By Don Wanlass
Contributing Writer
It’s always a special occasion when the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers get together.
They are the two best franchises in the history if the NBA, with each owning 17 NBA titles. They only face each other twice a year unless they are playing in the NBA Finals, where they have met 12 times.
The two teams faced off in another epic battle Dec. 13 that sort of defined what kind of teams they are this year.
The Boston Celtics have the best record in the NBA so far this season. The Lakers have the 22nd best record.
The Celtics were playing the last game of a six-game road trip and their third game in four nights. The Lakers had just come home from a six-game road trip where they were happy to go 3-3.
The Celtics got off to a good start, despite getting blown out by the Clippers the previous night. They led 37-24 after one quarter and 65-50 at halftime. They increased that lead to 20 points in the third quarter when all of a sudden the Lakers turned things around.
They turned up the defensive intensity and started to make plays offensively. By early in the fourth quarter the Lakers were on an 18-0 run, which was part of a 33-9 spurt that eventually put them in front of the Celtics by 13 points with four minutes remaining in the game.
Then the Celtics roared back, forcing the Lakers into overtime on a Kobe Bryant-esque fall-away jump shot by Jason Tatum after Anthony Davis missed two free throws with 11 seconds left in the game that would have sealed the win for the Lakers.
In overtime, it looked like the Lakers had played the night before, not the Celtics. The result was a 122-118 win for Boston in a game that had to be good for the Lakers.
The Celtics are the best team in the league. The Lakers played them even for 48 minutes. Therefore, the Lakers are almost as good as the Celtics. Maybe.
The Celtics were playing without their two best big men, Al Horford and Robert Williams III. The Lakers were at full strength.
The Celtics were tired after spending two weeks on the road and losing to the Golden State Warriors Dec. 12 and the Clippers two nights later.
But the Celtics found that extra gear at the end of the game after the Lakers exhausted themselves coming back from 20 down in the third quarter.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham went with the same five players the entire fourth quarter: LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Austin Reaves and Troy Brown Jr.
Ham had to like what those five gave him, while wondering how to get that same kind of intensity from everybody else on the roster. That will be Ham’s biggest challenge this season.
The Lakers’ big three of James, Davis and Westbrook accounted for 90 of the team’s 118 points and 35 of 49 rebounds.
Davis led the way with 37 points and 12 rebounds in 46 minutes. He has been playing at an all-star level for the last month, finally growing into the player the Lakers hoped he would be when they acquired him from New Orleans in 2019 for a boatload of young talent and draft picks.
At 38, James is learning to pick his spots, turning up the intensity as it’s warranted during the course of a game. He had two huge dunks on his way to 33 points, while adding nine assists and nine rebounds.
Westbrook had his moments on his way to 20 points and 14 rebounds, but he still takes too many outside jump shots that helped slow the Lakers’ momentum against the Celtics.
The Celtics are a solid team. Tatum is one of the best players in the league and Jalen Brown isn’t very far behind him. They combined for 69 points and 24 rebounds.
They also had help from Marcus Smart, who scored 18 points and Grant Williams with 10. Heck, even Blake Griffin chipped in with 6 points and 5 rebounds in 23 minutes.
The Lakers can play with most of the top teams in the NBA if — and it’s a big if — Davis, James and Westbrook are on the same page and someone else steps up. They beat Milwaukee — the second best team in the league — on the road by 16 Dec. 2.
They still need to acquire an outside shooter to keep defenses from focusing on James and Davis.
To his credit, first-year coach Ham has the Lakers playing hard defensively most of the time and that can hide a lot of deficiencies. Until, of course, you are playing the best team in the league.
WHO WAS THAT GUY: I yawned last week I heard that the Rams had claimed Baker Mayfield off waivers. Mayfield is a former No. 1 overall draft pick (so was Jerrod Goff) who makes commercials better than he plays quarterback.
The Rams were scraping the bottom of the barrel, their season essentially all but over.
Then Mayfield played against the Las Vegas Raiders Dec. 8. No one expected that to happen because he had only one brief practice with the team the day before the Raiders’ game.
But there he was, entering the game on the Rams’ second possession. He drove the team into field goal range, only to have the kicker miss. The Rams reached the red zone on their next drive only to have running back Cam Akers fumble the ball away.
On his third drive, the Rams finally scored on a 55-yard field goal just before halftime, but they still looked like they were going to lose their seventh game in a row when the Raiders scored early in the fourth quarter to make the score 16-3.
Then Mayfield took over. He marched the Rams 75 yards in 17 plays, a drive that took nine minutes off the clock. Akers scored on a 1-yard run and the Rams trailed 16-10.
The defense stopped the Raiders again, but a great punt put the ball on the 2-yard line with only 1:45 to play and the Rams out of timeouts.
No worries. Mayfield calmly moved the ball downfield, hitting Van Jefferson with a 23-yard scoring pass with 10 seconds left. Matt Guy kicked the game-winning extra point and the six-game losing streak was over and Rams’ fans could breathe again.
For one game anyway, Mayfield was a considerable upgrade over John Wolford at quarterback. He finished the game with 21 completions in 35 attempts for 230 yards and the winning touchdown.
He distributed the ball well, with nine players catching at least one pass. He also scrambled four times, while also getting sacked four times.
His performance overshadowed a defense led by linebacker Bobby Wagner, which gave up more than 300 yards but forced the Raiders to settle for field goals on three of their four scoring drives.
Mayfield will be back under center Dec. 19 when the Rams face the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. If he stays healthy, he will probably start the remaining games of the season.
He might even earn himself a position with the Rams next season, if he wants to back up Matthew Stafford.
What he probably did, though, was show NFL general managers that he can play quarterback in the NFL, with or without time to prepare.
TROPHY POISE: USC quarterback Caleb Williams impressed me on the field throughout the season, leading the Trojans to an 11-2 record that deserve the Heisman Trophy he received Dec. 10.
The college sophomore impressed me even more with his performance after he won the trophy. That was quite an acceptance speech. He is as poised speaking in public as he is playing quarterback.
He will showcase his talents next in the Cotton Bowl Jan. 2 against Tulane, if his hamstring has healed (I think it will). USC fans better savor the remaining moments they have with Williams. Barring injury next season, Williams is sure to be a top NFL draft pick in 2024.
He has the size, ability, athleticism and yes, poise, to play football on Sunday. He is the eighth Trojan to win the Heisman and all of them had great seasons the year they won the award.
But Williams was special because he revived a USC program that was headed toward rock bottom. Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart were both outstanding quarterbacks, but Williams brought another dimension to the position.
He had two runs of more than 50 yards this season, the two longest runs from scrimmage all year for USC. And that was with two pretty good running backs — Travis Dye and Austin Jones — in the backfield.
LOCAL BOWL NEWS: The second annual Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl will be played Dec. 17 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The game features Washington State against Fresno State.
Fresno State is coached by Jeff Tedford, who grew up in Downey, playing at Warren High and then Cerritos College under the tutelage of coach Frank Mazzota.
A quarterback, Tedford played at Fresno State and in the Canadian Football League before launching his coaching career that includes stints as Cal and the British Columbia Lions.
At Cal, he coached Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and running back Marshawn Lynch, who later starred for the Seattle Seahawks.
The game starts at 12:30 p.m. and will be broadcast by Kimmel’s station, KABC 7.
