Game Recap: Lakers 101, Suns 73 and it wasn’t that close

Final night, playoff spots locked, and LeBron James still out here running the show like it’s 2013.

He went 28/6/12. Barely broke a sweat.

And the Los Angeles Lakers? They smothered Phoenix Suns into a 73-point mess Friday at Crypto. Season low for Phoenix. Ugly hoops. Bricks, turnovers, no rhythm pick your poison.

But this was about the Lakers. Defense first, everything else later. They blitzed pick-and-rolls, iced the wings, closed hard on shooters. Suns shot 34%. Felt worse.

And once L.A. got a cushion late in the second, it was curtains. No fake comeback. No drama. Just a slow bleed.

Key Performances

LeBron Still Dictating Everything

Year 23. Doesn’t matter.

LeBron was quarterbacking every possession hit-ahead passes, skip reads, dragging defenders out of position. Suns tried switching. Bad idea. Tried dropping. Worse.

He punished all of it.

Couple of those assists? Pure film-room stuff. Saw it before it happened. Old man game, still cooking.

AD Owns the Paint, Reaves Cleans Up

Anthony Davis didn’t need a monster scoring night. He controlled the glass, erased drives, made Phoenix think twice inside.

Meanwhile Austin Reaves did the glue work. Spacing, secondary playmaking, a couple timely buckets when things stalled.

Nothing flashy. All necessary.

Turning Point: Second Quarter Clamp Job

Game was hanging early. Suns within striking distance.

Then boom Lakers go on a run fueled by defense. Forced misses, live-ball turnovers, easy transition buckets. That’s the stretch that broke it open.

Phoenix never recovered. Looked gassed. Looked disconnected. Looked like a team ready for Cancun, not the play-in.

Around the League: Chaos, Buckets, and One 40-Piece

Elsewhere? Pure end-of-season madness.

• Victor Wembanyama dropped a casual 40/13/5 as San Antonio Spurs rolled.
• Tyrese Maxey went for 32/8/5 to carry Philadelphia 76ers.
• Amen Thompson exploded for 41 yeah, 41 in a loss. Tough.
• Utah? Triple-double night from Bez Mbeng in a 147-point avalanche. Random April hoops at its finest.

Standings locked. Brackets set. Now it gets real.

Why Did the Suns Fold Like That?

Short answer: no answers.

Their half-court offense stalled out. Lakers blew up actions early nothing got clean. No downhill pressure, no easy looks. When the jumpers stopped falling, it spiraled fast.

And defensively? They couldn’t contain LeBron without over-helping, which cracked everything else open.

Bad matchup, worse execution.

What This Means for the Lakers

52 wins. Top-four seed. Home court in Round 1.

More important? They look locked in. Defensive rating trending up, rotations tight, stars healthy.

And LeBron? Still the smartest guy on the floor every night.

You don’t want that problem in a seven-game series.

The ghost of last May was still lingering near midcourt at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. You could feel it, the Garden crowd could feel it, and Jayson Tatum definitely felt it.

In his first trip back to the floor where his Achilles snapped nearly a year ago, Tatum looked like a guy trying to outrun a memory. He finished with a 24/7/6 line that looks fine on a box score, but the efficiency wasn’t there and neither was the win. New York bullied the Celtics late to secure a 112-105 victory, proving that while Tatum is back, the road to 100% still has plenty of potholes.

The Mental Hurdle: “I wasn’t thrilled”

Tatum didn’t hide from the narrative. Most stars give you the “just another game” cliché, but he was blunt about the anxiety of stepping back onto the hardwood that nearly ended his prime at 28.

“I wasn’t thrilled to be back in this building, if I’m being honest,” Tatum told reporters after the loss. “You try to block it out, but you see that spot on the floor and you remember the pop. You remember the fear.”

He spent the night settling for jumpers, perhaps subconsciously hesitant to explode to the rim like the pre-injury JT. He went 8-of-22 from the floor and struggled when the Knicks sent doubles his way. Hell, anyone would be a little tentative. The fact that he’s even playing 34 minutes in a high-intensity April game is a medical miracle in itself.

Why did the Celtics struggle in the clutch?

Boston looked gassed. Joe Mazzulla’s heavy reliance on the starters during this seeding push showed in the fourth. Jaylen Brown tried to carry the load, but the Knicks’ physical perimeter defense clamped down. The Celtics’ three-point volume usually their biggest weapon turned into a liability as they went ice-cold in the final six minutes.

