After two consecutive losses, the Boston Celtics got back to winning ways against the Phoenix Suns. Despite a season-high 45 from Kevin Durant, the Celtics prevailed down the stretch to win 117-107.
The first quarter saw both teams miss multiple layups and the refs missing obvious foul calls. Boston struggled shooting from deep going 2-8 from deep before Jayson Tatum hit a step-back three over Kevin Durant with 32 seconds left to give the Celtics a 31-26 lead.
Derrick White was everywhere to start the game scoring six points and providing four assists. One of the assists was to Luke Kornet under the basket who scored his 500th career basket.
Jaylen Brown also achieved a milestone as he became the third Celtics player to eclipse 1,000 threes. The achievement puts him with Paul Pierce (1,823) and Jayson Tatum as the only Celtics with over 1k threes.
In the second quarter, the Celtics extended their lead to 12 (51-39) with 4:30 left in the quarter. Boston got production from their bench as Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Kornet combined for 18 of the team’s 51 points with Kornet (8) and Pritchard (7) leading the way for the “Stay Ready” group.
Al Horford, who got the start with Kristaps Porzingis being out with a hamstring injury, struggled shooting missing his first five shots, but he registered 12 rebounds at halftime. Brown led the Cs in scoring with 18 points at the break to give Boston a 62-50 lead.
One highlight of the first half was Derrick White’s insane block on Bradley Beal.
The third quarter was a game of runs. Phoenix started the second half with a 10-3 run to cut the lead to five (65-60) forcing Joe Mazzulla to call a timeout.
The run was snapped thanks to two Horford dunks.
Boston responded to Phoenix’s run with a 12-5 run to reclaim a double-digit lead (77-65).
The double-digit lead didn’t last long as the Suns scored nine straight points which was capped off with a step-back three from Kevin Durant (77-74) with 3:50 left.
Boston ended the quarter on a 10-4 run to lead Phoenix 87-78.
Phoenix opened the fourth quarter in a zone that Boston exploited with back-to-back threes from Pritchard and Tatum.
After an empathic alley-oop from Kornet, the Suns called a timeout with Boston leading 95-82 with 10:32 left in the quarter.
Tatum started to find his shooting hand in the fourth. A deep three over Bol Bol gave Boston its largest lead of the game 101-86.
But against Kevin Durant, no lead is safe. The Suns behind Durant got the game to within eight 105-97 with just over five minutes left.
Durant then scored his 40th point of the night with a mid-range shot to keep the game to single digits 107-99. On the next possession, Durant made another mid-range, this time Horford fouled him giving him a three-point play with four minutes left to make it 107-102.
Jaylen Brown got to the line with 3:19 left, but missed both free throws to keep the game within five.
The Celtics were fortunate the Suns missed open shots, and with 1:54 left, Al Horford who was 0-6 from deep, connected on a corner three to give Boston breathing room (110-102).
The three from Horford took the air out of the Suns, and the game was all but finished after a wide-open dunk from Holiday.
