PHOENIX — Apologies to Taylor Swift, but the greatest concert show going on right now is the Boston Celtics coming to your town.
That was what radio play-by-play announcer Sean Grande had to say while the Celtics’ lead ballooned over the Phoenix Suns before they ultimately defeated the Kevin Durant-led squad, 132-103, on Wednesday night.
It was the perfect call considering the Celtics’ historic dominance on the road this season — and given the thundering “Let’s Go Celtics” chants that echoed in the background.
Kristaps Porzingis led the way in this one, scoring a game-high 30 points. And, while Jayson Tatum missed the game after spraining his ankle on Monday against the Kings, the Celtics didn’t miss a beat in his absence, with all five starters scoring 16 points and Sam Hauser adding 11 points off the bench.
Here’s what stood out about the Celtics’ win over the Suns, from on-the-ground in Phoenix.
The Celtics are winning a ton of games and peaking at the right time
The Celtics have won 7 straight games and 14 of their last 15 games on the road. They’re now 54-19 on the season, good for third-best in the NBA and 4.5 games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for first place in the East.
For context, 73 games into last season, the Celtics’ championship team was just three games better, holding a 57-16.
“We’re looking good,” Porzingis said. “We’re playing well. We’re adding some small twists to our offense that I think are necessary. And we’re playing well. We’re moving the ball well, which is the important part.”
Through the team’s December struggles, Pozingis was one of the team’s most vocal players in the media, maintaining his confidence that the team would play their best basketball in time for the postseason.
Right now, it looks like the Celtics are on track.
“I wanted to peak at the right moment, at the most important moment,” he said Wednesday. “And I think as a team, we’re heading in that direction.”
The Celtics have gone 12-1 in March, and five different players have led the team in scoring: Tatum (six times), Porzingis (four times), Brown (once), Sam Hauser (once), and Payton Pritchard (once).
“The strength of our group is the team,” Brown said. “No one person, no two people, or three, make our team. We got a great unit, and I think that’s what’s made us so good over the years, and especially last year — is that any given night, any one of our guys can take over a game and win it.”
Kristaps Porzingis dominates after building back after injury
Porzingis posted one of his best stat lines of the season on Wednesday, tallying 30 points on 10-15 shooting, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks.
“He’s been great,” Brown said. “He’s been balling, been playing well, shooting the ball well, making the right plays, been big time. We gonna need him this year in the playoffs. Keeping him healthy is the key.”
Since returning from a multi-week illness on March 15th, Porzingis has led the Celtics in scoring in four of six games. He’s still been dealing with some lingering fatigue fro the respiratory illness but said that Wednesday was a positive step.
“I felt pretty good,” he said. “Last game, again, I had a little bit of low. Just didn’t have my legs, didn’t have my lungs. But tonight, I felt really good before the game. I already knew that it was going to be a good night.”
Jaylen Brown finds a rhythm while working through injury
Brown himself missed five games in March due to a right knee impingement and bone bruise, and he returned to the lineup after a three-game absence on Monday against the Sacramento Kings. He scored just 9 points in 25 minutes of action and appeared out of sorts for much of the night.
But he found a better rhythm on Wednesday, finishing with 24 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal in 28 minutes of action.
Mazzulla praised Brown’s willingness to miss a few games in order to get better — and his impact on Wednesday’s match-up, particularly defensively.
“He’s just a guy that — whatever he has to do to put himself in the best chance to be his best for us, to help us win, he does,” said the Celtics’ head coach. “For a couple games, it was taking care of his knee, and now it’s doing what he needs to do.”
Still, Brown noted postgame that he doesn’t feel perfect and that the knee injury is something he will have to continue to manage. He also shared that he’s currently playing on a minutes restriction.
“My body doesn’t feel 100%, but today was a good step in the right direction,” Brown said.
Asked Jaylen Brown about the mental aspect of missing games:
“Mentally, making sure your confidence and your body is still aligned with the game.”
