Post Game - Celtics vs. Phoenix Suns - Thursday, March 14 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585583

Celtics-Suns takeaways: Horford turns back the clock in C's win

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/celtics-suns-takeaways-horford-turns-020547453.html

Justin Leger
Thu, March 14, 2024 at 10:05 PM EDT·4 min read


Celtics-Suns takeaways: Horford turns back the clock in C's win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Three Key Storylines

The Jays assert their dominance

Al Horford turns back the clock

Suns can't keep up with C's from 3

The Boston Celtics swept their season series vs. the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night with a thrilling win in front of the TD Garden crowd.

After a sluggish defensive start, the Celtics finished the first quarter on a 17-6 run to pull ahead by three. They relinquished that lead just once before pulling away in the second half, going up by as many as 20 points in their 126-112 victory.

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum led the way for Boston with 37 and 26 points, respectively. Al Horford scored a season-high 24 points in Kristaps Porzingis' absence, and Jrue Holiday just missed a triple-double with nine points and 10 assists.

Devin Booker dropped a team-high 23 points for Phoenix in a losing effort. Bradley Beal added 22 while Kevin Durant and Grayson Allen contributed 20 apiece.

The Celtics (52-14) will hit the road again to face the Washington Wizards (11-54) on Sunday night. First, here are three takeaways from Thursday's game.

The Jays assert their dominance

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown took turns lighting up the Suns on Thursday night.

Tatum was the star in the first quarter, going bucket for bucket with Kevin Durant (15 points, 7-8 FG in the first) and dropping 14 points in the frame -- including seven straight.



Brown took center stage in the second quarter, where he erupted for 15 of his 20 first-half points.



Tatum capped off the second quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers. The Jays combined for 43 points on 17-of-24 shooting in the first half.





Tatum and Brown continued to do damage throughout the second half to help the C's pull away. Brown put the exclamation point on the win with a steal followed by an emphatic dunk late in the fourth quarter.



Brown finished with a game-high 37 points on 14-of-23 shooting (5-9 3-PT) to go with five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Tatum scored 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting (4-8 3-PT) with five rebounds and five assists.

When both Jays are firing on all cylinders, opponents must play perfect basketball to keep pace. Phoenix found that out the hard way on Thursday.

Al Horford turns back the clock

Horford returned to the Celtics' starting lineup after sitting out the second night of Boston's back-to-back on Tuesday. With Porzingis out for the fourth consecutive game, the 37-year-old big man stepped up.

He wasted little time, scoring the C's first five points and totaling eight in the opening quarter. It turns out he was only warming up.

Horford caught fire from beyond the arc, making a season-high six 3-pointers on 10 attempts. That also ties his career-high, which is quite the accomplishment given that he's in the midst of his 17th NBA season.



Horford ended up with a season-high 24 points (8-14 FG), three rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a block. The veteran remains a key contributor at this stage of his career and is at his best when his team needs him most.

As great as Horford was, the C's will hope to get Porzingis back on the court when they visit his former team, the Wizards, on Sunday.

Suns can't keep up with Celtics from 3

The C's are often scrutinized for the number of 3s they put up, but it's the reason they beat the high-powered Suns on Thursday.

They were dominated on the glass for most of the night. In the first half, Phoenix had a 13-1 offensive rebound advantage and 15 second-chance points to Boston's three. The 3s kept the Celtics afloat as they went 12-for-24 from deep through the first two frames (7-11 in the first quarter).

While the rebounding didn't get much better in the second half, the 3s kept falling. Boston finished 25-of-50 from 3, coming just two away from a franchise record. Each starter made at least three 3-pointers with Horford (six) and Brown (five) leading the pack.

That made up for the Suns dominating the boards, 51-33 (19-6 offensive rebounds). The way the 3s were falling for the C's in this one, it didn't matter how much Phoenix dominated the paint.

I have never seen this before.  Coach Joe on the court trying to block a shot after time out is called.  Me thinks Joe is just a tad tapped.

bobc33, let's just say he's obsessed with winning.  You want a guy like that as your coach. He might want it more than the players! That's enough for me!!

