The Boston Celtics were heavy favorites to win their Thursday night battle against old rival Los Angeles Lakers, what with LeBron James and Anthony Davis unable to suit up due to injury. However, the Celtics quickly became re-acquainted with the concept of a trap game. Boston, despite having its six core players healthy, ended up losing, 114-105, thanks in large part to stellar efforts from Austin Reaves and D'Angelo Russell.

As a result of this defeat to the shorthanded and drama-plagued Lakers, the Celtics became the butt of many jokes on social media. Fans even went as far as to call that loss “embarrassing”, as a team that has championship dreams, like the Celtics do, has no excuse in losing to a team without its two best players.

Nevertheless, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla contends that calling this loss “embarrassing” is disrespectful, certainly when the Lakers players played their hearts out in earning a huge victory over their storied rival amid all the trade hullabaloo surrounding the team.

“I think telling another human to be embarrassed is disrespectful,” Mazzulla said in his postgame presser, per Noa Dalzell of SB Nation's Celtics Blog.

Being embarrassed is a human emotion that people tend to feel, so there's nothing wrong if this is, indeed, what the Celtics feel after a crushing loss to the Lakers. After all, Jayson Tatum and company have so much pride in their work that this defeat will certainly sting. This may be a regular season loss that counts as just one in the standings, but with this being a home loss, it will only serve as a greater pain point for Boston.

Nonetheless, for Joe Mazzulla, he knows that being in the NBA already takes a lot of hard work, so it's not too big of a surprise to see him express disappointment in the “embarrassing” narrative that's being spewed around his team. Moreover, credit must go to the Lakers for turning up in such a big game.

Still, if there's any time for these issues to pop up for the Celtics, it's in January, rather than in April. They'll have plenty of time to sort things out as they try to compete for a championship as they shrug off this trap game defeat.