The last chapter in the story of the rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics featured a lot of stellar power in LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the one hand compared to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the other. However, the visiting Lakers remained to win 96-95 on Saturday, largely due to the hectic play of a role player, Alex Caruso.
“One of the best defensive games of the year,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said after Caruso saved LA on the stretch, breaking a golden opportunity for the Celtics.
Caruso was stationed on the wing beyond the 3-point line when Kemba Walker was credited with a block on Davis with 10.8 seconds left, pushing the ball away from the big man when Davis moved his belt.
Walker’s deflection caused Davis to hit the ball in the air as he tried to get it back, but Walker chorused it first, setting up a quick break for the Celtics, chasing on his own, with a chance to win. the game.
Before Walker even claimed possession of the ball, Caruso turned his body to the basket at the other end of the field. As soon as Walker started to push the ball forward and passed it to a streaked Brown, Caruso entered a dead sprint back into the defense.
“Once the ball appeared in the air, whether we recovered it or not, I kind of went back to defense just because that’s what we learn to do,” Caruso said afterwards.
Caruso overtook Brown to midfield, where Walker’s push-forward was directed and received a hand on the ball before Brown could.
That explosion of defense not only broke what would have been an undisputed score for Brown, but until Brown amassed possession, Davis and Dennis Schroder were able to return to defense as well.
“Every time you have a turnover, you just want to have a quick move to try to come back and get the game back. That’s exactly what we did,” James said. “It started with the return of AC and we all just formed a wall.”
Brown worked with the ball, and Walker had no choice but to take a 12-foot pull-up. With Schroder stifling Walker in defense, the shot failed at 2.7 seconds. Daniel Theis’ comeback attempt, with 0.5 seconds left, also fell off the rim, and LA wanted to win.
Caruso said he initially went on to make a defensive play “just expecting the worst, hoping we’ll get the ball back and get a shot up,” but it worked much better than that.
“Just be in the right place at the right time,” he said.
There are songs like Caruso that earned him playing time as part of the Lakers’ closing line. On a night when Vogel shortened his rotation from 11 to nine, keeping Markieff Morris and Wesley Matthews on the bench all game, the coach maintained his confidence in Caruso.
“It’s part of the ‘Play harder than your opponent’ identity,” Vogel said. “Whose team defends harder. Whose team runs off the floor offensively. Who returns harder on defense. Sprint versus jogging mentality.”
The fourth-year goalie, eliminated from college and once accustomed to the G-League, is the ninth highest-paid Lakers, earning $ 2.75 million this season. But Caruso has proven his strength when the game is on the line.
“He’s a smart player,” Davis said. “It simply came to our notice then [doesn’t] have all awards or accreditations. Many people do not notice it. But play the right way. He blocks defensively, makes hard, scrappy shots. “
While Caruso had just two points, three rebounds and one assist on Saturday, his plus-minus was the best team plus-14 in 20 minutes.
Davis said Jared Dudley pointed out to him after LA’s loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday that Caruso has a plus-minus plus-29 in all five losses and has not been in a loss in any of those games.
“I’m a very, very competitive guy, and the end of the game is when it matters the most,” Caruso said. “So I don’t really care too much about the start, points, statistics. I care a lot about winning. The fourth quarter, the end of the game, is the winning time.
“Many times, coming out of timeout, I’ll just say, ‘It’s time to win.’ I’m going to a player, I say out loud. A way to allow everyone to get stuck and tell everyone what’s going on. For me, this is my favorite part of the game. “