The Boston Celtics suffered a deflating defeat at the hands of their bitter rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, on Tuesday, 117-102. Celtics head coach Ime Udoka decided to pull Jayson Tatum and the rest of the starting unit with more than five minutes remaining in the fourth period and Boston down 15 points. The Celtics were still within striking distance at that point, but Udoka decided that it was time to give his bench players some run.
After the game, Udoka explained his decision to yank Tatum and his other starters. The first-year Celtics coach appears to have also taken a bit of his shot at his players as he criticized their performance in the game:
“Obviously the back-to-back played into it, but that unit, there was no spark there,” Udoka told reporters after the game, via CLNS Media (h/t Logan Mullen of NESN). “It’s just a feel that there wasn’t much there offensively, defensively, all night that was the case. It wasn’t like we were scoring great with that group anyway, so we wanted a spark there.”
Boston return to action on Wednesday in a back-to-back matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers. As Udoka said, this was a factor in his decision to give his starters a bit of extra rest, but more importantly, he also wanted to send them a message.
Tatum and the rest of the Celtics will want to respond to their coach's criticism here with a strong bounce-back performance on Tuesday against the Clippers.
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