Gift of defense sets them free

Lakers, meet Mr. Defense.

Mr. Defense, say hello again to the Lakers.

The Lakers and Mr. Defense were best friends when the Lakers began the season as one of the top teams among virtually every defensive category in the NBA. Then the Lakers and Mr. Defense parted ways, the slippage in effort and results coming in waves thereafter.

But on Christmas Day, against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics, the Lakers rediscovered their defensive mantra in a very big way during a 92-83 victory Thursday at Staples Center.

“It’s a work in progress,” Trevor Ariza said. “It’s a long season. We don’t intend on going out and not playing good ‘D.’ But sometimes things click, and tonight was one of those nights.”

The Lakers limited the Celtics to 46.8% shooting from the field.

They blocked nine shots, three by Pau Gasol, and two each by Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton and Lamar Odom.

Boston Coach Doc Rivers conceded that the Lakers were solid on defense.

“It was good,” Rivers said. “We rushed shots, but they were there. You’ve got to give them that credit. We can say we were sloppy, we can say we missed shots. But at the end of the day, Bynum was in the right place. He was long and they made us miss shots.”

The fourth quarter was when the Lakers really put the clamps on the Celtics.

Boston led, 81-79, with 3:56 left, but it scored only two points the rest of the way.

“Tonight, I felt our defense was pretty consistent,” said Kobe Bryant, who led the Lakers with 27 points, a team-high nine rebounds and five assists.

The Lakers hustled on defense, chased down loose balls -- no one more than Ariza.

He ran down a bad pass by Paul Pierce, getting there ahead of Eddie House, tightroping along the baseline and keeping himself from going out of bounds until he found a streaking Sasha Vujacic for a layup that turned into a three-point play.

Ariza had just that one steal, but it came at a key point with the score tied at 77-77.

Ariza also ran down the Celtics’ Kendrick Perkins, who was going in for an apparent dunk before Ariza stripped him of the ball.

The humble Ariza often prefers not to talk about his exploits, but he was asked to explain the two big hustle plays he made.

“I don’t know, man, I guess it was big,” Ariza said in a low voice. “Two big stops, two big plays. We got the win. We needed this one. Any part of contributing to a win is good for us. Anything that I can do to try to help our team win, that’s what I’m going to try to do.”

After the game, Vujacic expressed his sentiments about the Celtics, who beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals in June, 4-2.

Does he hate the Celtics?

“I’m not going to say hate, but I dislike them,” Vujacic said. “Hate is a strong word. I don’t like them. I don’t want to talk about them.”

Vujacic was asked again if he hated the Celtics.

“More than that,” he said. “I can’t even imagine what more than hate is. You have to go to vocabulary and find out.”

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broderick.turner@latimes.com