For the love of all that is holy, please let the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers meet in the 2025 NBA Finals.
The basketball universe revolved around TD Garden Saturday night, where the most storied rivalry in the history of the NBA faced off for the first time since L.A.’s trade Luka Dončić. On national television and in front of a sold-out TD Garden crowd, the champs hogged the spotlight and sent a message.
Just because you’re the league’s hottest team, it doesn’t mean you’re the best.
The Lakers arrived in Boston on an eight-game win streak with the league’s best defensive rating during that stretch. But you wouldn’t have guessed it, if all you caught was the third quarter of Saturday’s game. L.A. took 23 shots to Boston’s 19, but the Celtics outscored the Lakers 29-13 during the period, and Boston’s suffocating defense forced six turnovers.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla credited Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and 38-year-old big Al Horford with setting the expectations in the a physical matchup.
“When your best players take pride in individual defense, I think it sets a tone for your team,” he said after Boston’s 111-101 win.
Kudos to the Lakers, who took their shots and went down by 22, but got up off the mat in the fourth quarter and brought the game within four points. Extra kudos to Dončic, who led that effort after a groin strain sent LeBron James to the locker room with five minutes left in a 19-point game.
Let’s be honest, the actual game could have packed a little more drama. It was unfortunate that James left prematurely and finished the night without a three-pointer. Boston was also without Kristaps Porzingis, who’s been sidelined with an illness over the last week. But the fire of a tight, back-and-forth first half, and Dončić’s late surge, were a reminder of both the great battles waged by past Boston legends against the purple and gold, and a glimpse of how a new chapter could look in the era of the Jays.
Even Mazzulla, who preaches a mentality of all gas, no breaks in every matchup, had to recognize how much this rivalry means.
“Obviously, it’s the Celtics-Lakers, and you’re a part of that, and that’s important,” he said. He acknowledged that Tatum played a season-high 45:26, and Brown played more than 41 minutes, because of the team on the other side:
“I feel like there’s moments that you give those guys chances to be a part of that.”
“Even like, today – Celtics-Lakers, two big time matchups and teams. We wanted to win tonight, so we did what it took to win,” said Brown.
Should these teams meet again in the Finals, the edge would have to go to the Celtics – and that’s kind of crazy, considering the unprecedented nature of L.A.’s trade for Dončić. Boston is a much more complete team. Too often, the champs’ character gets dumbed down to three-point shooting math, but as Mazzulla noted postgame, they’ve had defensive DNA since the Ime Udoka years.
The most delightful moments on Saturday night came when Horford stripped Dončić in back-to-back possessions, and then proceeded to lock down his assignments for the rest of the game.
There’s still juice to this matchup. Ticket prices, national debates, and – one has to predict ratings – reflect the omnipresent position the Lakers still hold in the basketball world. The NBA finds itself in another adolescent-like transitional phase, with 40-year-old James eyeing his exit, Steph Curry in near-emeritus status, and Kevin Durant wandering the desert. What better way to crown Tatum as the debated-until-everyone-is-nauseated face of the league, than to have him lead his to team in defending a title against a historic rival and the second-greatest player in NBA history?
“The NBA’s a better place when the Celtics and Lakers are two of the better teams,” Tatum said postgame.
Please, basketball gods, let this rematch happen. It’s been 15 years since a Celtics-Lakers Finals, and if L.A. has to keep tripping into generational players like James and Dončić, it’s only fair that they face Boston in the championship once a generation.
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