Celtics Balanced Attack Leads to Seventh Straight Win

No Jayson Tatum, no problem. Playing without their all-star forward – who sat out with an ankle injury suffered on Monday against Sacramento – the Celtics thumped a surging Suns team 132-102. This was Boston’s 7th straight victory tying a season high and snapped a 4 games Suns winning streak.

The Celtics had six players in double digits let by Kristaps Porzingis who dropped 30 to go along with 8 rebounds and two blocks. Porzingis got whatever he wanted all game, feasting on mismatches in the post against a smaller Suns team. Porzingis was also hot from deep hitting 4 of his 5 3-pointer.

“I was feeling good and I think we got off to a good start offensively. We know there a good team and they have some firepower but we really took over in the second quarter,” Porzingis told NBC Sports in his walk-off interview. “We wanted to take away their threes and their a good shooting team and those kind of teams are dangerous. It was a collective effort that second quarter.”

Jaylen Brown had a nice bounce-back game after not looking like himself Monday night against the Kings. Brown,  who’s been battling a knee injury, hit two threes in the first minute of the game. Brown was also able to get into the paint which was good to see.  His signature play came in the first half when he drove the lane and threw down a vicious one handed slam.

The Celtics started off hot hitting their first seven threes, going up 21-9 in the first four minutes but the Suns survived the avalanche of 3s to keep pace with Boston trailing only 42-38 after one. Kevin Durant scored 16 of his team high 30 in the frame.

The Celtics defense tightened up in the second as Boston went on a 31-10 run to take a 25 point lead at one point in the quarter. Boston went into the half up by 19. They stretched the lead to 34 points in the third quarter and kept Phoenix at bay the rest of the way.

“I liked our defensive approach, I thought the guys were able to take it to another level,” head coach Joe Mazulla said to NBC Boston in a postgame interview. “It started as a shootout, and we had some cross match breakdowns, they had a few offensive rebounds, but then I thought we really dialed in and our shift activity was really good. They are are one of the best corner shooting three teams in the league and we took that away completely.”

The Celtics got contributions from all their starters. In addition to Porzingis (3) and Brown (24) the C’s got 16 points apiece from Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Al Horford. Like Porzingis, Horford also took advantage of the Suns lack of size hunting mismatches in the post and pulling down a team high 10 rebound.

“He takes ownership of every matchup and every opportunity that he has,” Mazzulla said. “He’s one of our silent assassins from a leadership and a competitive standpoint. So when you get to watch him play against other greats, to me, it’s a gift.”

Now at 54-19, the Celtics will look to extend their win streak to a season high 8 when they take on the Spurs in San Antonio on Saturday.