LOS ANGELES – Back on Jan. 20, the Los Angeles Lakers went head-to-head against the arch-rival Boston Celtics, and the outcome wasn't pretty. Jayson Tatum and company proceeded to hand the Lakers their worst loss of the season, leaving Los Angeles with some unfinished business against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

Fast forward to Sun. Feb. 23, the Lakers were able to flip the script against a highly motivated and talented Celtics team who had to take on the purple and gold without All-Star point guard, Kemba Walker. Tatum may have put on a show scoring 41 points, but it wasn't enough to get the best of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who both took part in closing the game out against Boston.

Following the 114-112 win over the Celtics, Davis and James spoke about the rivalry between these two iconic NBA franchises.

“This is a huge rivalry dating back to god knows when,” Davis said of the rivalry. “It's something that everybody wants to see, and to be a part of it means a lot for all of us in the moment and recognizing the hype around the rivalry. I think both teams know it…Bill Russell here. KG here. You had a lot of people who played in these rivalries to witness the rivalry go on, and we're happy to get this one.”

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Although the rivalry might not be as heated as it was in the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird days or even when Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol battled it out with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, it is still a special event when the Lakers and Celtics go toe-to-toe during the regular season.

“It's just special to be a part of this rivalry,” LeBron said. “We understand this has been going on since the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s. All the way through, so to be a part of a rivalry be a part of a historical two-franchise group, it's just special, for us to be here in the present and be able to see a lot of old Laker greats and a lot of Celtic greats and then out there doing what we love to do. Just trying to represent this rivalry with the utmost respect and play the game the right way as all the players on both sides have done in the past.”

With the Lakers and Celtics splitting their regular-season series, the next time they can meet is in the NBA Finals. That could be a very real possibility if these two teams stay the course with Los Angeles being the top team in the Western Conference right now and Boston trailing only the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.

It would be an ironic Finals matchup with the two storied franchises last meeting in that series 10 years ago with Kobe ultimately leading the Lakers to victory in seven games.