Missed free throws at finish nearly cost the Lakers a victory against Celtics

At the end of the Lakers' tight matchup against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was in the game because Lakers coach Luke Walton trusted him to make free throws under pressure.

But with 5.7 seconds left and the Lakers up by one point, Caldwell-Pope missed both free throws after the Celtics intentionally fouled him.Seconds later, he made up for it, hounding Celtics guard Marcus Smart as Smart came up the court for the final shot. His defense helped the Lakers hang on for a 108-107 victory over the Celtics at Staples Center.

"KC made a big stop," said Jordan Clarkson. "Everybody's going to look at the free throws, but he made a big stop on Marcus that forced him into a tough shot at the end of the game. He made it up on that end."Caldwell-Pope had left the locker room by the time Walton's news conference finished, leaving behind a locker with a basketball in it that had the words "free throws" scrawled on it in black marker. While he has made 76.8% of his free throws this season, that's been a problem area for the team as a whole lately.

The Lakers won despite making 21 of 36 free throws (58%), two games after making only 2-of-14 free throws in a win over the Indiana Pacers. With the win the Lakers are 18-29 while the East-leading Celtics fell to 34-14.

"The message right now is defense," Walton said. "Everything is defense. Because we're shooting this from the free throw line, because we're not doing this whatever it is, we're still able to win games because of our defense.

"We should be quite aware of the fact that we've lost our fair share of games because we didn't shoot free throws well."

Kyle Kuzma heated up in the fourth quarter. After scoring 11 points through the first three periods, he scored 17 in the fourth, including a three-pointer that gave the Lakers a late lead.