BOSTON – The Phoenix Suns have been among the worst teams in the NBA this season, the kind of team that usually gives the Boston Celtics some trouble.
That was so not the case on Friday night as the Celtics opened with a strong run and never let up in easily defeating the Suns 117-103.
Boston led by as many as 25 points, only to see that lead nearly cut in half following a 3-pointer by Sonny Weems that made it a 100-87 game with 8:58 to play which was more than enough time for a Suns’ comeback.
Aware of this, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens called a time-out looking to get his team re-focused on closing out the game.
It worked.
The Celtics soon built their lead back to 20 points following a Jonas Jerebko basket that made it 110-90.
There was still lots of time left in the game, but it was clear that the Celtics were determined not to blow this lead.
Boston Celtics
Boston (21-19) has now won back-to-back games after having lost their previous four.
While the Suns won’t qualify by anyone’s definition as a quality win, any victory at this point in the season has great value for the Celtics who are among the clustered teams in the East fighting to establish playoff position.
The Celtics came into Friday’s game with a win over Indiana on Wednesday, a game in which Boston closed out the game with a 12-0 run.
Boston picked up where they left off with a 6-0 spurt to start Friday’s game.
The Celtics would eventually pull ahead by as many as 11 points in the first quarter as the Suns looked very much like a team that came in having lost 11 of their 12 previous games.
A number of Celtics had solid performances in the first half including Avery Bradley who hasn’t been quite himself since suffering a hip injury that sidelined him for three games.
The 6-foot-2 guard came into tonight’s game having missed his last 18 3-point attempts, in addition to scoring below his 14.4 points per game average in 10 of the Celtics’ previous 11 games. Bradley drained his first 3-point attempt and finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Boston's Marcus Smart finished with his first career triple-double, tallying 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Smart's rebound and assists numbers were both career highs.
We saw more of the same from the Celtics in the second quarter, even as Phoenix made a run that cut Boston’s lead to 46-42 with 6:25 to play in the first half.
Following a Celtics time-out, Boston scored six straight to push its lead back to double figures which led to the Suns calling a time-out with 4:22 to play in the half.
The time-out seemed to do more to fire up the Celtics as they went on a 16-5 run to end the quarter and establish a firm grip on the game.