Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers fell 111-101 to the Boston Celtics on Saturday night at TD Garden. The Lakers endured multiple injuries to the starting lineup, including Jaxson Hayes (right knee contusion), Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy), and LeBron James (exited in the fourth quarter due to groin strain).
Doncic needed to provide for the shorthanded Lakers, and he supplied 34 points on 50% shooting. While Doncic is new to the historic Lakers-Celtics rivalry, the five-time All-NBA First Team member holds his own personal rivalry with Boston after a five-game loss in last year’s NBA Finals.
In his first trip to the Finals, Doncic averaged 29.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.
As someone who understands the Boston playoff atmosphere, Doncic had quite the compliment for Celtics fans after the game.
“It’s very tough to play [in Boston] but for me, it’s very fun,” said Doncic.
Although the former No. 3 pick out of Real Madrid displayed great humility, his statistics while playing Boston appear to be very different than his claim. In seven career road regular season games against the Celtics, Doncic has averaged 32.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 7.0 assists on 55.2% shooting (via StatMuse).
While the difficulty isn’t shown by his play, Doncic’s 2-5 record in these games may be where he most feels the impact of Boston’s home crowd. For now, Doncic and the Lakers remain on a road trip that brings them to Brooklyn on Monday.
