In the NBA year-end battle on December 26, Beijing time, the Los Angeles Lakers lost 115-126 to the Boston Celtics at home. Despite the excellent performances of James and Bushy Eyebrows, the Lakers were unable to turn the game around in the end.
James shot 5-of-14 from the field and contributed 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. He crashed into Jaylen Brown during the game and nearly injured his knee, but thankfully he was fine. This is the 17th consecutive year that James has participated in the year-end game, and his career scoring of 476 points continues to rank first all-time. In addition, he surpassed Kobe Bryant (106) in free throws made in the year-end game, moving up to second all-time, behind Oscar Robertson (125).
Another big contributor to the Lakers was Bushy Eyebrow, who scored a season-high 40 points and 13 rebounds. This is the third year in a row that he has scored more than 30 points in the year-end game, becoming only the third player after Jordan and Kobe Bryant to score more than 30 points in the year-end game at least three times.
Although the Lakers once overtook the Green Army, they ultimately failed to reverse it. The Celtics' best performance was Porzingis, who had 28 points and 11 rebounds. Tatum also had an excellent performance, contributing 25 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Brown and Holiday had 19 points and five rebounds and 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, respectively.
For the Lakers, in addition to thick eyebrows and James, Prince scored 17 points and 5 three-pointers, Reaves contributed 11 points and 6 rebounds, Hachimura scored 12 points, Russell had 8 points and 6 assists, and Vanderbilt had 6 points and 6 rebounds.
Although the Lakers lost this game, the performance of James and Thick Eyebrows is still commendable. They stepped up at crucial moments and contributed key stats to the team. However, at one point the Lakers trailed the Celtics by as many as 18 points in the game, which also exposed their problems on the defensive end. Lakers