BOSTON -- As the Boston Celtics' lead over the Los Angeles Lakers continued to surge, "Beat L-A" chants began to vibrate the walls inside the TD Garden.  

Both teams spent the final minutes of Boston's 130-109 win emptying their benches with seldom-used players, seizing the moment to etch their place, or at least a few meaningless stats, in this long-standing rivalry.

And the scary part for Lakers Nation? 

There may be more games like this one on the horizon, with one basketball-playing ghost after another from the Lakers' not-so-distant past continuing to haunt them. 

The latest blast from their past to show up and soon show out against L.A. was Boston Celtics guard Dennis Schroder.

The 6'1" guard played with the Lakers last season and turned down a four-year deal worth $84 million to return to Los Angeles.

Instead, he was intent on pursuing a more lucrative multi-year contract on the free-agent market. 

Unfortunately for Schröder, the market dried up quickly and he was left little choice but to sign a shorter-term deal, which is when Boston became a player for his services.

The Celtics signed him to a one-year deal worth $5.9 million, which has made him one of the biggest bargains in the NBA this season. For the Celtics, Schröder has been exactly what they have needed to stay competitive in the East. 

"Dennis has been a great addition to this team," said Boston guard Marcus Smart. "Just being able to create for others...it gives that extra energy to others to get into their game and get into a rhythm."

His value is even greater with Boston All-Star Jaylen Brown being out the last seven games with a sore hamstring injury. In his last seven games (all starts), Schröder has averaged 22.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists. And his play is a reminder as to why depth matters in the NBA, regardless of how talented your top players may be. 

On a night when LeBron James returned from an eight-game absence due to an abdominal injury and looked very LeBron James-like (23 points and six assists in 32 minutes) while Anthony Davis (31 points in 37 minutes on 10-for-19 shooting) had a strong game, it wasn't enough. 

Not only was it not enough to win, but it wasn't even enough to keep the game close and competitive beyond the middle of the third quarter. 

While getting healthier as a team will help, it doesn't address the Lakers' inability to defend at a high level at seemingly every position. Boston is not known for getting into the paint at will, but that's exactly what they did on Friday. Whether it was Marcus Smart or Jayson Tatum or Dennis Schröder, the Celtics got anything and everything they wanted at the rim.

There's no doubt the Lakers can and will play better going forward, especially when some of their injured players such Trevor Ariza (right ankle) and Kendrick Nunn (right knee bone bruise) return to action and the team plays more games together and develops chemistry.

But chemistry doesn't seem to be the subject to keep an eye on with this Lakers team. 

Friday's loss, their fourth in their last five games, was a reminder of the missteps, miscalculations and major problems that thus far have weighed heavily in the Lakers' struggles; struggles that are only exacerbated with one basketball-playing ghost after another from their less-than-stellar offseason past coming back to haunt them.

While Lakers star Anthony Davis says the Lakers can be an elite team defensively, the numbers thus far suggest an alternate reality from what he sees. On Friday, Boston finished with 56 points in the paint, which isn't that far off from what most teams have done to the Lakers this season. 

Lakers opponents average 50.9 points in the paint per game, which ranks 29th out of 30 teams, this season. 

The struggles defensively are big. 

The players they decided to pass on in order to acquire Russell Westbrook via trade from Washington, are major issues impacting their struggles this season.n No one questions Westbrook's talent or ability to be a difference-maker. But there were concerns that because he's at his best with the ball in hand, that might be an issue because the same holds true for most of their top-tier players like James, Davis and Carmelo Anthony. 

Those concerns about Westbrook's fit have in many ways been corroborated by the team's play thus far. 

And it only adds to the frustration for Lakers Nation to know that instead of Westbrook, the Lakers could have had a more efficient, proven veteran in the backcourt who wanted to "come home" and play for his hometown team akin to Westbrook's reasoning for wanting the trade to happen.  

The Lakers had their chances to add four-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who was born in Compton, California and played at nearby USC, a bromance that gained significant steam in the fall of 2020 as a very real possibility.

In an interview with Yahoo Sports! NBA reporter Chris Haynes, DeRozan, who wound up signing with the Chicago Bulls, said he thought at one point that going to the Lakers was "a done deal."

"The business side of things just didn't work out," said DeRozan who made the Lakers pay by dropping a game-high 38 points on them in Chicago's 121-103 win earlier this month at the Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena). "A couple of things didn't align. It didn't work out. It's just part of the business, part of the game. My next option was definitely Chicago. So, looking back at it, it worked out well."

The Lakers could have re-signed Alex Caruso, a solid contributor for them in the backcourt as well. But the Lakers reportedly made a well below-market offer compared to the four-year, $37 million deal he signed with the Bulls. 

Caruso essentially confirmed the offer he received from the Lakers wasn't close to the kind of money other teams were willing to pay him.

"So going into it, I didn't really know what to expect and I didn't really hear much from any team — including the Lakers — leading up to 6:00 p.m. and they called and the Lakers made their offer," Caruso told J.J. Redick on The Old Man and the Three podcast.

"It wasn't an offer I was going to accept," Caruso said. "Because I was going to be able to get considerably more money from another team." 

And only adding insult to injury was Schröder on Friday.

He finished with 21 points to go with six rebounds and six assists. He was a pesky defender. 

Schröder had the kind of all-around game that the Lakers could have used if they were willing to up the ante on the four-year, $84 million offer they made to him. 

But he decided to pass because he felt he was worth more.

He might be right. 

Because the way he has played for the Celtics with his scoring, defense and overall impact is exactly what Boston needs - and what the Lakers are missing only to be reminded by one basketball-playing ghost after another.