OK.  Here's what I saw:

1.  Contained vs. Neutralized - I've gone back and forth between these two terms as in the pre-game thread I said if we can neutralize 1 or 2 of their Big 3 + unscripted Grayson Allen, we would stand a pretty good chance of winning.  We also contained their Big 3.  Neutralized (maybe negated) because 85 points for PHX for their Big 3+ GA, 87 for "only" JB, JT and the unplanned out of his brain on the train performance for AH.  That's saying something for sure.  We contained their Big 3 as they all had by their standards mediocre nights of 20, 22 & 23.  No one shot out of the cannon.  Jrue Holiday was very busy.  Looking good here.  
   
2.  Low TO's - 8?  Not bad at all.  Keep up the great work of taking care of the ball.  JT not throwing it into the stands is good.  

3.  Defense at times resembling GSW game.  It's for real, y'all.  It's coming soon to a theatre near you in about a month.  If you are on the receiving end of our fully operational defensive Death Star, it is horrifically disruptive to your offense at worst.  Annihilating, demoralizing and humiliating at best.  KD should be having flashbacks to BOS vs. BKN two years ago in the playoffs.  Spectacular.  

4.  Clobbered on the boards.  KP cold have helped a little there, but Nurkic is a rebounding beast.  That's OK.  As long as when the 3's stop falling, we have a...

5.  Plan B - How quickly can we change gears will determine how long this run lasts for us in the playoffs, since now we are officially IN.  We can't have any more down 0-3, almost come from behind bs.  Can't just keep 3-ballin' til the cows come home.  We will tighten up in the playoffs and the 3's won't fall for a spell.  That we can predict with great accuracy.  Blown (by actually losing the game like we did vs. CLE) leads must go.  No more room for them either.  Runs will occur against us, but how we respond, which has been very good, will keep this train moving by keeping the pedal to the metal.

6.  Unfortunately, there was no game plan for Grayson.  Yep, CJ focused where he should on the Big 3 and the game plan worked.  That team is a scoring machine when they are all out there and you can't cheat on any of their guys either, just like us.  They are a CP3 away from looking an awful lot like us.

7.  Finally just a slight let-up in the schedule before Thursday vs. MIL.  I don't know what Kool-Aid these people are drinking who keep telling us we have the easiest schedule starting about 10 games ago.  We still have MIL twice after our road trip from Hell.  Thank God for this weekend and Tuesday before the Bucks come to town.  Again, all the red flags go up @WAS and vs. DET.  Not a time for goofing off and slipping up.  It will be bench madness but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

OK.  That's good.

db

I think Joe is kinda whacked and dats good cause I have moments like that too lol. He’s one of us. I think J’s knew they survived a Durant masterpiece last time, so they had something waiting for him. We could call it changing of the guard. Jaylen is on such a roll since the all star game. Right now on this stretch he is playing as good a 2 way ball as any wing in history and the stats back that up, as does my eye test. His defense is electric, he covers any position, he bullyballed Beal and poor Bol Bol treating them like bowling pins. Unstoppable on simple post ups, in a game of freaks just to get to the NBA level, he’s just stronger and faster and more explosive than anyone, Lebron like. Kudos also to Joe and the staff for great coaching, putting a system in place that everyone is in synch, everyone moves and makes the extra pass and the ball naturally finds the best players. We are playing simple beautiful basketball, the way the game should be played. Ofcourse other teams can’t do this, because their 2 best players are not the J’s.

Love the support J’s are getting from Holiday and White, I couldn’t believe White blocked the post up from Nurkic and Holiday with a gem 10 assists and 0 turnovers. I’m sorry these 2 guys have way better games than Marcus Smart. Even on defense. Could Smart handle less minutes and not on the floor at crunch time if he was still here, I doubt it? We covered improvements of the bench already last game. Tillman is only 25, he has all the makings of a classic physical role player. Until we got him, I never heard of him, shows you how much I know. This team is looking really strong, building up for playoffs, using these games as scrimmages. The defense is so committed and swarms all over the floor and the offense has so many options. Jaylen might be with Jokic and Giannis, the 3 best players in the game right now. 30 forget 30, Jaylen could go for 40 every night right now if he wanted to….

