Celtics spread the joy as they blow out shorthanded Lakers – The Boston Globe

But the Celtics willingly and methodically disposed of the roster that was placed in front of them, roaring to a 29-point first-half lead before cruising to a 126-105 win, their fourth in a row.

“I thought we were the harder-playing team right from the jump,” Sam Hauser said. “Obviously we got off to a great start and maintained that.”

Jaylen Brown had 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists to lead the Celtics, who buried Los Angeles with another flammable shooting night. Boston made 46 of 84 shots overall, and 24 of 45 3-pointers (53.3 percent).

The Celtics failed to reach the 40-percent mark from the 3-point line in their first 12 games of the season, and their 5-7 record was a direct result of that. During that grisly shooting stretch, coach Joe Mazzulla insisted that the poor numbers were more due to shooting misfortune than shoddy execution.

On Friday, he acknowledged that the shooting luck might have tilted in the opposite direction. He was still pleased with the overall approach.

“I thought we had great execution,” he said. “I liked the shots we got.”

The Celtics are averaging 121.9 points per 100 possessions, tied for the second-best offensive rating in the NBA. Following all of the notable departures this summer as well as Jayson Tatum’s absence because of his Achilles injury, this level of production would have seemed unfathomable at the start of the year.

Despite these gaudy numbers, guard Payton Pritchard does not think the offense has reached its peak. He said it’ll “be exciting” to continue the ascension.

“If everybody’s just focused on, ‘How can I just get a little bit better each day, each game, no matter win or loss?,’ ” Pritchard said, “then eventually we’ll become the team we want to become.”

Jordan Walsh followed his strong game Thursday against the Wizards by making 6 of 7 shots and scoring 17 points Friday. He is 18 for 19 from the field over the last three games, and his rise since joining the starting lineup has been Boston’s most encouraging development.

Austin Reaves had 36 points to lead Los Angeles, but the Celtics mostly bottled him up during the first half, when he was just 2 for 7 from the field and his team stumbled into a deep hole.

Surprisingly, some of the night’s loudest cheers were reserved for James’s son, Bronny, the second-year guard. Following scattered “we want Bronny” chants during the second half, he checked in to some applause midway through the fourth. The crowd erupted when Bronny had a one-handed dunk and a 3-pointer, although the lopsided score probably factored into the warm reaction.

Celtics guard Derrick White started 3 for 4 from the 3-point line, and his pull-up from the top of the key with 6:18 left gave Boston a 19-7 lead. Its advantage remained in double digits the final 39 and a half minutes.

Brown was a distributor for most of the opening quarter. He passed up a few challenging shots to find teammates closer to the rim, but he scored 7 points in the final three minutes — all inside the arc — helping the Celtics extend their lead to 39-17.

The shooting cooled slightly in the second quarter, but the big lead left room for that. A 3-pointer by Hauser with 10:06 left stretched the advantage to 49-21 and provided another example of Boston’s balance. Nearly midway through the quarter, no Celtic had attempted more than five shots.

Boston’s defense let up in the third quarter — five turnovers added extra stress — and Reaves found a second wind following his slow start.

He poured in 16 points in the period, and the Lakers shot 63.2 percent from the field, helping them pull within 97-82 after three quarters. But the Celtics started the fourth with a 9-0 run.

“These last two games, we kind of just put our foot on the gas and took care of business,” Pritchard said.

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.