The Boston Celtics swept the season series against the Los Angeles Lakers with a dominant 111-89 win at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. Lakers legend James Worthy was in attendance for this game, and he ripped the players on Spectrum SportsNet afterward.
“This game to me wasn’t about stats and rebounds and all that,” Worthy said. “All that is the norm. No heart. Weak. No heart, weak. And it’s post-All-Star, and we talked about what they needed to do before All-Star. I think they didn’t achieve what they wanted to there. So now you get a break, and they come back. Clipper game. Okay, that was a tough game; they won. But this afternoon was weak.
“It’s the Boston Celtics,” Worthy stated. “No [Jayson] Tatum, you’re at home, you’re in fifth place, you’re trying to move up. You show no really, to me, no respect for the uniform when you come out, and you get outrebounded, offensive rebound after offensive rebound. [Payton] Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, you can sniff out weakness.
“When you do that, you can just dominate,” Worthy continued. “That’s what they did… [The Lakers] got to decide who they want to be because right now, I’m not sure. They’re a good team, I’m not taking that away from them. They’re a good team, they got a lot of offensive power… Just to come out like that at home with no [effort], it was just tough to watch.”
Worthy was at the game along with Lakers icons such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. They had all made the trip because their former head coach, Pat Riley, was to be honored with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. An emotional ceremony was held at halftime as well, and the players, unfortunately, weren’t able to mark the occasion with a great performance.
The Celtics led 60-50 at the half and then just ran away from the hosts in the fourth quarter. The Lakers had been crushed 126-105 in the first meeting between these two on Dec. 5 as well, but they had an excuse back then.
Luka Doncic and LeBron James were both out that night, but they were available here. The Lakers were almost at full strength, an injury to Jaxson Hayes during the game aside, and still got blown away.
Jaylen Brown led the way for the Celtics with 32 points (10-28 FG), eight rebounds, seven assists, and three steals on the night. Payton Pritchard also racked up 30 points (10-14 FG), four rebounds, and eight assists. They outplayed the Lakers’ Big 3.
Doncic, James, and Austin Reaves were nowhere near their best. They combined for 60 points on 20-53 (41.5%) shooting from the field.
The supporting cast didn’t fare much better, and head coach JJ Redick was very critical of the Lakers’ offense on the night. Redick wasn’t happy about the officiating either, and while the officials did make some poor calls, that wasn’t what cost them the game. They just weren’t good enough.
The Lakers dropped to 34-22 with this loss and are now 1-1 after the All-Star break. They’ll take on the Orlando Magic next at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10:30 PM ET.
