LEBRON JAMES CHASEDOWN BLOCK ON JAYSON TATUM, FOUL CALLED ON TAUREAN PRINCE!

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Celtics state their case as NBA’s best in Christmas win over Lakers

Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis scored a team-high 28 points in a convincing victory over the Lakers on Monday. (Ryan Sun/AP)

The Boston Celtics opened a four-game swing through California last week by blowing a lead against the Golden State Warriors, stirring up painful memories of the late-game struggles that prematurely ended recent postseason runs.

Since then, Boston has left no doubt — taking care of business in blowout victories over the Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Clippers before ruining the Los Angeles Lakers’ Christmas with a convincing 126-115 victory Monday.

The Celtics used the holiday stage to state their case as the NBA’s best team and the favorites to win the 2024 title by immediately seizing control against their archrivals at Crypto.com Arena.

Boston improved its record to a league-best 23-6, flashing improved balance on the heels of a splashy offseason that included trades for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. All five Celtics starters scored in double figures, and they put away the Lakers (16-15) with suffocating defense in the second half.

Porzingis finished with a team-high 28 points and 11 rebounds; Holiday added 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists; and Derrick White posted 18 points and 11 assists to go with several key defensive stops down the stretch.

Those contributions more than made up for subpar shooting nights by stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, supporting Boston’s claim of having the league’s best lineup.

Facing persistent questions about its heavy dependence on the three-point shot, Boston went 13 for 42 (31 percent) from deep yet still cruised to the win thanks to a varied attack that applied constant pressure to the Lakers’ interior defense.

“We’re like a really powerful engine,” said Porzingis, who showed off his midrange game and his ability to finish at the rim. “We just have that margin. If the threes were falling tonight, it would have been a plus-20 or plus-25 game for us. …

We’ve been starting to run a bit more, get out in transition more. We’re even more dangerous when we get out and run.”

Boston sought to spoil the centerpiece of the NBA’s Christmas quintuple-header as soon as it started, racing to a 12-0 lead in the first three minutes. Moving the ball ahead of a Lakers defense that was a step slow, the Celtics extended their lead to 18 points before the first quarter ended.

But a runaway wasn’t in the cards. Los Angeles pulled back into the contest during a second quarter marked by injuries and controversy, riding Anthony Davis, who finished with a game-high 40 points to go with 13 rebounds and four assists.

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“We came back a little lethargic,” Lakers Coach Darvin Ham said, noting his team had played six of its previous seven games on the road. “The whole Christmas circumstances of the holiday [and an] early game, it took us a little time getting going. …

We have a lot of work to do. It’s not so much our level of talent or our competition. We can’t skip the details. We can’t get bored with the details.”

With four minutes left before halftime, Brown stumbled near midcourt as he tried to shake free for a pass and was rear-ended by Lakers forward LeBron James. The two stars lay on the court side by side for an extended stretch; Brown favored his lower back as James held his left leg.

The scene brought a hush to a festive building and conjured memories of James’s groin injury against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas 2018.

Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, left, and Lakers forward LeBron James, right, were involved in a collision during the second quarter, but both returned to the game. (Ryan Sun/AP)
James exited the game but returned after a brief respite; Brown left Boston’s bench area and sat out for the rest of the half before reentering to start the third quarter.

Moments after the collision, James made it clear he was feeling no ill effects by soaring for a chase-down block of Tatum. To James’s dismay, he was whistled for a foul, prompting a coach’s challenge.

The referees ruled that James had cleanly blocked Tatum but that Lakers forward Taurean Prince had committed a foul during the sequence. The ruling put Tatum at the free throw line and prompted boos from the home crowd.

Despite the injury scare and the highlight block that went for naught, the Lakers whittled the Celtics’ lead to one at halftime and took their first lead when James made a jump hook shortly after the break.

But the Lakers struggled to crack Boston’s switching defense in the second half as the Celtics reasserted themselves in the third quarter.

Hounded by Holiday, Brown and others, James finished with 16 points, tied for his season low, to go with nine rebounds and eight assists. The four-time MVP checked out with nearly three minutes remaining, when the result was in hand for Boston.

“A four-game road trip on the West Coast presents different challenges,” Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We came out 3-1, and even in our loss we were playing the right brand of basketball on both ends of the floor. It’s not always going to be perfect.

We came in with the theme of reinventing our offense as far as off-ball activity and the ability to execute. I thought we did that. I thought we maintained our defensive identity, too. This time of year is about establishing our identity and sticking to it.”

Earlier in the day, Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 38 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 129-122 home victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, avenging three head-to-head losses this season.

Milwaukee stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard scored 32 points apiece, but the Bucks had no answers for Brunson and conceded 72 points in the paint.

Then, the Denver Nuggets held off the Golden State Warriors, 120-114, in a choppy and over-officiated contest that saw both Nikola Jokic and Stephen Curry struggle from the field.

Jamal Murray scored a game-high 28 points, including back-to-back clutch jumpers in the final four minutes, to lift Denver to its fifth straight win.

An evening contest between the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat took a pair of blows when stars Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler were scratched with injuries.

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving was ruled out of the Christmas nightcap against the Phoenix Suns with a heel injury.