Post Game - Celtics vs. Phoenix Suns - Saturday, March 09 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585548

Celtics-Suns takeaways: C's snap losing streak with impressive road win

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-suns-takeaways-cs-snap-042417270.html


Nick Goss
Sat, Mar 9, 2024, 11:24 PM EST·4 min read




Celtics-Suns takeaways: C's snap losing streak with impressive road win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Three Key Storylines

D-White shines
Horford, Kornet provide huge minutes
Durant's 45 points not enough

The Boston Celtics still haven't lost three games in a row during the 2023-24 NBA season.

After winning 11 consecutive matchups, the Celtics dropped back-to-back games earlier this week. They avoided a third straight defeat with a hard-fought 117-107 victory over the Phoenix Suns at the Footprint Center on Saturday night.

Jayson Tatum (29 points) and Jaylen Brown (27 points) led the Celtics offensively. Six players scored in double-digits for the C's, including Luke Kornet and Payton Pritchard off the bench. Boston's bench outscored Phoenix's 27-16.

Kevin Durant (45 points) and Bradley Beal (25 points) provided the bulk of the scoring for the Suns. No other Phoenix player scored more than 13 points.

The C's have a league-best 49-14 record and an eight-game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers for first place in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Celtics will continue their road trip Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. But before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Celtics-Suns.

1) White does it all

Derrick White didn't play very well in the Celtics' last two games, scoring a total of just 10 points in losses to the Cavaliers and Nuggets. He was much better versus the Suns and made his presence felt at both ends of the floor.

White scored 10 points on an efficient 5-of-8 shooting, while leading Boston with nine assists and grabbing five rebounds. White was consistently pushing the pace, particularly off of defensive rebounds. The Celtics got plenty of good shot attempts as a result.

The veteran guard's defense also was excellent. You won't find many players who defend better in transition than White, and Royce O'Neal found out firsthand during a fast break in the second quarter.




White's ability to impact every facet of the game in a positive way helps make him so valuable to this team. He's someone who can be trusted to do all the little things, make good decisions with the basketball and dictate the flow of the game.

2) Horford, Kornet step up with Porzingis out

Kristaps Porzingis was a late scratch from Saturday night's game due to right hamstring tightness. His absence forced Al Horford and Luke Kornet to play a larger role at the center position, and they both answered the challenge.

Kornet, in particular, gave the Celtics some great minutes. He scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, along with six rebounds and an impressive block on a Bradley Beal drive to the basket. Kornet has scored more than 12 points only one other time this season (20 points vs. Heat on Jan. 25).



Horford pulled down 12 rebounds in the first half, becoming the first player 37 years of age or older to do that since Tim Duncan 10 years ago. Horford is just the fifth player to achieve the feat since the 1996-97 season.



Horford also chipped in six points, two assists and one steal in 32 minutes. His 3-point shooting has been subpar the last few weeks. He missed his first six attempts from beyond the arc against the Suns and is 5-of-21 over the last six games.

However, the one 3-pointer he did make was a pretty important one. It gave the Celtics a 110-102 lead with 1:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.



Overall, the Celtics got exactly what they needed from Horford and Kornet with Porzingis sidelined.

3) Durant did all he could

Kevin Durant is one of the best players in league history, and he did everything he could to will the Suns to victory against the league's top team.

Durant poured in a season-high 45 points on 18-of-26 shooting. He hit four of his seven 3-point attempts, while also tallying 10 rebounds, six assists and one steal in 37 minutes.



Here's the stat line for Durant's last three games:

March 5 at Nuggets: 35 points, 14-of-34 shooting, eight rebounds
March 7 vs. Raptors: 35 points, 11-of-19 shooting
March 9 vs. Suns: 45 points, 18-of-26 shooting, 10 rebounds, six assists

The Suns are sixth in the Western Conference standings, which isn't too bad considering how many games Devin Booker and Bradley Beal have missed this season due to injuries. One of the few constants for the Suns has been Durant, who is still playing at an MVP level at 35 years old.

That photo of White making that block is amazing, one of the best I’ve seen.

Tatum's stats did not reflect how poorly he played at times. Jaylen was our best player and Luke, Pp, DW, AH, and especially Jrue were big factors in the win.
This team played with heart.

On one hand, I am underwhelmed.  Phoenix was without Booker and others, they were seriously undermanned.  On the other hand, we survived a KD 45-piece.  The league is littered with the bodies of teams who cannot make that claim.  

