Lakers player grades: L.A. gets completely outplayed by Celtics
· Yahoo Sports
The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Boston Celtics on Sunday just after honoring legendary coach Pat Riley with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena. Riley guided the Showtime Lakers past the Celtics in the NBA Finals for the first time in 1985 and once more in 1987, and the hope was that the leftover magic pixie dust from that era would rub off on this season's iteration of the Purple and Gold.
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But the 1980s ended a long time ago. Today's Lakers are a college squad compared to those Showtime squads, and the surprising Celtics, who came in with a 36-19 record, completely dictated the pace and tone of this game.
A 12-4 run late in the second quarter allowed the Celtics to take a 60-50 halftime lead, and Los Angeles never recovered. L.A. had trouble hitting shots all day, and its offense seemed to be functioning in slow motion, while the Celtics moved the ball around with purpose. They had 29 assists compared to 18 for L.A., and L.A. shot just 39.1% from the field and 30% from 3-point range.
Guard Payton Pritchard lit up the Lakers with 30 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 from downtown, to go along with eight assists. The Lakers got outrebounded by 11, which illustrated how much more intense and aggressive Boston was.
Their 111-89 loss dropped their record to 34-22 and dropped them into sixth place in the Western Conference. They are, however, still just one game behind the third-place Denver Nuggets in the standings.
Marcus Smart: D-minus/D
Smart had four assists and no turnovers in 22 minutes, but he put up a bagel offensively. He missed all seven of his shot attempts and all five of his 3-point tries, and even though he wasn't hitting, he kept firing from long range early in the fourth quarter until coach JJ Redick replaced him with Luke Kennard.
Deandre Ayton: D
The Lakers needed a lot more from Ayton in this game. While he grabbed a decent seven rebounds in 25 minutes, he scored just four points on 2-of-6 shooting. He allowed Neemias Queta, Boston's starting center, to grab 12 rebounds in 26 minutes, while backup center Nikola Vučević had eight boards in 21 minutes.
Austin Reaves: D
Reaves simply couldn't get into a good rhythm in this game. He wasn't able to attack the basket off the dribble with regularity, and he wasn't hitting from long range. He ended up shooting 4-of-10 overall and 1-of-4 from beyond the arc, and the only area in which he was effective offensively was getting to the free throw line, where he made six of seven attempts.
He finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block.
LeBron James: C
James made his first three shot attempts of this game, but he missed each of his next five. He missed a few shots near the rim, and he had two layup attempts blocked by Queta. He started to attack the basket more in the third quarter, but he didn't make his usual impact on this game.
He ended up with 20 points on 9-of-21 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 from 3-point land, four rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block in 34 minutes.
Luka Doncic: C-minus
Doncic was another Lakers player who was out of rhythm in this game. The Celtics made him slow down and think while often making him play in a crowd when he got into or near the paint, much as they did during the 2024 NBA Finals when they defeated his Dallas Mavericks.
He shot 9-of-22 overall and 3-of-6 from the free throw line and was held to 25 points, five rebounds and three assists. He did manage to hit four of his seven 3-point attempts, and for all the criticism Doncic gets about his lack of defensive prowess, he actually played plenty of good defense in this game. He did a good job of staying in front of his man and displayed a relatively high level of energy and effort on that end of the floor.
Jake LaRavia: C-minus
LaRavia showed good defensive effort and energy, but he was very quiet offensively. Despite playing 24 minutes, he attempted just two shots, both of which he made. He finished with four points, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block.
Luke Kennard: C
While Kennard hit three of his four shot attempts and scored nine points in 22 minutes, two of his made field goals came during garbage time. He needs to be more aggressive looking for his shot, and Redick needs to involve him more in the offense.
Kennard also got three rebounds and came up with one steal.
Rui Hachimura: D
Hachimura wasn't involved much in the offense in his sweet spots, and when he did look to get himself involved, he was off. He shot 2-of-7 overall and 1-of-4 from 3-point range, and in 21 minutes, he finished with five points and two rebounds.
Jarred Vanderbilt: B-minus
Vanderbilt showed good energy and looked to apply defensive pressure in the backcourt. He came up with five rebounds and scored three points by hitting a trey, which was the only one of his three shot attempts that he made.
However, on one play early in the game, he got his ankles broken by Pritchard when Pritchard drove, backed up, caused Vanderbilt to lose his footing and drained a 3-pointer.
Jaxson Hayes, Dalton Knecht, Maxi Kleber, Kobe Bufkin: Incomplete
Hayes played just five minutes due to an ankle ailment that kept him out for the rest of the game. He had two points and one rebound.
Knecht, Kleber and Bufkin each played the 3:22 of this game. Knecht and Kleber went scoreless, and Knecht had one rebound while Kleber had one assist. Bufkin scored on a runner from mid-range for his only statistical contribution.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers player grades: L.A. gets completely outplayed by Celtics