The Los Angeles Lakers looked to stay undefeated in the Las Vegas Summer League, taking on the rival Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, despite the Celtics being far less talented at 0-2, they came out on top with a 95-90 victory to put L.A.’s championship hopes to rest.
It was all Lakers at the start as their young nucleus of Max Christie, Jalen Hood-Schifino, D’Moi Hodge, Cole Swider and Colin Castleton came out firing.
Christie has been making his case for MVP of the tournament, and that continued as he had 11 points in the first quarter. He knocked down a triple while Hodge knocked down three from deep and Swider completed a four-point play.
The Lakers jumped out to an 11-3 lead early and led 28-19 at the end of one after Celtics guard Jay Scrubb beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer.
Damion Baugh came off the bench and made an immediate impact to begin the second quarter with five quick points to get the Lakers’ lead back to double digits.
After a 6-0 run by the Celtics, Swider got hot again from beyond the arc with six straight of his own. Hood-Schifino also got going with five straight point, and then Hodge drilled another triple.
The Lakers’ halftime lead was back to 10 at 53-43 after another Celtics buzzer-beater, and then Boston scored seven straight to begin the third quarter. Celtics second-round pick Jordan Walsh was showing why he’s so highly-touted by getting it done on both ends of the floor. Boston took its first lead at 60-58 after he capped off a big run with a triple.
Christie and Hodge helped get the Lakers settled back in with back-to-back buckets, and then Castleton got in on the action with a three-point play.
The Lakers found themselves trailing 73-70 after yet another buzzer-beater by the Celtics to end the third quarter, this time with Olek Balcerowski completing a three-point play of his own.
Boston continued to steal the momentum to begin the fourth, building an eight-point lead before Christie came up with a steal and found Hood-Schifino for an and-one.
Hood-Schifino was attacking the basket at will, but he missed a couple easy ones so the Lakers were never able to get over the hump. Christie made a layup to get L.A. within five, but the lack of ability to get stops ultimately resulted in a Boston win.
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