Darvin Ham, the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, was looking ahead to the following game, which was a journey home to host the Boston Celtics on Christmas afternoon. This was the culmination of a difficult stretch of scheduling that had the Lakers spending the majority of their time away from home.

Ham made this statement after the Lakers’ victory over Oklahoma City on Saturday. “We get a chance to see where we are,” Ham said. “The past thirty days have been challenging for us, but on Christmas Eve, we will have the opportunity to return home, spend the day with our families, wake up, and open some presents before heading down to the Crypto and getting ready to get work.

It is not necessary for you to have a Knute Rockne speech for this particular one.

A dismal moment that caused the Lakers to run uphill for the remainder of a game that they would eventually lose 126-115, the Gipper scored as many points as any of the Lakers starters in the first three minutes of Monday’s game. The Gipper’s performance was the most upsetting stretch of the game.

Before the Lakers were able to get back into the game, Boston’s 12-0 start eventually turned into an 18-point lead in the first quarter of the championship game.

The Lakers fought despite the fact that they were exhausted from traveling long distances and plainly more behind in their development as a team this season.

After making a three-point shot against the Celtics, the forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, Anthony Davis, makes the “freeze” sign, which is his hallmark gesture.

A three-pointer that Anthony Davis, a forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, made against the Boston Celtics in the second quarter of Monday’s game prompted him to make his famous “freeze” sign. The Los Angeles Times, courtesy of Luis Sinco

At the same time that Taurean Prince tied a season high with five made three-pointers, Anthony Davis completely dominated the game by scoring a season-high 40 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

The Lakers were in the lead early in the third quarter, but Boston’s toughness, talent, and size ultimately proved to be too much for them to handle. At the beginning of the game, Jaylen Brown was the point guard for the Lakers. After that, Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis took turns being the Lakers’ biggest problem. All throughout the game, guards Jrue Holiday and Derrick White played the kind of two-way game that has earned them the reputation of being among the top all-around backcourts in the National Basketball Association.

In the meantime, the group that started for the Lakers on Monday, which included Davis, Prince, LeBron James, Cam Reddish, and Jarred Vanderbilt, did not provide the Lakers with the kind of defensive punch that Ham had hoped for when he assembled the group prior to the Lakers’ victory against the Thunder.

During the first half of the game, James kneed Brown in the back during an awkward defensive possession, which resulted in him crashing to the ground in a heap. James scored only 16 points on five of fourteen shots.

LeBron James, a player for the Los Angeles Lakers, visibly groans in pain as he lies on the court following a collision with Jaylen Brown, a forward for the Boston Celtics.

 He continued to play in the game while Brown went to the locker room and then came back for the second half of the game.