The latest chapter in the legendary rivalry between Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics featured a lot of star power in LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the one hand versus Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the other. However, the visiting Lakers won 96-95 on Saturday, largely thanks to a buzz of interest by a role-playing player, Alex Caruso.
“One of the best defensive plays of the year,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said after Caruso saved LA by breaking a golden opportunity for the Celtics.
Caruso was stationed on the wing past the 3-point line when Kemba Walker was credited with blocking Davis with 10.8 seconds to go, knocking the ball away from the big man as Davis made his move into the lane.
Walker’s deflection caused Davis to hit the ball into the air while trying to retrieve it, but Walker was the first to get it, creating a quick break opportunity for the Celtics, one down, with the chance to finish the game. to win.
Before Walker even secured possession, Caruso turned his body toward the basket on the other side of the field. As soon as Walker started pushing the ball forward and passed it to a streaking Brown, Caruso broke back into defense in a dead sprint.
“Once the ball got in the air, regardless of whether we wanted to get it back or not, I was kind of defending just because we’re teaching ourselves to do it,” said Caruso afterwards.
Caruso ran faster than Brown to the half of the field, where Walker’s push-ahead pass was aimed, and got a hand on the ball before Brown could.
That burst of defense not only broke what would have been an undisputed starting point for Brown, but by the time Brown had accumulated possession, Davis and Dennis Schroder were also able to get back on the defensive as well.
“Anytime you have turnovers, you just want to have a quick cramp to try to come back and fix the game. That’s exactly what we did,” said James. “It started when AC came back, and we were all kind of like a wall.”
Brown worked the ball around, and Walker had no choice but to take a pull-up 12-footer. With Schroder Walker choking on the defense, the shot missed with 2.7 seconds to go. Daniel Theis’ putback attempt with 0.5 seconds to go also fell off the edge, and LA held on to win.
Caruso said he was initially going to play defensively “only expecting the worst, hoping we could get the ball back and get a shot up”, but it turned out much better than that.
“Just being in the right place at the right time,” he said.
It’s games like Caruso’s that have earned him game time as part of the Lakers’ closing lineup. One night when Vogel shortened his rotation from 11 to nine, leaving Markieff Morris and Wesley Matthews on the bench for the entire game, the coach maintained his confidence in Caruso.
“That’s part of what the ‘Play Harder Than Your Opponent’ identity is,” said Vogel. “Whose team defends harder. Whose team runs offensively across the floor. Who sprints back harder defensively.
The fourth-year guard, who was not in college and was once a regular in the G League, is the ninth highest paid Laker, earning $ 2.75 million this season. But Caruso has proven his mettle when the game is on the line.
“He’s a smart player,” Davis said. “He’s not the highest paid or not [doesn’t] have any awards or credentials. Many people don’t notice it. But he plays the right way. He locks up defensively, shoots hard, scrappy. “
While Caruso had only two points, three rebounds and one assist on Saturday, his plus-minus was a team-best plus-14 in 20 minutes.
Davis said that after Losing LA to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, Jared Dudley pointed out to him that Caruso has a plus-minus of plus-29 in their five losses and was not minus in any of those games.
“I’m a really competitive guy, and the end of the game is when it matters most,” said Caruso. “So I don’t really care about the start, the points, the statistics. I care a lot about winning. The fourth quarter, the end of the game, is winning time.
“Often times, when I get out of timeouts, I’ll just say, ‘It’s gaining time.’ “I’m going to go to a player, say it out loud. Leave everyone locked up a bit and let everyone know what’s going on. For me, that’s my favorite part of the game.”