A terrible, dreadful, awful, awful lot to learn from the Celtics/Lakers

A terrible, dreadful, awful, awful lot to learn from the Celtics/Lakers.

The Lakers’ reserves completely lacked pride and effort as they played the Celtics off their own court. What then transpired?

Normally, I would have used a more evocative term to describe the type of ineptitude the Celtics displayed last night, but “bad” will have to do for the time being because that defeat was so perplexing and so obviously bitter.

A new era in the Celtics-Lakers rivalry has officially begun, and it will always be remembered as the “Random time in February when the Celtics thought they could sleepwalk through a game and lost” game. I’ll be sure to share this with my children.

Though, depending on your point of view, there may be a bit more positive to come away from Los Angeles’s incredibly distressing takeover of TD Garden than you may have realized. However, there is also a great deal of negative, so let’s not squander any more time. There was no shortage of waste for the Celtics.

1. The awfuldest Celtics
It’s not like that game was a total mail-in, compelling me to maybe give up on attempting to learn anything from it at all. Surprisingly, the Celtics performed admirably in the third and fourth quarters before attempting to capitalize on the emotional and visual catastrophe of losing to the Los Angeles Lakers at home while both James and Davis sat.

But the mountain of incompetence they packed in their backpack greatly overshadowed any good they were able to accomplish. The Celtics consistently lost possession of the ball in ways I never would have imagined, were outmuscled and outplayed, and consistently failed to take advantage of any offensive advantages they had.

Worst of all, though, were the echoes of the Celtics team, who let a weaker team with a stellar shooting night bury them. The Lakers’ backup team performed admirably, especially considering that their two best players by a wide margin were out. However, the Celtics simply concluded at halftime that they would not be able to win the game due to cosmic forces.

Whatever you want to blame it on. Many will see the discrepancy in free throws as proof that the Celtics were outplayed, while many more will just attribute the Lakers’ 53 percent three-point shooting percentage to a simple variance loss.

However, there is a distinction between allowing variation to beat you and being defeated by it. Austin Reaves was lighting up the globe, and the Celtics used it as an excuse to hang around on offense and not hustle for loose balls for four quarters. The Lakers that the Celtics saw in their prime were not the same Lakers without LeBron and AD, and they were never going to be able to compete with them. It was handed to them by the Celtics.

2. During the first quarter, get inside your own brain.

This is a classic move by Jayson Tatum. It’s his signature “I’m-going-to-commit-a-foul” move, where he decides he will hit someone no matter what because the referees didn’t call him during a drive.

I’ll admit that there was a lot to be frustrated about in terms of free throws as the evening went on. The Lakers made 24 clutch free throws to the Celtics’ 5; the Lakers shot 24. In a game that was decided by nine points, that is a significant difference, but the Celtics also didn’t deserve any more calls.