16-26 and just looking like he was 10 years younger.  Put Al on him and he drove around him with ease.  Put Jrue on him and he just shot over him effortlessly.  A lesson to be learned here, perhaps, is that because we are #30 out of 30 at creating steals we aren't really the best team to throw double-teams at scorers on a roll.  We double, they pass out, we don't shoot the gaps to try and make the pass harder, they get layups.  In this case all's well that ends well, but as we go deeper into the playoffs every team will have at least one scorer that will be almost unstoppable that night, and what do we do about them?


Jaylen with yet another outstanding performance.  In the playoffs you need players to step up.  Playing to your mean sets you up for losses to teams that rise up.  Jaylen is rising up.  The man is showing undeniable ganas.  He wants this so badly he's willing to do whatever it takes.  He's playing teams he realizes we might see in the playoffs and he feels an intense need to send a message and put them in their places now.  That's a playoff player, as opposed to a regular season player.

Which Jayson Tatum is starting to look more and more like.  What an awful road trip for him so far.  I agree with whomever said that his game was not as good as his boxscore.  He was very passive for most of the game.  We were struggling to get some separation from them in the 2nd quarter and Jayson scored zero points in that frame, going 0-3 from the field.  He played 9 minutes in the 2nd and took 3 fgas.  In the 2nd half he was tasked with bringing the ball up court and he walked it up every single time.  Every.  Single.  Time.  There was no sign of urgency.  Sportcenter will ooh and ahh over his 29 points but I am still NOT sold on the "Jayson Tatum, Point Forward" experiment.

Speaking of Sportcenter that was a truly amazing block by Derrick.  Reaching back, after he was already past, with his trailing arm to block a shot at the rim?! Blocking a shot with his right arm that was taken with the Suns player's left hand after Derrick was already flying past him and on his right side?!  Amazing, absolutely amazing.  He also had 9 assists and 2 turnovers.  Now those are floor general numbers.  The 7-and-4 posted by Tatum?  Not so much.  

It'd be easy to dump on Horford for going 4-12, 1-7 from 3, but he did other things to help the team.  He grabbed 12 rebounds, 3 offensive.  He ran the floor.  3 assists and only 1 turnover.  I cannot remember him taking any bad shots, they just didn't go down.  He blew some bunnies, they all did especially in the 1st quarter, and those will drag down your fg% too.  I can't blame him for not being able to stop KD.  KD is KD.  He's probably the best pure shooter of his era and one of the best, if not the best, in any era.  When he's feeling it nobody is stopping him.

Jrue had every tough defensive assignment.  He repeatedly defended Nurkic M2M.  That's sick.  Jaylen got stuck with Nurkic too.  C'mon, Joe!  This is crazy stuff and Phoenix isn't that good at creating mismatches.  Those two guys slept well last night because Nurkic is a load-and-a-half.

Pritchard with a solid, high energy game but the shout-out for the bench mob has to go to The Green Kornet.  A very solid game by Luke.  14 points on 6-7, 6 rebounds, 3 offensive, and a block in 20 minutes.  I thought for sure we'd be seeing Tillman last night in an effort to match beef-for-beef with Nurkic but Luke got the job done and he did it very well.  It never ceases to amaze me when I realize that Luke Kornet is a legit NBA big, but he is.  He plays within himself, he knows his role and his job and he usually goes out and does it.  No flash, very limited skills, but holds his own.  Without Z (or Al) we need our bench bigs to deliver and Luke did last night.  Frank Vogel was probably tearing what little hair he has out because he focused on stopping the Js and Derrick and Jrue (like every coach does) and then there's this Kornet fellow who is dunking lobs and doing a very credible job of defending the rim.

We now need to finish our road trip with two wins in a b2b.  Believe it or not, despite how late we are in the season, we still have 3 b2bs to go after the upcoming ones in Portland and Utah.  Four b2bs in the remaining 5 weeks of the regular season.  That is why I think it's so important to get those Magic Numbers behind us as soon as possible.  Our starters will need the rest by the end of this.  It's not as serious as if we were in the play-in, then there'd be no rest for the weary, but aches and pains need rest.  Jaylen's back is tweaked, he needs a few days off, but it's hard to justify that when OKC, Minny and Denver are still very much in the hunt.


Bob


.

