It’s already Dec. 26 here in Asia. In Hong Kong, it is Boxing Day, a holiday the Hongkongers picked up from the British.

Mostly, it’s just an excuse for a semi-serious public holiday and a chance to do more shopping, as if not enough of that goes on around here.

But it is a real holiday for me, because the Lakers finished defeating the Celtics, 92-83, a few hours ago. When I was still sleeping. But I’ve been reading all the stories I can find on the game, and saw the video clip of highlights on espn.com. Twice.

What I liked about this victory:

1. It was over the Celtics. That’s always good. I’m Old School (in terms of longevity and my  capacity to nurse ridiculous sports grudges). See: Giants, San Francisco; Fighting Irish, Notre Dame. Any bad day for the Celtics is a good day for the Lakers, and losing to their arch-rivals and having their 19-game winning streak is quite a bad day for the Celtics.

2. The Lakers defeated them in the high-profile Christmas Day game. This is the one everyone saw (aside from those of us in Asia), and it will become the cultural reference point for the rest of the season. I am not convinced the Lakers are a better team, but the chatter from generic fans — who will be around these teams the rest of the season — will be how the Lakers are just as good, can hang, are improved, all that. And some of that will seep into the consciousness of both teams. To the Celtics’ detriment (hey, maybe we are beatable) and to the Lakers’ benefit (maybe we can beat those guys). Even if the Celtics win in the regular-season rematch in Boston, on Feb. 5. the Lakers will have split the series — as opposed to last year, when they, the Celtics and everyone else remembered that Boston handled them with ease in both regular-season games.

3. I liked the way Pau Gasol asserted himself down the stretch. Those seven points in crunch time, and the big block. That is large. Gasol doesn’t have to be a blowhard screamer like Kevin Garnett, but he needs to be a little tougher and, as Kobe Bryant put it in the postgame interview, remember that he is “one of the best players in the world.”

4. I like having Trevor Ariza out there, instead of Vlad Radmanovic. Infinitely more athletic (can you imagine Vlad even attempting, let alone making, that reverse breakaway dunk at the end?) and a far, far better defender. He makes this a significantly better team.  Not having him for the playoffs, last year, was almost as damaging — I now believe — as not having Andrew Bynum.

5. I liked the way Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen bickered over turnovers. Hmm, the Celtics are not all goodness and light and one big team hug.  Maybe this can be the start of some festering sore. It’s the Celtics. We can hope.

6. We don’t want the Celtics winning 70 — aside, maybe, from the toll that kind of season-long push would take on all their 30-something starters — and someone needed to remind the NBA that they can be beaten. Good message.

7. It came on Christmas Day. A present to all Lakers fans psychically wounded by Games 4 and 6 of the NBA Finals last June. Don’t you feel calm and peaceful now? And it has nothing to do with rum in your egg nog or the warmth of being around family. The Celtics went down, and the Lakers sent them there, and the world is a grand place for a few hours, anyway.