The Lakers have lost seven games this season in which they held a double-digit lead, but Boston never applied fourth-quarter pressure in this one.

That’s why we brought him here, to be Russell Westbrook and not anybody else but that.” We told him, ‘The more you’re aggressive, the more it will open up for everyone else.’ The last seven to 10 games, he’s been very, very aggressive, and when he does that, it opens up the floor for everyone else as far as shooting. “He was trying to get guys involved, pass the ball. “I think at the beginning of the year, Russ was a little bit passive,” Davis said. After a tentative start with his hometown team, Westbrook is averaging 23.5 points, 8.9 assists and 6.9 rebounds in the Lakers' last eight games.

Westbrook staked the Lakers to a 19-point lead in the third by scoring 15 points in the quarter with a series of dominant drives against whatever Boston guard had the bad luck to be matched up with him. Boston and Los Angeles split their season series 1-1 for the fifth straight campaign after the Celtics beat the Lakers last month behind Tatum's 37 points. The Lakers got a much-needed comfortable victory in the 296th edition of the matchup between venerable franchises with a record 17 championships apiece and a record 12 NBA Finals meetings. We tend to lay back and get comfortable when the game is going our way, and it’s something we need to break.” “We just weren’t ready for the punch in the second half, so we’ve got to clean it up. “I feel like our energy was great, especially starting off the game,” Williams said. Jaylen Brown sat out his third straight game with a strained right hamstring, and nobody else managed more than Robert Williams III's 13 points for Boston. Tatum scored 14 of his 34 points in an incredible early first-quarter blitz for the Celtics, who dropped to 1-2 on their four-game West Coast trip. I think defensively, besides the first 14-point avalanche on Tatum’s part, we locked in from that point forward.” “We had a lot of intensity, a lot of ball movement.

“I just like the way we competed tonight on both sides of the floor,” James said. With James and Westbrook playing dominant floor games, Los Angeles made 56.5% of its shots in the first three quarters and throttled Jayson Tatum's supporting cast defensively. LeBron James scored 30 points, Westbrook added 24 points and 11 assists, and the Lakers beat the Celtics 117-102 on Tuesday night in the latest chapter of the NBA's most storied rivalry.Īnthony Davis had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Lakers, who produced one of their best recent performances in their fourth victory in six games overall.

Nba finals 7 game series