More on Jaylen, that’s right I said it, this stretch he has been as good as any wing in history since the all star game. As good as some of the best from Bernard King, Dr J, Dominique, Pippen. What separates him from them is his defense, the only one of those 4 that compares to him defensively is Pippen. Now he’s getting in that rarified air of Kobe, Lebron and Kawhi, kind of can actually be in the conversation with some of their best ball. The physicality and athleticism, put them together with his work ethic honing his skills every year and now this stretch, he’s in the conversation.

Ofcourse I’m not stupid, take that back I can be, but he’s not in the Magic Bird Jordan trifecta yet or ever will be…..who the fork knows?

Once I saw that Jaylen's status was upgraded, I felt really good about our chances to beat the Suns. The Celtics blew them off the court.

Being a team with significant offensive players is not enough to win. The Suns will not go far during the playoffs because they cannot play defense.

No KP and once again, no problem.

The Suns had their Big 3 (Booker, Beale and KD) back.  They were down a role player (Okogie) but we were down a starter in Porzingis.  Their double-digit loss to us @ home was still fresh in their minds.  They had/have no excuses.  We're just better.  When you consider the firepower in their big 3 that says a lot.

It pains me a bit to say this, but the embrace of the 3 by, first, Brad Stevens and then by his successor Joe Mazzulla seems to be a recipe for success.  Phoenix shot 47.5% last night.  There's nothing wrong with that.  They took 10 more fgas than us, and that's usually enough to win, but they didn't.  They outrebounded us by 18 and 13 of those 18 were offensive.  That kind of domination on the boards usually produces Ws.  They shot 37.5% from 3, which is about the league average, so there's nothing really wrong with that either.  So how the Hell did we win?  We took 50 3pt fgas out of 89 total and shot 50% on them, and had 24 fast break points vs only 8 for them, and that killed them.  We shot from range, we ran and we didn't let them run and that's what it took.  Hitting our shots, running and transition defense.  I HATE we got out-offensive rebounded like that but I cannot argue with the results.  We won, and it was a blowout.  Will this work against Denver or OKC?  We're on track to find out.


Jaylen has been a monster since the All-Star break.

Boston Celtics @celtics
yesterday
Jaylen Brown: “We just came off a long road trip, this could’ve been a game where we came out sluggish, but we came out with the right mentality – to take care of business.”

Jaylen's 100% right.  The first game back from a long road trip is often a trap game.  Credit to the players and the coaching staff for not falling into that.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
With a ridiculous 1.268 points/possession the last 17 games, the Celtics (15-2) not only have the NBA’s #1 offense, but the most efficient offense in league history. The gap between them and #2 Dallas in that span, is the same as the gap between #2 Dallas and #20 New York.










Joe Mazzulla is a legit, certifiable maniac, in the best possible way.  The whistle blew, play was stopped, Royce O'Neal wanted to take a free 3pt fga in front of our bench and Joe stepped onto the court and challenged it.

Here's the shot and Joe's explanation why he did it.  It is pure KG.  I don't always agree with Joe's coaching but, damn, his attitude is excellent.




We have clinched a playoff berth.  I know that's an anti-climactic milestone given our season but we have to pass these to get to the ones that are significant.  The faster we can clinch #1 overall the quicker we can start resting our starters, because Joe will be playing them heavily in the playoffs, and why not?  They're the best starting 5 in the league. Give our bench some extended playing time so they're ready for the playoffs. We don't want a repeat of two years ago when we had no bench and our starters were worn down to nubs by the time we got to GSW.

We are 30-3 @ home. The next closest team to that is, predictably, the team tied for 2nd in the league, 46-20 Denver, who are 27-6. 46-20 OKC is 27-7 at home. This is why clinching #1 overall is so important. It's not just because we're great at home, it's also because so are they, so we want to minimize the number of home games they have against us.


Bob


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