Boston Celtics could not avoid the blowout loss, as the Lakers had sprinted ahead in the third quarter, building a comfortable lead.
The Celtics’ head coach Ime Udoka pulled out the starters in the fourth quarter with five minutes remaining in regulation.
Udoka said part of that decision comes from the back-to-back as the Celtics play the Clippers on Wednesday night as the second part of the back-to-back in LA.
(via MassLive.com):
“Obviously, the back-to-back played into it, but that unit, there was no spark there,” Udoka said. “… It was just a feel that there wasn’t much there offensively.
Defensively all night that was the case, but it wasn’t like we were scoring great with that group anyway, so we wanted a spark there, but the back-to-back did play into it.”
The Celtics have built plenty of positive momentum over the past few weeks, bouncing back from a 2-5 start. They dropped to 2-2 in December after the loss to the Lakers.
