By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Another dramatic chapter was written in the long, storied history of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics‘ rivalry. The Celtics won 122-118 in overtime in a game Boston appeared to have no business losing — then no business winning after a wild comeback by L.A.
Boston, led by Jayson Tatum’s 44 points, outscored L.A. 12-8 in the extra period to pull out the victory.
“That game just says a lot about our experience and mental toughness,” said Jaylen Brown, who added five of his 25 points in overtime. “That’s a tough and perfect way to close out our road trip.”
The Lakers trailed the Celtics by as many as 20 points in the third quarter but used an 18-0 run through the end of the third to the beginning of the fourth to take control, going ahead by as many as 13 with 4:25 remaining in regulation.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” LeBron James said. “We didn’t close it out. But loved our effort. I loved our tenacity in the second half and put ourselves in a position to win a ballgame playing against a great team.”
L.A. seemingly had a chance to seal the win with Anthony Davis at the line with 28 seconds left and up by two points, but Davis — who was 11-for-13 on free throws on the night at the time — missed them both.
“I haven’t thought about the rest of the game,” a crestfallen Davis said after the loss. “Make two free throws, go up four, different ballgame. To me, the rest doesn’t matter. Had a chance to ice the game and missed both.”
The misses set up a tying pull-up jumper by Tatum with 17.1 seconds remaining. L.A. then worked the clock down to get James a potential winner at the buzzer, but his 3-point attempt didn’t go down.