Luke Walton on Boston's blowout alley-oops: 'Why not? Rub it in our face. Hopefully it pisses players off'

In a typically-tumultuous day for the Los Angeles Lakers, leave it to the team’s 37-year-old coach to lend the most sensible insight of the night.

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On a Friday that saw an embarrassingly-executed attempted coup reportedly hashed out by the Buss brothers against their sister Jeannie fail badly, the Lakers settled the evening’s score with a nasty 115-95 loss to the hated Boston Celtics, a team Walton’s Lakers beat with Walton in an active playing role, with an integral bench gig, in the 2010 NBA Finals.

The loss wasn’t the worst of the Lakers’ season or history, a new trend for the club, but it was similarly enervating given the day’s news content, and the presence of the Celtic green. What would have seemed to make the loss altogether worse was this throw-in from C’s rookie Jaylen Brown (off of a feed from All-Star Isaiah Thomas), what with the contest already well in hand and Boston up by 29 points:

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Walton, “rookie” coach of the Lakers after a half-season spent acting as lead coach of the Golden State Warriors in 2015-16, could have chosen that moment to curl up his lip at the hated Celtics, a team the Lakers have warred with dating back to the Kennedy administration. Instead of fixating his frustrations elsewhere, Walton took a reasonable approach:

In an era that sees coaches and players (artificially hardened by years of watching Michael Jordan chase after just about every perceived slight available) taking offense at whatever carries them through their sportin’ day, this is unquestionably refreshing.

And, in a turn, a learning experience for Walton’s young Lakers. Brown’s flush put the Celtics up 31 points, but that was as high as Boston would get. Even with Thomas and fellow starter Jae Crowder departing from the contest for good a few minutes later, Los Angeles began to chip at the lead to the point where it had a +16 run to its credit to show for the minutes that followed the Brown dunk.

Sure, Boston answered with its own 8-0 during the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, but a championship contender only downing the lottery-bound Lakers (even in Los Angeles) by 20 points is somewhat respectable.

D’Angelo Russell, speaking from the inside, wasn’t feeling that sentiment.

Russell was not on the floor for the Thomas-to Brown connection, nor was he on the court when a younger Lakers lineup run led (if not spectacularly well) by Tyler Ennis and Jordan Clarkson sparked that Los Angeles third quarter comeback. Whatever his relation, he had plenty to say about the loss following the contest when talking about the contributions of his fellow starters:

After handing the Celtics six quick points to start the second half, Luke Walton took Russell and four other Lakers starters (Nick Young, Julius Randle, Tarik Black; rookie Brandon Ingram had been pulled 72 seconds into the third quarter) after just three minutes, clearly upset with what he saw. Following the game, via Harrison Faigen at Silver Screen and Roll, Russell detailed Walton’s drive:

The defeat dropped Los Angeles to 19-43 on the season, dead last in the Western Conference and second-worst in the NBA. The way things are set, Los Angeles should have good odds at keeping its own first round pick during this year’s draft (if it falls out of the top three, it heads to Philadelphia), seemingly to add another teenager bent on turning the club around. That teenager’s first season in 2017-18 will be spent alongside the 21-year Russell, who will already be in his third NBA campaign at that point. Luke Walton, barring a summer surprise from some other team, will be the league’s youngest head coach during that season.

Or, the new Lakers front office and holdover business operations staff could see fit to blow it all up, and send available young players (including several of the starters yanked early on Friday) to another team in exchange for an in-prime star, one Walton would have to coach. That star better be ready to perform as a precocious-yet-gutty youngster would, under a coach in Walton who has seen the good (in Golden State) and the bad (Jaylen Brown taking the lead to 31 points) in just a year’s time.

Walton, who last played an NBA game in 2012, still feels as if he could capably get up and down the court with the players he’s charged with coaching – at least for plays like the one that saw the Boston rookie ahead of the pack. These significant Lakers are old enough to be the age of Walton’s younger brothers, and as a result Luke would expect more from his players and bash the purported missteps of a domineering opponent less often than, say, an out of touch and perpetually perturbed older NCAA basketball coach.

Any trading partner or future teammate would do well to tune in on Los Angeles Lakers, in order to see how they finish out this season’s final 20 games. It’ll be interesting to see if Walton’s in-game or post-game messages got through.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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