To watch the Celtics play at their best is to wonder how they ever lose. How can a team with this many weapons, that is this unselfish, that plays this kind of defense ever come up short? The obvious reasons include health, focus and the unrelenting NBA schedule.

Put the Celtics in a game they really care about, with all their players available and a day off in-between, and it’s almost impossible to pick against them. So far this season they have defeated the Heat (twice), Bulls, Magic, Spurs and now the Lakers, who they beat 109-96 Sunday (click here for a full recap).

They are now 17-5 against teams with winning records. The Magic, Heat and Lakers all have losing records against .500 teams, while the Bulls are a respectable 10-9. Only the Spurs at 18-6 have a comparable mark, but only the Celtics have recorded wins against the other five.
The Celtics didn’t just beat the Lakers, they beat them in every phase of the game.

They beat them on the glass, outrebounding them 43-30. The Celtics shot 60 percent from the floor, made twice as many 3-pointers, had 34 assists compared to LA’s 10, and even had better production from their much-maligned bench. (Nate Robinson and Glen Davis in particular were fantastic). The Celtics won by double-digits in Los Angeles and it would have been worse if Kobe Bryant hadn’t gone off and channeled 2006 Kobe.

The Celtics' performance Sunday proved that as of this moment they are the team to beat in the NBA. On their best day, and this may have been it, no one can even come close to matching them.

Here are three points:

PAUL PIERCE, KOBE BRYANT AND THE LIMITS OF ONE MAN

There are few players, if any, the Celtics respect more than Kobe Bryant. Perhaps that’s why when Bryant was trying to single-handedly beat them, Celtics coach Doc Rivers implored his team not to overreact.

Rivers is on record as saying he doesn’t care if a superstar goes off against his troops, as long as they make him work for it. But there’s something about Bryant making impossible shots with a hand in his face that seems to get in their heads.

Bryant scored 22 points in the first half on just 11 shots, which is not what they wanted at all. But by the fourth quarter it became clear that Bryant was going to try to do the whole thing himself. He took 18 shots in the second half, 29 in total, and had exactly zero assists.

On the other side, Paul Pierce was doing much the same thing for the Celtics. He kept them in the game in the first half when it was starting to get away from them and then he doubled-down, scoring 14 of his 32 points in the third quarter. Pierce was so good that Lakers coach Phil Jackson benched Ron Artest in both the first and second halves after Pierce carved him up.

But Pierce had help. Ray Allen made 8-of-12 shots and scored 21 points. Kevin Garnett had 18 points on 9-for-12 shooting. All told, the veteran stars shot 67 percent (28-for-42) and the Celtics had 34 assists on 44 makes.

“We have our formula and the Lakers have theirs,” Doc Rivers told reporters in Los Angeles. “When we stay in our formula, we tend to win games.”

The Celtics' formula is well-known. It allows for anyone to be the hero on any given night, but only if the other players trust each other.
It was not surprising that even on an afternoon when he was quasi-unstoppable, Pierce took only two shots in the fourth quarter while the Celtics put on an offensive clinic. Bryant, on the other hand, launched 11 times in a desperate attempt to keep pace.

As great as Bryant is — and he is great — no one player can beat the Celtics. That was proven again Sunday.

THE KEVIN GARNETT DIFFERENCE

Garnett has not exactly covered himself in glory on this West Coast trip. He followed up his low-blow, cheap shot of Phoenix forward Channing Frye Friday night by reportedly blowing off a Lakers ballboy who asked him to sign a basketball. [Editor's note: The tweet reporting the alleged Garnett snub was removed Monday morning.]

But away from the anti-social theatrics that have at times threatened to overshadow Garnett’s season, the reality is that he is playing at a level not seen around here since the championship season of 2008. For all the talk of the difference a healthy Kendrick Perkins would have made in Game 7 of the finals last season, ask yourself this: Can anyone beat the Celtics when Garnett plays like he did Sunday?

The primary objective coming into the game was keeping the Lakers off the boards. Except for a five-minute stretch of the second quarter when Garnett was in the locker room getting his head stitched up, the Celtics did exactly that.

Garnett had 12 defensive rebounds — his most since a Dec. 28 win over the Pacers — and he dominated Pau Gasol. It was Gasol, not Bryant, who controlled Game 7, and the memory of that performance will likely stay in whatever dark corner of Garnett’s brain that houses such thoughts.

It wasn’t just defensively, either. Garnett made 9-of-12 shots en route to 18 points and five assists. If this is his swan song — as he hinted in early December — he’s not going out of his way to make friends. He is, however, reminding everyone just how good he really is.  

RAJON RONDO STANDS UP

By now, the Lakers defensive strategy against Rajon Rondo is well known. Kobe Bryant camps in the lane 10 feet off Rondo and dares him to shoot jumpers while keeping his hands and arms in the passing lanes. Other teams employ this tactic as well, but few are as successful, mainly because they don’t have a player like Bryant.

As is often the case against Los Angeles, Rondo reacts to this defense by removing himself from the action and standing in the corner where he can do none of the things that make him Rondo. At least that’s how it went in the first half, when Rondo took only five shots and had just one assist.

The second half was a completely different story. Rondo seemed to get into a groove after corralling an offensive rebound and scoring with his left hand — a typically Rondo-ish play. From that point on he was unstoppable.

“I told Rondo it was one of his best games of the year,” Rivers said. The coach was referring to the way Rondo called the game, and there’s no doubt that the two essentially share the same basketball brain.

That’s all well and good, but the Celtics still need his creativity, which has been missing the last few weeks. To that end, they made a concerted effort to get the ball in his hands after rebounds and get him on the move in transition. There isn’t a defense in the world that can stop him in space.

Rondo responded by handing out 15 assists in the second half, which was more than he had against Portland and Phoenix combined. The Celtics can win when Rondo isn’t at his best, but when he plays like he did Sunday they are frightening. 

This was about as close to perfect as the Celtics have come this season, and it was made all the more satisfying that it happened against their eternal rivals.