also struggled for most of the quarter until Pritchard and Brown got hot late to give them an 84-71 lead going into the fourth.
The Lakers started to get something going offensively as back-to-back layups by James and Rui Hachimura got their deficit back to single digits. The comeback attempt was short-lived, however, as the Celtics immediately responded and the Lakers struggled to get open shots to go. Boston eventually built its lead back up, cruising to an easy win.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will be back in action on Tuesday night when they host the Orlando Magic before going on the road for division matchups with the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
