Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown dominate Lakers: Four Reasons Celtics Won & Player Grades

The Celtics progressively built their lead, starting in the second quarter, until Payton Pritchard blew the game open in the fourth quarter. Boston gets their third straight win, and eighth in nine tries, 111-89.

Box Score

Game Flow

The first half was pretty even, but the Celtics could have done more damage if Derrick White (1-5) and Jaylen Brown (3-8) shot a little better. The teams traded runs in the back half of the quarter, with the Celtics using a lot of Nikola Vucevic in the post to keep things close. White woke up in the second quarter, but it belonged to Payton Pritchard, who scored 11 and hit deep three-pointers to beat a shot clock and the end of quarter buzzer. Boston led by 10 at halftime. Brown and Pritchard owned the second half, with Brown scoring 11 in the third and Pritchard scoring 11 in the fourth.

Here are four reasons why the Celtics won the game.

Pritchard’s roll continued

Pritchard was born to be a sixth man. He had an incredible shooting night, going 10-14 (71.4%) from the field, 6-9 (66.6%) from three and 4-4 from the line. He also added eight assists.

In seven games off the bench, Pritchard is now up to 23.6 points per game on 54.4% shooting.

When the Lakers made a push at the start of the fourth to cut the lead to nine, Pritchard answered with six-straight points, with two buckets coming from his sweet spot about 12-14 feet from the hoop. Those turnaround fadeaways are money.

Jaylen Brown settled down in the second half

He had a tough first half from the field, going into halftime shooting just 3-12. He was 7-10 from the line, though, so he still managed 13 points, but he was more efficient in the second half. He scored 19 in the second half on 7-16 shooting to join Pritchard, who also scored 19 after the break. In fact, they combined for 38 of Boston’s 51 second-half points. No one else scored more than four.

Boston defended really well

One of the stats of the game was Luka Doncic’s three assists. The Celtics guarded him well, taking away his passing lanes and daring him to score on Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez. A lot of Doncic’s shots were fadeaways in the post, which I loved.

He wasn’t drilling threes and he wasn’t getting his teammates going.

A second stat of the game was Austin Reaves having just nine points at halftime. The Lakers aren’t beating anyone like that.

The Celtics didn’t foul

The Lakers lead the league with 26.7 free throws per game, but they only took 18 in this game. They average 20.5 points per game from the line, but they only scored 12 in this game.

The Lakes NEED to get to the line to win. They didn’t on Sunday.

Player grades

Payton Pritchard: A+

The buzzer beaters, the clutch shots, and a little bit of defense all lead to Pritchard being a game-high +21.

Jaylen Brown: A-

He gets dinged for the efficiency (10-28 shooting) and the turnovers (five). He redeemed himself by shooting 9-12 from the line after a slow start. He also had eight rebounds, seven assists, and three steals.

Baylor Scheierman: A-

Phenomenal job defensively. I thought he was great on Doncic for most of the night. The deduction comes from his 1-4 night from three.

Neemias Queta: B+

He was a stud defensively, blocking three shots and grabbing 12 rebounds. I do think there were stretches offensively where he was in the way. There's a reason why the offense took off when Nikola Vucevic was on the floor, but Queta was great defensively.

Nikola Vucevic: B+

A yin/yang night with Queta. The offense was really good with him on the floor but the defense was meh. Boston went to him early and stopped some Lakers momentum with his post-ups. He did grab eight rebounds and he had one nice steal.

Sam Hauser: B-

One thing I hated about this game was how the Celtics never went back to Hauser after two early shots fell for him. They could have made things easier on themselves by getting him more involved. Still, he did a decent job on the boards and doing other things .

Derrick White: B-

Obviously still a phenomenal defender, but 5-13 shooting isn’t going to cut it. He did have eight assists and five rebounds, and he made a ton of great hustle plays. He just needs to hit shots. .

Hugo Gonzalez: C+

He actually defended Doncic well in stretches and he also made some great hustle plays, but he also fouled too much. He fell into a couple of Doncic traps, which probably won’t happen much longer. For now, though, he got a little bit of the rookie treatment.

Boston’s next game is Tuesday night in Phoenix