With fans quickly losing patience, and pressure mounting, the 12-12 Lakers desperately needed a win on Tuesday, in a classic showdown against the Boston Celtics.
Despite some early resistance by the boys in green, the Lakers pulled away with a pretty decisive win, beating Boston by 15 points for their 13th victory of the season.
The game was one of the few times each member of the big three played their best. Russell Westbrook dropped 24 points and 11 assists, LeBron James scored 30 points on 68% shooting, and Anthony Davis had 16 rebounds to go along with his 17 points.
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1468454172030693378
After the final buzzer, LeBron James recognized how good his team looked in this one, calling it one of their best games of the season.
LeBron James described LA’s win over the Celtics tonight as “one of the best games of the season” for the Lakers.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) December 8, 2021
All year long, the community has been hard at work trying to identify what is wrong with this Lakes team. On paper, they look almost unbeatable. In reality, they’ve been a disorganized mess.
On TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA,’ Charles Barkley even went so far as to point the finger at Anthony Davis:
“Now y’all really crossed the line cause I really like Frank Vogel. Listen, I blame Anthony Davis,” said Chuck. “Anthony Davis you know I like you as a person but you ain’t doing what you’re supposed to do. You’re 27 years old, you’re supposed to be in your prime. You’re supposed to be one of the five best players in the world up there with Giannis, Kevin Durant, and those guys and you ain’t holding up your end of the bargain. And now I hear y’all going to fire the coach? That’s total BS man.”
Needless to say, the Lakers proved tonight that the LeBron/Davis/Westbrook trio can work under the right circumstances. Now, it’s just a matter of sustaining that play for the rest of the season.
We’ll see soon enough if they have what it takes, but LeBron James doesn’t seem to be too worried at all about what is to come for his squad. He’s been in this position before, after all.
