LOS ANGELES — The Celtics, for all their faults Tuesday, at least made the middle of the fourth quarter interesting. The Lakers had sprinted ahead in the third quarter, building a comfortable lead as they kept the Celtics at an arm’s length away.
But the shorthanded Celtics couldn’t ever piece together a real comeback attempt. With about five minutes left in the game, Boston coach Ime Udoka pulled his starters as a clear sign they were throwing the towel. The Celtics fell 117-102 on Tuesday at Staples Center as part of an incomplete effort.
Udoka said part of that decision comes from the back-to-back as the Celtics play the Clippers at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. But he added there was another reason he pulled the starters.
“Obviously, the back-to-back played into it, but that unit, there was no spark there,” Udoka said. “... It was just a feel that there wasn’t much there offensively. Defensively all night that was the case, but it wasn’t like we were scoring great with that group anyway, so we wanted a spark there, but the back-to-back did play into it.”
The Celtics halted their momentum from recent weeks, struggling offensively while featuring a leaky defense. To the Lakers’ credit, LeBron James said he feels they played one of their best games of the season — that looked like the case Tuesday.
After a red-hot start from Jayson Tatum, the Celtics’ offense fizzled as the Lakers forced them out of their game plan. Udoka said they slowly transformed from an efficient offense to one that relied too heavily on isolation plays, which is what the Lakers were looking to do.
“We want quick decisions — especially against a team that’s going to switch a lot,” Udoka said. “We got a little stagnant there so other than a few times we actually attacked and got what we wanted at the basket or kickouts, felt like we stopped it and played a little bit of iso ball, got a little too stagnant there.”
The lone Celtic with consistent offensive rhythm Tuesday was Tatum, who finished with 34 points on 13-for-22 shooting. He had the perfect start when he scored 14 points in roughly four minutes and announced his presence.
Otherwise, it was an inefficient night for a Celtics offense that had been trending up. And that’s where the issues permeated: The Celtics looked like they backtracked. Part of that was because of the Lakers’ defense, but the shotmaking disappeared after the first quarter as the Celtics were blown out.
“This may be the second time all season I think that we didn’t necessarily play harder than the other team,” Tatum said. “And I think it was kind of an ugly game on our part on both ends. We just didn’t have that same pop and that’s the toughest part about it.”
Of course, Tuesday is just one data point of 82 games in a long season. The Celtics have a brutal December schedule, but all Tuesday’s loss did was drop them to a 2-2 mark in the month.
The Celtics built plenty of positive momentum in the past few weeks, bouncing back from a 2-5 start where they looked like they were going to implode. The drama has subsided, and there hasn’t been any call-outs despite some struggles.
Luckily, too, Boston has a chance to bounce back immediately with a game against the Clippers. While Kawhi Leonard is still out, Paul George has impressed in recent games as part of what should be a tough game for the Celtics.
“I told the guys: A blip on the radar, but we need to get back to it (Wednesday) and we got a chance to,” Udoka said. “... So we said obviously we’re better than that defensively, we’ve shown that. The effort and lack of toughness showed a little bit tonight.”