Rajon Rondo hit the game-winning shot against his former team, the Boston Celtics, to seal a 129-128 win for the Lakers on Thursday. It was poetry in motion: an ex-Celtics great hitting the shot that buried his former team.
Rajon Rondo’s game-winner vs. the Celtics could be a turning point for the Lakers
The Lakers needed this win more than anything, and who better than Rondo to bring them together.
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
The beautiful part of it all? The shot he made to beat the Celtics was identical to a shot he practiced pregame with his son.
The shot gave Los Angeles a win it desperately needed.
The temperature of the team was lukewarm at best after Magic Johnson tried to trade half the roster for Anthony Davis. But if there’s any game a Lakers team will get up for, it’s one against the Celtics. The win proved this team can rally, hopefully put their differences aside, and compete for something bigger this season.
They took down one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and came back from down 18 to do it. It was a team win: eight players scored in double figures. And it was the type of game the Lakers have to play every night if they want to salvage what’s left of this season and make a second-half playoff push.
Los Angeles is above .500 at 28-27, but they’re still just in 10th place in the Western Conference. The No. 2 seed, though, is just a half-game behind the Kings and 2.5 games behind the eighth-place Clippers, who traded their best player at the deadline.
The Lakers aren’t doomed, at least not in the regular season. If anything, Thursday’s win shows they have another gear to hit. If they can keep stringing together wins like this, the failed Davis trade might not be the worst thing in the world.
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