– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — During this festive season, it’s a given that many across the world will come across a recreation of the nativity scene, especially those in a metropolis as steeped in Catholic tradition and roots such as Boston. Inside the city’s basketball cathedral on Friday night, the Celtics spent most of the evening recreating the Memorial Day Massacre.
Jaylen Brown led six Celtics players in double figures with 30 points as Boston took its greatest rival to the woodshed with a dominant 126-105 over the shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers inside TD Garden. Without the task of having to stop LeBron James (injury/rest) nor Luka Doncic (personal reasons), Boston opened up a lead as much as 29 points — and achieved that by the 7-minute mark of the second quarter — as the Celtics have now won four straight and six of their last seven contests.
Boston nailed a season-high 24 three-pointers, and the long-range barrage started early as the Celtics made seven of their 11 shots from deep. After Derrick White threw a perfect pass that Neemias Queta threw down for an alley-oop to give Boston the lead for good, the former made back-to-back threes to complete an 8-0 run and an 11-3 Celtics lead. The rout was on from there.
Austin Reaves led Los Angeles with 36 points and eight assists, while Gabe Vincent added 18 points. With the game out of hand in the fourth quarter as his father was, among other things, eating trail mix while on the bench in street clothes and bucket hat, Bronny James checked in midway through the period. Bronny made two of his three shots from the field, with five points and an assist in TD Garden debut. He was not with the team for the Lakers’ trip to Boston last season.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 33 pictures in total.
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