Jaylen Brown matched his career high with 50 points and the Boston Celtics completed a successful West Coast swing with a 146-115 victory over the Clippers on Saturday night.
Brown had 19 points in the third quarter. Derrick White added 29 points and Anfernee Simons had 15 as the Celtics went 4-1 on the trip and 3-1 against Western Conference teams. Boston is 7-1 since Dec. 19.
Brown was 18 of 26 from the floor, while White went 10 of 20. Boston (22-12) shot 55.2% overall and 47.1% from three-point range. Brown and White combined to go 11 of 22 from long range.
Kawhi Leonard and John Collins each scored 22 points as the Clippers (12-22) saw their season-best, six-game winning streak end. Collins made his first eight shots and went nine of 10 from the floor.
Derrick Jones scored 19 points for the Clippers before leaving in the fourth quarter with an apparent right knee injury. James Harden had 18 points and 12 assists, and Ivica Zubac had four points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes after missing the previous five games with a sprained left ankle.
Brown put the game away with nine consecutive Celtics points for a 128-107 lead with 6:15 remaining. He scored inside in traffic with 3:56 remaining to reach 50 points.
The Lakers are still searching for an identity after 31 games, a task complicated by injuries that have depleted their rotation for much of the season.
They’re lacking a defensive personality. They haven’t been a physical team, an overly athletic team or a fast team.
The Lakers got a close look at a team that embodies all of those characteristics in a 128-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Coach JJ Redick acknowledged the Lakers are still trying to figure out who they are and how they can fix their issues after losing for the fourth time in five games.
Lakers star LeBron James is fouled by Detroit Pistons guard Javonte Green (31) in the first half Tuesday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“The players, staff, everybody, we’ve really tried to play the right way every night and have the right intent,” Redick said. “The flow of lineups and rotations and all that has been challenging for everybody, not just the coaches. It’s a challenge for the players. And building an identity is difficult.”
“I think that’s hard to figure out with this team right now.”
It’s been hard because starters Austin Reaves (calf) and Rui Hachimura (calf) are out. Key rotation player Gabe Vincent (back) is also out. In addition, LeBron James missed the first 14 games with sciatica.
The Lakers’ roster has been completely healthy for just two games this season.
“We got some very important guys out right now,” said James, who scored 17 points on his 41st birthday. “So that’s very hard to get a rhythm of chemistry on the floor with guys that you know you’re gonna play with every night. Guys you know are going to come in with the subs and patterns and things like that.
“But still no excuse. We still got to go out and execute and I think we did that tonight. I thought, like I said, the turnovers were too many pick-sixes, but we came in, we played hard, we executed. The better team tonight won.”
What the Lakers (20-11) haven’t done much all season is play defense at a high level.
That was the case against the Pistons (25-8), who shot 63% from the field and 46% from three-point range. They had 74 points in the paint, getting inside with ease. They also had 31 fast-break points. The Lakers had 21 turnovers, eight coming from Luka Doncic, who finished with 30 points and 11 assists.
“We’ve got to definitely match their physicality,” Doncic said. “That’s the whole point. We got to match how they play.”
The Lakers’ 11 losses have been by an average of 20.3 points per game.
The Lakers got better on defense in the third quarter. After giving up 36 points in the first quarter and 34 in the second, the Lakers gave up 26 in the third and were down 96-88.
But they fell apart in the fourth, giving up an 18-6 run that put them in a 20-point hole midway through the quarter. The Lakers turned the ball over six times during that stretch, leading Redick to call a timeout with six minutes remaining.
That still didn’t stop the Pistons from building a 26-point lead and coasting to victory.
“Yeah, I think we just let off of the rope a little bit,” Doncic said. “Like I said, I think we played good basketball for three quarters, physical basketball. We just kind of let go of the rope.”
Lakers guard Luka Doncic, right, inadvertently hits Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II (5) in the face after Holland steals the ball in the second half Tuesday night.
Leonard shot 16 for 23 from the field and four for five from long distance as the Clippers won consecutive games for just the second time this season. The Clippers were coming off a 103-88 win over the Lakers on Saturday that broke a five-game skid. The Clippers also won consecutive games Oct. 24-26, against Phoenix and Portland.
Harden, who shot seven for 14 from the field and three for eight from long distance, was helped by 12-for-13 shooting from the line.
John Collins and Kobe Sanders added 13 points apiece and Kris Dunn scored 11 for the Clippers (8-21), who shot 54% (20 for 37) from three-point range.
Kevin Durant scored 22 points on eight-for-15 shooting, and Alperen Sengun finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds for Houston (17-10), which was nine for 30 (30%) from long distance.
Amen Thompson added 19 points for Houston, and Jabari Smith Jr. scored 16 for the Rockets, who have lost four of their last five games.
The Clippers, who trailed by six points after one period, outscored Houston 34-23 in the second and led 63-58 at the break. The Rockets were helped by 10-for-22 shooting from three-point range in the first half. Leonard had 18 points on eight-for-12 shooting in the opening quarters and Harden scored 11.
Durant had 17 first-half points to lead the Rockets. Sengun scored 15 and Smith had 11.
Clipper Kris Dunn grabs Laker Maxi Kleber ‘s jersey in front of a ref Saturday at the Intuit Dome.
(Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
The Lakers have been assessed five technical fouls in the last two games because of conduct with officials as frustration over inconsistent calls is starting to boil over. After Doncic, Jaxson Hayes and Marcus Smart were all given technical fouls in the third quarter of Thursday’s win over Utah, Doncic and Smart were T’ed up again Saturday in the first and third quarters, respectively.
“I think if any coach, any player, what we ask for is consistency,” Redick said. “And that’s not to single any official out or any crew out, it’s not about that. We need to know what it is night to night.”
Smart also drew a technical foul against Utah after attempting to talk to an official at halftime. When Smart walked away frustrated, he raised his middle finger toward the official, a gesture that got him fined $35,000 Saturday, the NBA announced.
“Sometimes you got to take the hit to get your point across,” Smart said Saturday.
Redick expressed additional frustration with the lack of transparency in the replay system and murky communication with officials. He said he has not received any feedback when he requests it and the distinction between plays that can and can’t be challenged appears to change every night.
The lack of communication has been frustrating for players as well, Smart said, who met with referees before the Utah game as a team captain, but still had his questions dismissed.
“The captain should be able to come talk to them,” Smart said. “They still don’t want to hear it. So control what you can control. They don’t want to talk, you know, you try and you move on. But it definitely is frustrating when you pour your heart out to this game and the feedback is literally waving you off, telling you to get out your face, and then giving you a tech because you’re asking a simple question.”
