Lakers beat Celtics with their own blueprint for signature victory

Lakers star LeBron James drives to the basket as the Boston Celtics’ Luke Kornet defends during the first half on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

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LOS ANGELES — For most of the season, the Lakers have dominated the league’s worst teams and struggled against most teams around or higher than them in the standings.

This was evident by their 12-1 record against below .500 teams and 11-17 record against teams above .500 entering Thursday.

But the Lakers flipped the script, at least for one night, and they did so against one of the league’s best teams, pulling off a dominant 117-96 victory over the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena for their best win of the season.

The Lakers (24-18) controlled the game against the Celtics (31-14) early with their defensive switching, limiting Boston’s league-leading 3-point shooting for most of the competitive portions of the game.

And on the other end of the court, the Lakers got contributions from many.

Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots in 31 minutes. LeBron James had 20 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in 30 minutes after being selected for his 21st consecutive All-Star Game earlier in the day.

Austin Reaves added 23 points (7-of-13 shooting, 4 for 8 from 3-point range), six assists and three rebounds.

Dalton Knecht (13 points) and Gabe Vincent (12 points, four assists) combined for 25 points off the bench.

The Lakers led by as much as 28 points during the fourth quarter. They didn’t allow the Celtics, who entered Thursday averaging 117.7 points, to score more than 25 points in any of the first three quarters.

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A Jaden Springer 3-pointer right before the end of the final buzzer gave the Celtics 28 points in the fourth.

Kristaps Porziņģis had 22 points and seven rebounds to pace the Celtics (31-14), who were coming off an overtime win against the Clippers the previous night.

Jaylen Brown had 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists while All-Star forward Jayson Tatum finished with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists.

The Celtics, who average a league-high 49.1 3-point attempts per game, shot 14 for 41 from behind the arc.

The Lakers, who average the third-fewest 3-pointers, made 15 of their 35 attempts from long range (they made 11 before halftime).

More to come on this story.

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