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Lakers blog ~ The latest on L.A. Lakers news, by the Orange County Register Sports staff
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Talking points on losing Lakers »

Celtics 110, Lakers 91

December 30th, 2007, 9:45 pm · 2 Comments · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM

LOS ANGELES – Phil Jackson, who coached the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls to a 72-10 record, offered a reality check for the NBA-leading Boston Celtics before the game Sunday night. Jackson reminded how Dallas last season and Detroit the season before that drew early notice as potential 72-victory teams before tapering off and ultimately not even winning championships.

Fair enough, except the Celtics then went out and knocked all the fanciful feeling out of Jackson’s heretofore surging Lakers. Kobe Bryant (22 points) shot 6 of 25 from the field, and the Lakers shot their season worst from the field (35.4 percent).

The Lakers looked a lot like last season’s team that cooled after a nice start: not quite healthy, not united enough on defense to protect the paint, overly weighted toward Bryant on offense and entirely lacking the sort of poise and focus that were hallmarks of Jackson’s most glorious teams.

With 2:57 to play Lakers forward Lamar Odom had a layup blocked by Kevin Garnett and then went running at Boston’s Ray Allen. Odom crashed into Allen with a lowered right shoulder for a flagrant foul; Allen was assessed a technical foul on the play.

Jackson came in tied with Boston coaching legend Red Auerbach (938) for seventh-most victories on the NBA’s all-time coaching chart. But Boston’s domination halted the Lakers’ run of 10 victories in 12 games.

QUOTABLE

Former Lakers vice president Jerry West told The Boston Globe about Kobe Bryant: “He’s not going to be traded, period.”

ANKLE WOES

Luke Walton (sprained right ankle) and Sasha Vujacic (sprained left ankle) both played but were tentative. Vujacic got an early call as the first sub as he tried to stay warm from the pregame session, but he couldn’t stay with Tony Allen – prompting Javaris Crittenton to get a chance.

OFF THE MARK

Referee Mark Ayotte had a rough game, getting earfuls from reps on both sides most of the first half. One of the many technical fouls called was on Kwame Brown in the third quarter for bumping Ayotte.

NEXT

Philadelphia at Lakers, 7:30 p.m. Friday, FSN, KLAC/570

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Posted in: 2007-08 • Game reports |

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2 Responses to “Celtics 110, Lakers 91”

  1. Jerry Hillius, Mission Viejo Says:
    December 30th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    After viewing the Celtic’s blowout win over the Lakers, it was good to see that “teamwork” still triumphs over “individualism”.

  2. The All-Seeing Eye Says:
    December 31st, 2007 at 9:07 am

    The Celtics are built for today, and are awesome. The Lakers are being built for tomorrow, and are rapidly improving. The future wars will be fought between the Lakers and the Portland Trailblazers, long after the likes of Shaq and Garnett have retired…
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