He said this is something he’ll have to manage:
“My body doesn’t feel 100%, but today was a good step in a right direction.” pic.twitter.com/irKhPidyLO
— Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzell) March 27, 2025
Brown said there’s been a mental adjustment to dealing with the injury.
“It’s new for me,” he said. “I haven’t really had issues with my knees ever in my career, so just trying to find a good routine to make sure I’m prepared and ready to go every night. But it’s definitely been a challenge mentally and stuff like that.”
Jayson Tatum missed the Suns game with an ankle injury but appears close
When Tatum crumpled in pain on Monday night in Sacramento, fans worried he could miss weeks with an ankle sprain suffered from a wreckless Domantas Sabonis close-out.
But, it appears that the worst possible outcomes were completely avoided.
Brad Stevens was in the Celtics locker room when Tatum exited the game in the third quarter, and he said that the prognosis immediately looked positive.
“I think it was a scare initially, and then it looked pretty good right out of the gate,” Stevens said at Celtics shootaround Tuesday. “So, he did treatment all day yesterday. He wants to play all the time, and that’s a great thing. You can never say Jayson Tatum doesn’t want to play, right?”
Stevens also joked around about how closely media members scrutinized Tatum’s shootaround movement: “You probably all just took great videos of him and analyzed his lateral movement and his jumping off one foot and everything else, as we all are, and if he’s 100%, I’m sure he’ll play.”
Soon after shootaround, the six-time All-Star was upgraded from doubtful to questionable, but he was ultimately ruled out pregame. He still went through a pretty rigorous warmup before tip-off and received a loud ovation from the Celtics fans in attendance when he took the floor.
After the game, Porzingis discussed Tatum’s desire to always be available.
“JT, for sure, is an outlier,” Porzingis said, noting how rarely Tatum misses games.
“Even when the medical staff wants him to rest, he always pushes to play. So, for sure, I think fans need to appreciate that. He never wants to miss a game. He understands people play a lot of money to come watch the Celtics play, and especially him.”
Another road arena is taken over by Celtics fans
It’s a common occurrence for an NBA arena to be completely dominated by Celtics fans when the defending champions are in town, and Wednesday night in Phoenix was one of the more extreme examples this season.
The Celtics jumped out to an early double-digit lead, which they only extended in the second half, and the crowd was behind Boston most of the night.
For Mazzulla, the constant support from the fans on the road is a reminder of the responsibility that the coaching staff and players shoulder.
“We have a responsibility to compete at a high level and carry this thing on,” Mazzulla said.
Joe Mazzulla on the many Celtics fans in attendance:
“It’s a gratitude, and it gives a perspective to the responsibility and the ownership that we have to the organization, to the tradition.”
“We have a responsibility to compete at a high level and carry this thing on.” pic.twitter.com/rrKCpW8GCI
— Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzell) March 27, 2025
So far this season, it appears that the Celtics haven’t taken that responsibility lightly. The team is a league-best 30-7 on the road. Most impressively, they have the second-highest road point differential in NBA history, outscoring opponents on the road by 10.27 points per game, per Sean Grande. The only team with a better road point differential was the 1972 Lakers.
Al Horford is ol’ reliable
It’s beginning to feel like a broken record, but Al Horford once again logged a big-time performance while facing off against some of the league’s best players on national television.
The 38-year-old posted 16 points, 10 rebounds (4 offensive), 5 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal in 26 minutes.
His teammates don’t take these performances for granted.
“Al is unbelievable, to be honest,” Porzingis said. “To be one of the best defenders on our team at his age, with the experience he has, and how he can still slide his feet, and got all the little tricks to like position himself, be able to switch on to anybody and sit down and guard — it’s really like special.”
Horford even got a fast-break dunk, which his teammates celebrated raucously.
Porzingis joked that Horford (who has been in the NBA for 18 years) has been in the league for 30 years: “Everybody would wish to have a career like like Al and to be still playing at this level, in his — I don’t know that he is, in his 30th years.”