Interesting Bob, my eye test doesn’t tell me we are last in steals, we have the no 2 defense and our starting 1-4 all have a legit claim for all defensive, especially White and Jaylen. I always see a few steals every game it seems from Jaylen or Tatum in the passing lane leading to a fast break and Holiday and White make those kind of plays too. Could it be the stat guy/person is screwing us. The refs certainly are. I’ve seen so many instances where we don’t get an obvious call, especially the J’s constantly getting hammered and no call. Lebron and Durant always got those calls as young players. Last night in 1st at beginning of game Jaylen has obvious guy hitting forearm on a 3, which helped him miss; then comes back down floor next possession and obvious body contact on a finish. It’s not like the guy was still and trying to take a charge. You could see Jaylens body shift in mid air on the contact. No call. He’s Jaylen, so strong he still finishes. He gets a tech for waving his hand afterward. It is so utterly pathetic how blind and incompetent these refs are!!! The refereeing has been terrible for years and keeps getting worse!!! Only job where you can keep being incompetent and never held accountable. Pray someone in the video department is sending copies of all these non calls to the league office. We can’t let these dickheads get away with this.

On the game otherwise. Jaylen is a warrior, he sets a tone defensively always seeking out the best offensive player, especially at key parts of the game. He’s been playing with a slight back issue. Kudos to him and the trainers for getting him to still be able to play thru it and get on the floor. I know how tricky backs can be, I would hope at some point against a weaker team, we can give him a night off. A fresh Jaylen for all he does is going to be big problem for the opposition in the playoffs. I don’t care what the stats are, he is as important or more to this team as Tatum.

Which brings us to Tatum, he had a terrible last 9 quarters, he especially lost his midrange and post game. Mind boggling how he can look like himself an all NBA top 5 total stud and help us bury teams, then have such a prolonged stretch where he can barely do anything. Kudos to Joe and Jaylen and the team for keeping us ahead most of the game despite the onslaught by Durant. Credit Joe and our array of perimeter defenders for keeping their key role players cold from the outside. When I watch other games I see so many open 3’s given up by other teams that we don’t allow. That’s not who we are.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Interesting Bob, my eye test doesn’t tell me we are last in steals, we have the no 2 defense and our starting 1-4 all have a legit claim for all defensive, especially White and Jaylen. I always see a few steals every game it seems from Jaylen or Tatum in the passing lane leading to a fast break and Holiday and White make those kind of plays too. Could it be the stat guy/person is screwing us. The refs certainly are. I’ve seen so many instances where we don’t get an obvious call, especially the J’s constantly getting hammered and no call. Lebron and Durant always got those calls as young players. Last night in 1st at beginning of game Jaylen has obvious guy hitting forearm on a 3, which helped him miss; then comes back down floor next possession and obvious body contact on a finish. It’s not like the guy was still and trying to take a charge. You could see Jaylens body shift in mid air on the contact. No call. He’s Jaylen, so strong he still finishes. He gets a tech for waving his hand afterward. It is so utterly pathetic how blind and incompetent these refs are!!! The refereeing has been terrible for years and keeps getting worse!!! Only job where you can keep being incompetent and never held accountable. Pray someone in the video department is sending copies of all these non calls to the league office. We can’t let these dickheads get away with this.

On the game otherwise. Jaylen is a warrior, he sets a tone defensively always seeking out the best offensive player, especially at key parts of the game. He’s been playing with a slight back issue. Kudos to him and the trainers for getting him to still be able to play thru it and get on the floor. I know how tricky backs can be, I would hope at some point against a weaker team, we can give him a night off. A fresh Jaylen for all he does is going to be big problem for the opposition in the playoffs. I don’t care what the stats are, he is as important or more to this team as Tatum.

Which brings us to Tatum, he had a terrible last 9 quarters, he especially lost his midrange and post game. Mind boggling how he can look like himself an all NBA top 5 total stud and help us bury teams, then have such a prolonged stretch where he can barely do anything. Kudos to Joe and Jaylen and the team for keeping us ahead most of the game despite the onslaught by Durant. Credit Joe and our array of perimeter defenders for keeping their key role players cold from the outside. When I watch other games I see so many open 3’s given up by other teams that we don’t allow. That’s not who we are.

Cow,

Your eye test is absolutely correct.   With further research I can say we are not dead last in steals.  We're next to last.  29 out of 30.  Only the worst team in the league, Detroit, is averaging fewer steals/game than us.  

Having a great defense doesn't mean we're good at every aspect of defense.  Every defense gives up something in exchange for something.  Minny's bigs don't like to leave the paint, and that's why their rim defense is SO good, but that makes their perimeter defense thinner and more vulnerable to teams with bigs that can shoot 3s like us.  Some defenses fall back to prevent transition offense and get ready for a half court set and in so doing are weak on offensive rebounding.  We don't gamble as much as other defenses.  We don't shoot the gaps, we try to stay in front of the ball by switching on everything and that reduces our steals because they're all M2M steals and not passing steals.

https://uk.global.nba.com/statistics/teamstats/


And the argument that the refs are screwing us more than they are screwing everybody else is pure homie.  Are you making the money sign like Gobert did?  Refs have bad games, refs may favor home teams over road teams or vice versa, but that evens out over the 82 game season because every team has 41 home games and 41 road games.


