The Los Angeles Lakers went on an incredible run in the second half to nearly steal a win from the rival Boston Celtics, but collapsed late and lost 122-118 in overtime.
The Lakers trailed by 15 points at halftime and at one point faced a 20-point deficit in the third quarter. However, L.A. would catch a spark and score 18 unanswered to take their first lead of the game.
After coming all the way back, the Lakers had the tables turned on them as they squandered a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. Anthony Davis missed a pair of free throws that could’ve sealed the victory, then Jayson Tatum had his signature moment with a game-tying fadeaway jumper over LeBron James that sent the contest to overtime.
The Celtics scored 12 consecutive points in the extra period to secure the win and improve to an NBA-best 22-7. “I had one of our assistant coaches from our G League team give me a great quote,” Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said after the game.
“He said, you never become a good sailor in smooth waters. Because it always has to be, you know, you guiding the ship to storm after storm after storm. And then that’s when you really show your true mettle as a credible, you know, high-level sailor. And I believe in that wholeheartedly.
“And I gotta say I’m disappointed, but this is Year One. I mean, we’re coming up on what be 30 games in, we still have 55 games left to play. I’m not quitting anytime soon, my staff, and we’re not quitting anytime soon.
“So as much as it pains me that we we’ve lost these tough games. It’s also inspired me because we’re right there, and we’ve had it in our hands. I mean, we make three free throws, who knows what happened, but also, if we come out aside from that, and not have to depend on that, because we came out from the start of the game and pressed our will and play at a high level defensively consistently in play, you know, organized controlled basketball offensively, we’ll be okay, and we’re gonna get there man, you got to go through the bad to get to the good.
“I mean, it’s just that’s the science of life, whether you’re a business, basketball, whatever. You just got to go through the bad to get to the good, and I’m up for it. You know, I’m not gonna stop fighting me with my staff, our team, our organization; we’re just gonna fight through it to the point where we won’t be having these type of outcomes.”
While the Lakers are looking at the positives of their hard-fought loss to the Celtics, it came at a cost as Davis and James played 46 and 43 minutes, respectively. Ham tried to give them some much-needed rest by liberally using timeouts during the second half.
“Just strategically trying to wisely use our timeouts,” Ham said. “Give them breaks that way. It’s hard because you don’t want to; it’s two-fold … I mentioned it after the Detroit game, you have guys that are in a good rhythm together, so you don’t want to disrupt that, and on the flip side of that, you don’t want to put a player at risk because they’ve been sitting down over there on the bench for so long, and then you bring them out there and expect the intensity and the speed of the game is at such a level where it’s very easy to get hurt in a situation like that.
“Just trying to manage the timeouts. I could’ve done a better job in certain instances and using my timeouts quicker, but you know, that falls on me. We got to get better in that regard, but I’m proud of my guys. I’m disappointed we lost. I’m proud of my guys. They competed all the way to the end, and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game. We just came up a little bit short.”
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