Everything you need to know about the Suns’ beating the Celtics 111-103 in BSJ Quickie Form
Box Score
HEADLINES
Aron Baynes breaks left hand: The night started off on a sour note for the Celtics just two minutes into the game as the 32-year-old center suffered a fractured fourth metacarpal in his left hand. He is out indefinitely according to Brad Stevens, with some reports indicating that he could miss a month after undergoing surgery later this week.
CORRECTION: This is the play where Baynes suffered his injury pic.twitter.com/qNJ5jDQOvH
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) December 20, 2018
"I don't know any updates on timelines or anything like that," Stevens said. "But, probably, clearly, he's going to be out for some time."
The Celtics were already down three big men on the evening as Al Horford (sore knee), Marcus Morris (sore knee) and Guerschon Yabusele (sprained ankle), so the Baynes injury left Boston with just two true bigs to face off against DeAndre Ayton for the final 46 minutes. Ayton (23 points, 18 rebounds) and the Suns took advantage of Baynes’ absence by piling up 21 offensive rebounds as a team, the most by a Celtics opponent all season as they recovered from a first quarter 12-point deficit.
Ugly home loss:
It looked like the Celtics turned the corner after their eight-game winning streak but this loss shows there is still plenty of work to do against a lowly (but surging) Suns. Kyrie Irving (29 points, 10 assists, 4 steals) brought his usual effort on both ends of the floor but the Celtics were outscored by 19 points over the final three quarters as they were careless with the ball (16 turnovers), shot 33 percent from the field and were unable to get stops over the final three frames (85 points allowed).
”It’s like for some games that we’ve played, when we try, we’re in the game all the time,” Irving said. “And when we don’t, we’re clearly not. We (can’t) look to the refs or anything like that. For us as a growing team and learning from one another, we have to continue to build that cohesion.”
Boston has now dropped two straight games and has lost to five teams below the .500 mark all year long, the most in the league among teams that are ranked in the top-five for net rating.
TURNING POINT
The Suns broke open up a tie game in the third quarter with an 11-3 run to close out the frame. Boston scored just four points during the five-plus minute stretch, going ice cold from the field, and was never able to recover. The Suns led by two possessions for the remainder of the game after the outburst.
TWO UP
Kyrie Irving:
The All-Star finished with 29 points and 10 assists (both game-highs) marking the fifth time this season he’s scored 20-plus points and 10-plus assists in the same game. He’s the first Celtic to accomplish that feat over the first 30 games of the season since Larry Bird in 1990. Irving also leads the team in double-doubles with five.
Jayson Tatum:
The second-year forward was one of the few Celtics who chipped in on the defensive glass, piling up a team-high eight rebounds with 18 points. He also set a new season-high with four blocks.
TWO DOWN
Jaylen Brown:
The shooting guard was benched for the entire fourth quarter on Wednesday night after another offensive dud. He was 3-of-9 from the field with six points and is shooting just 22 percent from the field (6-of-25) over his past three games. He’s also missed all nine 3-point attempts during that stretch. A lack of contributions in other facets of the game (one rebound, zero assists) added to his woes.
Defensive rebounding:
The Celtics were missing two of their top defensive rebounders in Morris and Baynes and it was evident all night long as Phoenix pounded them on the offensive glass. The visitors nabbed an offensive rebound on average nearly every two possessions, piling up 21 offensive boards compared to just 28 defensive rebounds. Terry Rozier (one rebound), Brown (one rebound) and Daniel Theis (two rebounds) were the biggest trouble spots on this front.
TOP PLAY
That's... Not easy to do. pic.twitter.com/7I23vHgNHT
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 20, 2018
TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
The Celtics aren’t good enough to take teams lightly:
Despite being severely undermanned in this game, the Celtics did not look engaged at all after a hot first quarter. The Suns played hard and with more physicality all night while the C’s weren’t able to respond until it was too late. For a team that started the season 10-10, it was a little surprising that this has re-surfaced as an issue so quickly but I guess an eight-game winning streak got everyone’s confidence level a little higher than it should have been. The Suns are playing better than an eight-win team but they shouldn’t be able to come into the Garden in the middle of a long road trip and take a win from a rested Celtics team. The bench unit deserves most of the blame for this one but defensively the C’s have to play with an edge for all 48 minutes against teams to overcome their offensive weaknesses.
Defensive rebounding has the potential to become a big problem with Baynes out:
Baynes has been a defensive anchor for this group in the paint for the past couple years while also doubling as one of the team’s best defensive rebounders. Theis has seen some slippage on the defensive glass this year while Robert Williams has a habit of hunting down blocks instead of blocking shots. That strategy may help with rim protection, but it’s also going to leave the C’s vulnerable on the defensive glass as wings and guards are forced to box out bigger players. The Suns are just the 27th ranked team in the league on the offensive glass but they crushed the hosts in this area tonight. If Brad Stevens doesn’t get this group to clean up their act quickly in this department, it could stay just as bad as better teams come to town.