Bob


.

I obviously don’t watch all the other games as closely as ours, but to my eye, we are constantly getting screwed by the refs over and over especially when the J’s are going strong to the basket with no calls.

Everyone is getting all over JT for his play the last few games, and rightfully so, as he hasn't played well.

However, my eye test sees a guy that is a little tired and in a little slump. JT has played more minutes than any other Celtic, and he has played through some nagging injuries. His hand and wrist are not 100%. I know everyone has nagging injuries and are tired this time of year, but this guy tries to play every game. I think he needs a night off. I hope he's rested either against Portland or Utah. I would like to see JT rest one game and Jaylen rest in other game. We have a huge lead in the standings and should be able to beat both of these teams without one of the J's.

All that said JT still dropped 29 points last night and clearly was off his game. The late game execution was a little better. Jaylen took over on one possession and then promptly bricked two FTs. As great as he is, how can you trust a guy down the stretch that can't make his FTs? When JT used Jrue to help facilitate we got a great shot. It's not rocket science use Jrue and D White to help move the ball in late game situations. Chances are the ball will find JT in a better position to score.

Celtics17 wrote:Everyone is getting all over JT for his play the last few games, and rightfully so, as he hasn't played well.

However, my eye test sees a guy that is a little tired and in a little slump. JT has played more minutes than any other Celtic, and he has played through some nagging injuries. His hand and wrist are not 100%. I know everyone has nagging injuries and are tired this time of year, but this guy tries to play every game. I think he needs a night off. I hope he's rested either against Portland or Utah. I would like to see JT rest one game and Jaylen rest in other game. We have a huge lead in the standings and should be able to beat both of these teams without one of the J's.

All that said JT still dropped 29 points last night and clearly was off his game. The late game execution was a little better. Jaylen took over on one possession and then promptly bricked two FTs. As great as he is, how can you trust a guy down the stretch that can't make his FTs? When JT used Jrue to help facilitate we got a great shot. It's not rocket science use Jrue and D White to help move the ball in late game situations. Chances are the ball will find JT in a better position to score.

I’m in total agreement and am aware and have discussed Jaylens FT issues. On late game execution, full agreement that we should use more of D White or Holiday in those situations as I trust both to make the right play and this way we keep the defense off balance.

The Celtics avoided their first 3 game losing streak and as such remained a model of consistency.  After dropping two very winnable games, the matchup with the Suns was a bigtime game.

JT has been in a shooting slump and in general not playing at his best.  After the game he acknowledged how poorly he played.  

What I do not like is when he walks the ball up the court and our offense slows and becomes very guardable.

We have 2 reliable PG's in he game so I fail to understand why CJ lets this drama play out.  There are plenty of ways to play JT off the ball and get him good looks.

JB has been noticeable upset with the way his team has been playing.  His FT shooting has been particularly poor but he has been outstanding in all other areas.  He has averaged 28 PPG over his last 8 games and his defensive effort has been substantial.

The D. White block defies the laws of Physics.  He has to be a candidate for DPOY.

AH did not shoot very well but he still scored 9 points and collected 12 rebounds.  I thought SH, PP and LK all played well.  Kornet's length was a factor.

We saw an 8 man rotation last night impacted by KP's 17th missed game of the regular season.

I would really like to see a 10 man rotation to get more rest for our starters as we make the final turn towards the end of the regular season.   The Celtics still have an 8 game lead in the loss column in the East and a 5 game lead in the West.

Perhaps the most difficult task on this 5 game road trip will be the upcoming B2B games vs Portland and Utah.  The Celtics will be playing 3 games in 4 days.  This will be a real mental challenge.

dboss wrote:
JT has been in a shooting slump and in general not playing at his best.  After the game he acknowledged how poorly he played.  

What I do not like is when he walks the ball up the court and our offense slows and becomes very guardable.

We have 2 reliable PG's in he game so I fail to understand why CJ lets this drama play out.  There are plenty of ways to play JT off the ball and get him good looks.

The D. White block defies the laws of Physics.  He has to be a candidate for DPOY.
.

Dboss I too am puzzled why Coach Joe allows this to continue?  I understand an ISO may be appropriate very late in a game when the opponents are 100% committed to all out defense, but not any other time of the game.  I just don’t see why it continues.

I totally agree D White is a candidate for DPOY.  Would love to see it happen.

Just some observations from recent games, I would have been more timely but it has been crazy busy here.

