Rui Hachimura hit Jayson Tatum in the chest from above the three-point line, sending the Lakers wing to the floor. Tatum jumped on top of him when the Celtics were down 77–71 after a poor first-half performance that made the crowd even more angry because LeBron James and Anthony Davis missed a big game for the Lakers. It was a brief burst of energy in a new low point for Boston.
The Celtics came in healthy, except for Luke Kornet, who hurt his hamstring. However, they didn’t play very well in the first half, which had 11 mistakes.
“Win the match. That’s how I see it. “Our guys are free,” Joe Mazzulla said before the game.
After a 5-0 run by LA to end the second quarter, LA was down 14 points, so Mazzulla took out some of his other players, including Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, and Jrue Holiday, three minutes into the third. He didn’t use his timeout until later, but he did use one right away at the start of the fourth when Taurean Prince and D’Angelo Russell scored two easy transition runs, ending a good 4-0 start to the game. The Lakers shocked Boston by beating them 114–105 and keeping their double-digit lead for most of the game.
Along with Russell, Austin Reaves took over the offense for the Lakers. He scored 11 points in the first quarter and made three of the team’s five three-point shots. The LA team usually has trouble shooting, so the 13-for-25 (52% shooting) in the first half was a big change. In January, Boston didn’t turn the ball over very often. The Lakers’ early shots were helped by nine mistakes in the first quarter, but timely turnovers in wins over the Pelicans and Pacers hinted at Thursday’s flood. Both Porzingis and Brown lost the ball three times in the first quarter, which was their worst game of the season. In the end, they had six of Boston’s fifteen, with Holiday adding four more.
Tatum fought Hachimura for the ball and made two three-pointers, a layup, and a pass to Sam Hauser as part of a bench shooting burst in the middle of the third quarter that cut the Lakers’ 14-point lead to six points. There was some hope that Tatum’s shooting would improve and change the outcome. The Lakers never stopped, though, and the Celtics missed six shots in the paint, which helped them get ahead early. The Lakers scored 21 points on the fast break, while Boston only scored 17 points. As the fourth quarter began, the Celtics were only four points behind the lead, which made fans very angry.
The Lakers only gave Boston three free throws in the middle of the fourth quarter. This was because Porzingis caused the Celtics’ 13th mistake, which was then turned into a Hachimura three as LA kept moving the ball inside and outside. Boston had a hard time matching up on the break, and their offense kept making bad reads at the rim. Brown seemed to break out of his free throw shooting slump with one, but Darvin Ham was able to challenge Hachimura’s foul at the rim and make Brown miss again. On the night the NBA named him an all-star reserve, he went 4 for 12 (0-3 3PT) and made his third start. They stayed ahead by 10 points.
Soon after, Reaves scored 30 points with a pull-up jumper, and Russell had 14 assists with a pass to Hachimura for three points during another slow Boston cycle. Russell and Holiday were shocked when the calls went against Boston again. Reaves made another basket at the free throw line to make it 26-7, and the Celtics missed his second shot, which went out of bounds. The Lakers scored on three of their next four plays, and Mazzulla had enough. With 2:01 left, he took all 13 players off the bench.