The bad news: The Boston Celtics have played some pretty bad basketball lately against the NBA’s cellar dwellers. The good news: It hasn’t cost them yet.
Less than a week after fighting off the lowly 76ers in Philadelphia, the Celtics needed to do the same against the Suns in Phoenix. The NBA’s third-worst team mounted a huge second-half comeback to make it a game down the stretch, but the C’s barely held on to earn a 102-99 win at Talking Stick Resort Arena and extend their winning streak to four games.
The Celtics led by 21 points at one point in the first half but needed an Evan Turner block of Devin Booker on Phoenix’s final possession to emerge victorious in their first stop on a five-game West Coast swing.
Isaiah Thomas led all scorers with 28 points, while Turner racked up 17 points and 11 rebounds, Kelly Olynyk chipped in 16 points off the bench and Avery Bradley added 15. Booker led the Suns with 21 points, while Brandon Knight dropped 19 and Mirza Teletovic tallied 17.
STARTING FIVE
Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Amir Johnson, Jared Sullinger
FREE OFFENSE
The Celtics put on a pretty ugly shooting display out of the gate but still managed to drop 35 points in the first quarter.
Boston’s early offensive woes were masked by several trips to the foul line, as the C’s drilled all 11 of their free throw attempts in the quarter to take an early lead despite missing nine of their first 11 shots. Amir Johnson also led a strong effort on the glass, tallying two of the Celtics’ seven offensive rebounds in the quarter.
The shots finally started falling, though, as Olynyk buried a pair of 3-pointers late in the frame to put Boston up by double digits.
TURNING OUT THE LIGHTS
The C’s clamped down on defense in the second quarter, holding the hapless Suns to 19 points in the frame to seemingly put the game away by halftime.
Phoenix went nearly five minutes in the middle of the period without recording a basket, while rookie Terry Rozier helped spark a 13-2 Boston run with this nifty move:
The Suns actually shot 53 percent in the quarter compared to the Celtics’ 39 percent but attempted just 15 shots, as Boston continued to dominate possession to take a 17-point lead into halftime.
DELAYED SUNSET
Apparently no one told Phoenix to stop playing, though.
The Suns suddenly caught fire in the third quarter, going on a massive 24-6 run to cut the Celtics’ lead down to one. The C’s apparently caught what ailed Phoenix in the second quarter, failing to score during a two and a half-minute stretch during the Suns’ run. The trio of Booker, Bandon Knight and Teletovic combined for 25 of Phoenix’s 34 points in the frame.
Thomas scored the Celtics’ final seven points in the quarter to give his team a bit of breathing room entering the fourth.
BOOKER BALL
The Suns’ youngest player lit it up down the stretch to keep his team in it.
Booker scored eight points over a four-minute span as part of a 10-5 Phoenix run, and his stepback jumper with 1:16 to play cut Boston’s lead to one. Booker had a chance to tie the score on the Suns’ final possession, but Turner swatted his shot in the lane with 3.9 seconds remaining to help the C’s avert disaster.
PLAY OF THE NIGHT
An agile defensive play by Jared Sullinger led to a nifty fast break for the Celtics in the first quarter:
UP NEXT
The competition will get considerably stiffer for Boston as its West Coast swing continues, as the Celtics’ next three games are against Western Conference playoff contenders in the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors. First up is Monday’s contest against Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce and the Clippers, with tip-off at Staples Center set for 10:30 p.m. ET.
Thumbnail photo via Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports Images
