Four Takeaways From The Lakers' 139-107 Loss To Boston
The Lakers opened Monday's game against the Boston Celtics with an 8-0 run that included JaVale McGee making an alley oop dunk off an assist from LeBron James, Danny Green making a four-point play after being fouled on a made three-pointer and Anthony Davis making a jam.
It was downhill from there.
The Lakers fell to the Celtics, 139-107 in their biggest loss this season. Before Monday's 32-point drubbing, the Lakers' biggest margin of defeat this season was 24 points against Denver on Dec. 22 without LeBron James.
Here are our four takeaways from Monday's game.
1. Not the return Davis wanted
Davis returned Monday after missing five-straight games because of a gluteus maximus contusion that he sustained during a hard fall against New York on Jan. 7.
Davis finished with nine points on three-for-seven shooting, four rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots, two turnovers and five fouls in 22 minutes.
That's quite a bit of rust for a guy who averages 27.1 points and 9.4 rebounds in 35.2 minutes a game.
Lakers' coach Frank Vogel said before the game that he only wanted Davis to play 28 minutes. But with the Lakers trailing by as much as 34 points, Davis got even more rest than expected.
It definitely wasn't the welcome back Davis had hoped for, especially considering the Lakers had won 10 of their last 11 games, including four of their last five without him.
2. Kemba Walker finally did it
Walker entered Monday's game 0-28 against James.
Forget the Celtics, Walker was the true winner of the evening, finally notching his first career victory over a James-led team.
Walker finished with 20 points on eight-for-13 shooting, four rebounds, seven assists and a bit of saved pride in the Celtics' win. Up until Monday, Walker was 0-15 against James' Miami teams and 0-13 against his Cleveland teams.
James, meanwhile, had 15 points, seven rebounds and 13 assists, seven of which he had in the first quarter.
3. The Lakers were killed by the three-point shot and second-chance points
The Celtics were 16-for-34 (47.1 percent) from beyond the three-point line, while the Lakers were seven-for-26 (26.9 percent).
Five Celtics players scored in double digits, three of whom had least 20 points, including Walker, Jayson Tatum (27 points) and Jaylen Brown (20 points).
No one on the Lakers scored 20 points. The Lakers's highest scorer was McGee, who had 18 points on seven-for-nine shooting.
The Lakers were outscored in second-chance points, 20-9. Enes Kanter had 18 points and 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. Overall, the Lakers were outrebounded, 48-36.
4. The Lakers don't get a break
So much for getting much of a chance to regroup after this loss.
The Lakers, who are in the midst of a five-game trip, will have a back-to-back against New York and Brooklyn on Wednesday and Thursday.
After falling to the Celtics, the Lakers have lost to four of the top five teams in the East, excluding Miami. (They also suffered losses to Milwaukee, Toronto and Indiana.)
