How to watch Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers
On Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024 (2/1/24), the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers will play an NBA regular season game at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
How to watch: Spectators can watch the game for free by signing up for a 50% first-month subscription to Sling TV or by trying out DirecTV Stream.
Here’s what you need to know:
What: NBA regular season
Who: Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers
When: Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: TNT
The following services can be used to find channels: Cox, DIRECTV,Dish, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling, Spectrum/Charter, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, and Optimum/Altice.
Live stream: Sling TV (first month 50% off) and DirecTV Stream (free trial)
AP Preview Synopsis:
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Doc Rivers was coaching the first NBA game that Giannis Antetokounmpo remembers seeing on television.
“We had this old TV,” Antetokounmpo recalled Saturday night. “I had to hit it on the side.”
During the 2008 NBA Finals, Antetokounmpo was a youngster and witnessed Rivers lead the Boston Celtics to victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.After guiding the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA Championship in fifty years, Antetokounmpo would win his own championship thirteen years later.
Currently, they are attempting to win another title together. Rivers, who was hired to replace Adrian Gryphon, who was dismissed after just 43 games, held his first press conference as the Bucks’ coach on Saturday.
“I’m thrilled,” Antetokounmpo declared. “In this league, he is a legend.”
Rivers is equally thrilled as he prepares to make his Bucks debut on Monday night when Milwaukee opens a five-game trip against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.
Coaching in Milwaukee represents a homecoming of sorts for Rivers, a former Marquette guard who says he got much of his basketball knowledge from former Golden Eagle coaches Al McGuire, Hank Raymonds and Rick Majerus. Rivers’ No. 31 Marquette jersey hangs from the rafters of Fiserv Forum, the home arena of the Bucks and Marquette.
“It’s just really cool being in an arena, coaching in an arena and your jersey’s hanging above you,” said Rivers, who was at Marquette from 1980-83 before playing 13 seasons in the NBA. “I can turn to the players and say: ‘Guys, I swear to God, I played basketball. Just look up. I swear that’s me.’ It’s really cool.”
Shortly after his news conference, Rivers received a standing ovation and gave a brief pep talk to the crowd as he was introduced during a first-half timeout in Marquette’s 75-57 victory over Seton Hall.
Rivers has a difficult task ahead of him.When Gryphon was let go, the Bucks were 30-13, which speaks something about the team’s urgency with Antetokounmpo and seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard on the roster. Joe Prunty, the Bucks’ interim head coach, has seen his team go 2-1 in the past four days.
Rivers started the new season as an ESPN analyst after being sacked by the Philadelphia 76ers the previous season after the team’s third consecutive second-round playoff loss. He returned to the NBA for a 25th season as head coach thanks to this opportunity.
Rivers declared, “I wasn’t going to just take a job.” This season, I’ve been phoned multiple times, but I refused to answer the phone. I was being really serious. If the right opportunity opened, I would listen. If not,
Rivers said his staff will include former Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger as well as Rex Kalamian, who worked alongside him with the Los Angeles Clippers.
The immediate task for Rivers is upgrading a defense that has taken a major step backward without Jrue Holiday, who was included in the offseason trade that brought Lillard to Milwaukee.
“Our language and communication defensively, we have to get that right,” Rivers said. “Right now, you can feel it. Some this way, some this way. We’ve gotta get on the same page. We’ve got to do things differently, too, than the past. Jrue and Dame are different players. We have to change some things, for sure.”
Rivers’ head coaching experience represents a sharp contrast from his predecessor. Griffin had been an NBA assistant for 16 years but never a head coach until the Bucks hired him last summer.
During his time with the Orlando Magic (1999–2004), Boston Celtics (2004–13), Clippers (2013–20), and 76ers (2020–23), Rivers has a 1,097–763 regular-season record and a 111–104 playoff record. He will tie Larry Brown for the eighth-most career coaching wins in NBA history with his first win with the Bucks.
He has a powerful voice, Lillard remarked. “He will expect more from our group. He won’t be scared to put myself to the test. He will not back down from a challenge to Giannis. He won’t be scared to take on Khris (Middleton) and Brook (Lopez), as well as anyone else in the future. I believe that’s necessary if you want to succeed, especially when working with a staff as skilled and experienced as ours.
Rivers won a title with the Celtics in 2008 and lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers two years later, but he never got beyond the second round of the playoffs with the Clippers and 76ers.
Milwaukee’s had its own postseason issues.
The Bucks won their first title in half a century in 2021 but haven’t advanced beyond the second round since. They posted the NBA’s top regular-season record in 2019, 2020 and 2023 but failed to make it beyond the conference finals in any of those years.
Mike Budenholzer, who coached the Bucks to the 2021 title, was fired last year after the top-seeded Bucks’ shocking 4-1 first-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat.
Rivers and the Bucks are hoping that joining forces can help them both end their recent playoff frustrations. Rivers embraced Milwaukee’s sky-high expectations while talking to the media and to his new team.
Antetokounmpo remarked, “I think the most important thing he emphasised is to come together as a team.” “The more time we spend working as a team, the sooner we will reach our goals.”
Rivers thinks he can lead the Bucks to success.
According to Rivers, “winning it all is like receiving a blood transfusion from everyone in the organisation; once you get that in you, you want another one.” And I’m pursuing that. I’m not sure if there’s anything to support that claim. It’s just something I feel like doing. Giannis wants to do it, so pay attention to him. Lopez and Khris Middleton are two people who still desire to win more awards despite having already won one. And Dame’s goal is to succeed.
