COMMENTARY
The amount of talent that was not available to play in Friday night’s Celtics-Lakers matchup was staggering.
There was no LeBron James. No Jayson Tatum. No Luka Doncic. Even Marcus Smart was ruled out for what would have been his first game back in Boston as a rival Laker.
This was a nationally-televised Friday night contest between two legendary franchises who are in the top-5 of their respective conferences.
Before the game, the Celtics attempted to give the matchup some juice, calling it the “next chapter in the association’s greatest rivalry” in a post on X.