The Recovery: Defying the Achilles Curse

Coming back from a ruptured Achilles is usually a death sentence for a wing’s lateral quickness. Just ask Klay Thompson or KD it takes years to find that rhythm again, if it ever returns. Tatum, however, is doing this on an accelerated timeline that has the league’s training staffs scratching their heads.

Before Thursday’s stinker, he’d been on a tear, shooting over 40% from deep over a five-game stretch.

“I honestly feel better than I thought I would,” Tatum said. “During rehab, I didn’t want to come back and be a shell of myself. I’m not all the way there, but I’m climbing the ladder.”

Can the Celtics actually trust Tatum in May?

The numbers say yes, but the eye test says he’s still adjusting. His defensive rating has dipped slightly since his return, and he’s occasionally getting punished on switches by quicker guards. But the Celtics are still double-digit games over .500 with him in the lineup. If he’s even 85% of the All-NBA force he was, Boston is the only team in the East that can legitimately push the Pistons in a seven-game series.

Turning Point: New York’s Fourth Quarter Surge

The Knicks played like a team that sensed blood in the water. While Tatum was searching for his legs, New York’s bench sparked a 14-2 run to start the fourth. They played “playoff basketball” a month early, and Boston simply didn’t have the counters.

It’s a reality check for the C’s. Locking up homecourt is great, but if Tatum is still fighting the “mental hurdle” of his injury in big spots, the path to the Finals gets a lot narrower. He left the arena healthy tonight which is the biggest win he could’ve asked for but the honeymoon phase of his comeback is officially over. Now, he just needs to be a bucket getter again.

Game Recap: NEW YORK The Boston Celtics walked into Madison Square Garden short-handed and walked out short on the scoreboard. Final: 112-106. The New York Knicks held serve late, made just enough plays, and Boston ran out of runway.

But that’s not the whole story. Not even close.

No Jaylen Brown, no easy offense, and still the Celtics hung around. Then out of nowhere Baylor Scheierman caught a heater and nearly flipped the night.

Key Performances

Baylor Scheierman’s Night (and almost his game)

Six threes. Twenty points. A second half that felt like a microwave set to max.

Scheierman went 6-for-7 after halftime, splashing 5-of-6 from deep. Catch-and-shoot, relocation, one dribble pull-up didn’t matter. Knicks defenders were a step late all night, and he punished it. Straight up bucket-getter mode.

And it wasn’t just the shooting. He crashed the glass, rotated on the weak side, stayed connected defensively. The kind of stuff coaches rave about when the cameras turn off.

Except Joe Mazzulla didn’t wait for that.

“Shot-making’s the easy part,” Mazzulla said postgame. “It’s everything else instincts, crashing, defense. He’s getting better.”

Short version: trust earned.

Knicks’ closing punch

New York didn’t panic when Scheierman got hot. They’ve been here before.

Late fourth, they slowed it down, hunted matchups, leaned into their half-court sets. A couple tough buckets, a couple stops. That was enough. Boston couldn’t string together the stops they needed defensive rating dipped right when it mattered.

Turning Point

Why Boston couldn’t finish it

Midway through the fourth, Celtics down but alive. Scheierman bombs a three. Crowd gets tight. Feels like a swing is coming.

Then empty trip. Then another.

Meanwhile, Knicks get downhill, draw contact, live at the line. That’s the game. Not flashy. Just winning possessions.

No Brown meant no easy bailout scoring. No downhill pressure. Too many late-clock situations. You could feel it legs heavy, offense predictable.

What did Mazzulla see in Scheierman?

A role guy playing like he belongs. Simple as that.

Mazzulla’s been consistent all year: if you defend, move the ball, and don’t mess up spacing, you’ll play. Scheierman checked every box. Then added shot-making on top. Bonus.

And yeah, this wasn’t garbage-time noise. Thirty real minutes. Season-high usage in a tight game. That matters.

What does this mean for the rotation?

Is Scheierman locking in playoff minutes?

Feels like it.

Last postseason, he barely sniffed the floor. Different story now. Boston’s bench has been uneven some nights dead, some nights electric and guys who can space the floor and not get cooked defensively? Those guys travel in May.

Scheierman’s making a case. Loudly.

Bigger Picture

Boston drops the game, sure. But you leave MSG thinking about the bench, not the loss.

That’s not nothing.

A team chasing another deep run needs random nights like this from non-stars. Needs guys who don’t blink. Needs someone who can erupt in Q4 when the offense stalls.

Scheierman almost stole one. Almost.

And in April, almost counts for a lot more than it used to.