Celtics humble Lakers on Pat Riley’s big day

The golden banners glittered in the rafters of Crypto.com Arena on Sunday afternoon. They were shown repeatedly on the video board, during the NBC broadcast and during the halftime celebration of former Lakers coach Pat Riley, who helped hang four of them during his tenure.

The afternoon would be a celebration for the Hall of Fame coach. A love letter to the Showtime era of the Lakers. A purple and gold victory lap against their hated rivals.

Instead, it turned into a public robbery.

The afternoon started with pomp and ceremony and a bronze grin. Riley balanced next to his newly unveiled statue, Armani suit pressed and hair combed back as if time had never touched it. The architect of the Lakers’ golden eighties. The man who defeated Boston twice on sports’ biggest stage. The maestro of flair and fast breaks.

“The time has come to kick some guy’s ass from Boston,” Riley declared before tip-off, the words hanging in the air like cigar smoke.

They echoed.

Then they boomeranged.

Because by the time the final buzzer mercifully sounded, it was the Celtics who had done the hard work: 111-89, a 22-point dismantling that felt even more lopsided than the scoreboard suggested. On a day meant to celebrate the Lakers’ dominance over their oldest rival, Boston walked into Los Angeles and treated it like a home game.

And sometimes it sounded that way.

You could hear it in the second quarter as the green jerseys, scattered throughout the lower bowl, began to rise in unison. You could feel it midway through the third, when every Payton Pritchard made 3 was greeted with a roar that cut through the building. In the fourth quarter, as the Lakers trailed by 20 and fans in gold streamed toward the exits, a resounding “Let’s go Celtics!” chants echoed throughout the arena. In Los Angeles no less.

That’s not just a loss. That’s a cultural bruise.

The Celtics didn’t just beat the Lakers; they exposed them. The layers removed. Show the seams.

Jaylen Brown played like a man who understood the symbolism of the afternoon. He scored 32 points and flirted with a triple-double. He attacked switches with surgical precision, bullied smaller defenders in the post and slid through the lane as if the Lakers’ defense was a polite suggestion rather than a professional obligation.

Then there was Pritchard, the gunslinger who turned this rivalry show into his personal shooting clinic. He hit six threes and scored 30 points. More than any player on the Lakers team, including Luka Dončić and LeBron James. Every jumper felt like another splash of cold water in the Lakers’ face.

“This is how this team kills you,” Celtics Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard. Pritchard made a bunch of them (3-pointers) tonight. He had a great game.”

Redick blamed the Lakers’ lack of offense, not defense, but make no mistake about that. This blowout loss was about the defense, or lack thereof.

It remains the Lakers’ Achilles heel and it was exposed again on Sunday.

Rotations were slow. Closeouts were soft. The Lakers were outscored 41-31 on the defensive glass. And then there’s the elephant in the locker room.

“They made timely shots, and we didn’t,” James said after the loss. “Defensively we held serve as long as we could, but offensively we didn’t give ourselves a chance. We have a lot of room to grow.”

Luka Dončić is an attacking savant, a generational scorer who can bend defenses with a glance. But this afternoon the other side of the ball told a harsher story. When he was on the floor, the Lakers were a whopping minus-21. Boston chased him in space, forced switches and had him defend in isolation. The Celtics not only recognized the mismatch; they exploited it without mercy.

“They were physical. They played great defense. We have to match their physicality defensively,” said Dončić, who was the biggest offender on that end of the floor. “We have to do better offensively.”

Championship teams have weak links. They just won’t let those links remain weak.

Former Celtic Marcus Smart, who now wears purple and gold, was brought to LA for his defensive skills and ability to score the basket when needed. Instead, he remained scoreless on Sunday. 0 for 7 from the field. The defensive edge that once defined his game was dulled by indecisiveness and missed shots. When he rattled a few more jumpers off the rim in the fourth quarter, you could almost hear the collective sigh. This wasn’t revenge. This was regression.

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By the time the game unfolded, the symbolism was unavoidable. Riley’s statue stood outside, immortalized in bronze, a reminder of an era when the Lakers imposed their will on Boston. Inside, a new generation of Celtics stamped their name.

This rivalry has always been about more than just basketball. It’s about legacy. Identity. The tug of war between coasts. On Sunday, Boston didn’t just win a regular-season game. They walked into Los Angeles on a day dripping with nostalgia and reminded everyone that 1980s banners don’t defend pick-and-rolls in 2026.

And as the green-clad groups of fans lingered in the aisles, chanting as the seats around them emptied, the message was unmistakable: History is made every night. It doesn’t come with a statue.

On a day meant to honor the past, the present punched Los Angeles in the mouth.