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Lakers Highlights: LA Outclassed By Boston Starters In Christmas Defeat

What is Darvin Ham thinking with this starting five?

Alex Kirschenbaum

Lakers Highlights: LA Outclassed By Boston Starters In Christmas Defeat
Lakers Highlights: LA Outclassed By Boston Starters In Christmas Defeat /
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For the first time since 2008, your Los Angeles Lakers squared off against the Boston Celtics for a Christmas Day encounter.

Unlike that 92-82 Los Angeles victory 15 years ago (fueled by Kobe Bryant's 27 points, nine boards and five dimes), this one didn't end quite as favorably, in part because an incredibly silly, incredibly avoidable rotation decision from Lakers head coach Darvin Ham.

With a shooting-averse starting five of LeBron James at the point, Taurean Prince at shooting guard, Cam Reddish at small forward, Jarred Vanderbilt at power forward, and Anthony Davis at center, the Lakers couldn't buy a bucket early. LA got off to a 12-0 start because Boston went under everything and packed the paint. 

Ham had to call a timeout, and he subbed in both Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura to stabilize things quicker than normal.

Davis was LA's MVP in the loss, helping the team recover from a double-digit first quarter deficit to knot the contest (temporarily) at 52-52 late in the second frame.

With his colleagues missing point-blank tip-in attempts, Davis did yeoman's work cleaning the glass around the rim:

Ham leaned heavily on a lineup of Reaves/Reddish/James/Hachimura/Davis during the Lakers' massive second quarter rally, and for good reason! It was a nice combination of offense and defense, and though the team ceded a bit of wing insurance, it compensated for that loss with more creation (Reaves) and better shooting (Reaves and Hachimura).

The flow of the offense was just noticeably better with these five, specifically, on the floor:

Taurean Prince's defense and three-point shooting again proved useful, and I for one would like to see the five I mentioned with TP swapped in for Reddish, who can't hit the broad side of a barn from deep:

For the game, Prince scored 17 points overall on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor (5-of-12 from long range), grabbed four rebounds, passed for three assists and stealing one ball.

A collision between James and Celtics All-Star wing Jaylen Brown left both players down on the hardwood for a time, and while Brown would go to the Celtics' locker room, he did eventually return to the game.

LA burned (and lost) its coach's challenge in the late first half, when LeBron James urged Darvin Ham to dispute a charge.

Things stayed fairly competitive until midway through the fourth quarter, when Boston permanently eked out a double-figure advantage Los Angeles just couldn't shake.

Davis notched his 10th 30+ point game of the year this season. Specifically, he scored 40 points on 15-of-26 shooting, grabbing 13 rebounds, dishing out four dimes and blocking one shot.

Only two other Lakers starters, James (16 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from the foul line) and Taurean Prince (17 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor, including 5-of-12 shooting from long range), scored in (efficient) double figures.

Center Kristaps Porzingis paced Boston with 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from the foul line and 11 rebounds, along with two assists, two blocks and a steal. Every Celtics starter scored at least 18 points, three at or above 50% shooting from the field. All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday led Boston in efficiency with his insane 7-of-10 shooting from the field (including 3-of-5 from deep), while also chipping in seven rebounds, seven assists, a steal and a block. His backcourt mate Derrick White continued to make his bid for fringe All-Star contention with a masterful 18-point, 11-assist double-double, while registering the best plus-minus in the game (+16, tied only with Porzingis).

A sixth Celtics player, reserve point guard Payton Pritchard, notched double-digit points (10 on 4-of-8 shooting) in just 12:43.

Boston outflanked Los Angeles with significant edges in paint scoring (58-50) and fast break points (23-14). Other margins were fairly similar, although the Lakers' bench far outflanked the Celtics', outscoring them 31-18. That's in part because, you know, Lakers reserve guard Austin Reaves should pretty obviously be starting.

As Jovan Buha of The Athletic notes, Darvin Ham's efforts to go defense-first against an actually-balanced first five has been horrific so far, through its first two games together:

This is ridiculous. This cannot stand. Boston exposed LA, badly, with a lethal top six that absolutely ran roughshod over the team.

The final margin may have been 126-115, but this game never really felt like it was the Lakers' to control.

With the loss, LA drops to a bummer of a 16-15 record on the year, while Boston improves to a league-best 23-6. These are two teams that, for now at least, seem to be headed in drastically different directions for 2023-24.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Basketball is Alex's favorite sport, he likes the way they dribble up and down the court.

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