BOSTON — The Lakers faced their most challenging on-court test on Saturday since Luka Doncic made his debut for the team nearly a month ago.
And despite a strong late comeback attempt, the Lakers didn’t overcome their 22-point third-quarter deficit, falling to the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics 111-101 on Saturday at TD Garden, ending their season-best winning streak at eight games.
And to make matters worse, LeBron James’ status going forward was unknown after he had to leave the game early because of a groin injury.
“Not much concern,” James said postgame. “Obviously, we go day to day, look at it each day, see if it gets better, and take the proper measurements to see what we need to do going forward.”
The Lakers (40-22), who were without starting big man Jaxson Hayes (bruised right knee) and forward Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy), cut their deficit to four with Doncic (34 points, eight rebounds and three assists) leading the way.
After struggling in the first half, having as many turnovers (three) as made shots in the first two quarters, Doncic spearheaded the Lakers’ comeback attempt.
He scored nine of their 13 third-quarter points and scored 14 in the fourth, including making a pair of free throws to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 96-92 with five minutes left after they trailed 80-58 midway through the third.
But that was the closest the Lakers got, with Jayson Tatum (40 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists) and Jaylen Brown (31 points, six rebounds) leading the Celtics (46-18) in closing out the game.
“Think sometimes in these games, you never know what to chalk these things up to,” Coach JJ Redick said. “But I think start of an East Coast trip some brain fog execution wise for us. It was a little out of character for us, and I think that contributed as well to that third quarter.”
James finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists but didn’t play the final 6:44 because of a strained groin.
James suffered the injury while pivoting on a post move against Brown, saying he the injury after landing following banking in an eight-footer that cut the Lakers’ deficit to 92-85.
LeBron said this is the play in which he injured his groin. The first thing that came to his mind was the groin injury he suffered in the 2018 Christmas Day game in his first season with the Lakers, but he added that this injury isn’t as severe as that one.
— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-03-09T05:55:37.538Z
He signaled to the Lakers’ bench for a timeout to be called after Brown made a layup to put the Celtics up 94-85 with 6:44 remaining.
James appeared to stretch the injured area out during the timeout but went back to the locker room and didn’t return.
“Sit down and wrap with [Lakers Athletic Trainer and Athletic Performance Liaison] Mike Mancias,” James said. “Figure out what the best case plan is going forward.”
James said that the first thing that came to his mind was the groin tear he suffered during the 2018 Christmas Day game against the Golden State Warriors during his first season with the Lakers in 2018-19, which caused him to miss 17 straight games and over a month of action, but added that he doesn’t feel this groin injury is as severe as that one. He also suffered a less severe groin injury during the 2022-23 season in a loss to the Clippers on Nov. 9, 2022, missing the next five games.
James immediately responded, “yeah, for sure, for sure,” when asked if he’ll remain with the team during their four-game road trip, which continues on Monday against the Brooklyn Nets before a back-to-back against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday and Denver Nuggets on Friday.
James added on his status for the trip: “Hopefully. We’ll see what happens in the next few days and then go from there.”
The Lakers, starting a smaller lineup featuring Jarred Vanderbilt in place of Hayes, started strong, spreading the Celtics defense out and staying disciplined defensively.
They jumped out to a 20-12 lead that shrunk to being tied 33-apiece at the end of the first quarter once the Celtics’ 3-pointers started to fall.
Boston led 58-54 at halftime.
The Lakers shot 5 for 23 from the field, 1 for 10 on 3s, and had six turnovers during the third, which the Celtics won 29-13.
“We wanted to attack their bigs in space, and we wanted to attack their smalls in tight spaces,” Redick said. “I don’t think we did a good enough job of attacking their smalls in tight spaces. And that’s what I mean from earlier, just about, just some out of character things that I’m not sure what got lost in translation. But our guys have been great with that stuff.”
James’ layup at the 1:39 mark of the third was the Lakers’ first non-Doncic basket of the third.
Austin Reaves was the only other Laker to score in double figures, finishing with 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Dalton Knecht added nine points and five rebounds off the bench, while Dorian Finney-Smith had eight points (all scored in the first quarter) and four rebounds.