1) JT has adopted the super star glue guy role here and not the role of a dominant force with everyone else adapting to what he wants. He routinely waits to get going in games, letting others get into rhythm first. Once the pattern gets set, he gets going. He did look a little tired in the Suns game but I saw something different in the Nuggets game.

2) The Nuggets game again highlighted the worst of the Celtics.
a) Our 7th and 8th men are no match for 7th and 8th men of top tier teams. They floundered against the Heat, Mavs and the Nuggets.
b) These teams have to find a way to take out the play some of our first 6. Mavs couldn't, they are not a good defensive team; we just held up against the Heat; and the Nuggets did, we got rattled by Jocic's gravity.
c) The hard charging and amped up JB comes with his baggage, the amped up JB misses FTs and the game flow goes away. We saw that against the Nuggets, Holiday had 12 points, White 7 and Horford 2. There was no offensive flow and JT looked out of sorts.

We ARE he best team this year and I am hoping that we keep our head and that everyone plays within the plan.

OK. I actually watched this game twice. You guys and gal nailed everything so I won't be adding/repeating anything already said. The main reason I watched this game again was I wanted to make sure my ears did not deceive me. They did not.

Since there was 1 player of great significance missing from both teams, Booker and KP, I decided for a goof to pay attention to the announcers and keep a tab of the number of name mentions/explanations why they were not playing, etc. for both players during the game including halftime show. I failed to record the pregame diatribes. Here's what I found.

1st Quarter - Booker 9 KP 1
2nd Quarter- Booker 4 KP 2
Halftime - Booker 3 KP 0
3rd Quarter- Booker 2 KP 1
4th Quarter- Booker 2 KP 1

Totals - Booker 20 KP 5

That's ridiculous, Gus. Yes, Booker stats are better than KP's except for rebound and FG%. Just more evidence to further heap on the pile of media biased Celtics Haters/Neglect/Negative Nelly's/Wisher of the Franchise Folding/You name it.

The good news is come Thursday, hopefully Booker will be back in action and so will KP and we can settle the score with everyone playing. I'm only going to be asking for a Celtics Blowout.

db

dbrown4 wrote:OK.  I actually watched this game twice.  You guys and gal nailed everything so I won't be adding/repeating anything already said.  The main reason I watched this game again was I wanted to make sure my ears did not deceive me.  They did not.  

Since there was 1 player of great significance missing from both teams, Booker and KP, I decided for a goof to pay attention to the announcers and keep a tab of the number of name mentions/explanations why they were not playing, etc. for both players during the game including halftime show.  I failed to record the pregame diatribes. Here's what I found.

1st Quarter - Booker 9   KP 1
2nd Quarter- Booker 4   KP 2
Halftime     - Booker 3   KP 0
3rd Quarter- Booker 2   KP 1
4th Quarter- Booker 2   KP 1

Totals        - Booker 20  KP 5

That's ridiculous, Gus.  Yes, Booker stats are better than KP's except for rebound and FG%.  Just more evidence to further heap on the pile of media biased Celtics Haters/Neglect/Negative Nelly's/Wisher of the Franchise Folding/You name it.  

The good news is come Thursday, hopefully Booker will be back in action and so will KP and we can settle the score with everyone playing. I'm only going to be asking for a Celtics Blowout.  

db

dbrown,

Devin Booker is also a 4X All-Star, including this year, while KP was an All-Star only once and that was 6 years ago in 2018.

If we played GSW and Jaylen Brown and Klay Thompson were both out wouldn't you expect them to mention JB more times? He's young and on the frontside of his career (good for league marketing) and is a 3X All-Star including this year and last. Klay Thompson is on his back 9 and hasn't been an All-Star since 2019.

How many times did they mention Nurkic scoring over Jrue and Jaylen? Now that's something you wouldn't be hearing as much of if Z was playing.


Bob


.

Agreed. But in the grand scheme of things both are empty handed with hardware. Shutting down 3 heavy scorers is a big ask. Neutralizing 1 or 2 of them? Easily doable. But if the 3's aren't falling early, we need to shift gears immediately and ram it down the lane like we've been doing.

I haven't heard anyone on TV addressing the analytics, but from the modeling of shot selection, there has to be an optimum percentage of 2's and 3's attempted that produces the maximum defensive confusion and offensive scoring. Joe seems to heading toward 50%/50% or maybe 55%/45% 2/3 respectively. And if you look at the record, the numbers don't lie.

Now within games, there will be a range for that mix depending upon what the defense gives you and how our shots are falling on offense. Hence adjustments must be made just like us changing from 3-ball to 2-ball/Dunks/Layups and vice versa.

All very interesting to an applied math major and investment portfolio/capital market theory grad!

db