Everything you need to know about the Suns' 123-119 win over the Celtics with BSJ insight and analysis
Box Score
HEADLINES
Marcus Smart sets franchise record from 3-point range during career night: Marcus Smart knew he was going to have to do more with Boston's starting backcourt sidelined but no one was expecting a historic performance on Saturday. Smart defied the odds, however, to put together the best 3-point shooting night in Celtics history on Saturday night, knocking down 11 3-pointers on 21 attempts to post a career-high 37 points. He also scored 20+ points in consecutive games for the first time of his career while destroying his previous career highs for points (24) and 3-pointers made (7). He was the only player that had it going from downtown on the roster however as the rest of his teammates went 4-of-20 from deep in the four-point loss.
Slow start dooms C's again: The Celtics have made a habit out of starting slow out of the gate in recent weeks and they couldn’t dig themselves out of a hole yet again on Saturday. With Jaylen Brown and Kemba Walker watching from the sidelines, the Celtics looked overmatched for the better part of 48 minutes en route to their third straight loss and sixth in their last eight overall. Boston trailed by as many as 16 points in the first quarter and fell behind again by double digits in the closing minutes before a frantic 19-9 in the final two minutes allowed for Boston to have a chance to make it a one-possession game in the final minute. However, a blown layup by Gordon Hayward (22 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) in the final 40 seconds sealed the defeat. Jayson Tatum added 26 points for the hosts who had no answer for Devin Booker (39 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists), Mikal Bridges (career-high 26 points) and DeAndre Ayton (26 points, 15 rebounds) for much of the night.
TURNING POINT
The Celtics had a chance to cut the Suns lead to three with 36 seconds remaining but Gordon Hayward missed a wide-open alley-oop layup off the inbounds. The Suns recovered the rebounds and the C’s last gasp attempt to make things interesting after a 10-0 late-game run was lost.
TWO UP
Marcus Smart: The sixth-year guard kept the Celtics in the game all by himself in the first half with 20 points, including 6-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. He matched his career-high for 3s in the third quarter on his way to a franchise-record 11 on the night in a career-best 37 point performance.
Jayson Tatum: The swingman finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth 20-10 game of the season. That matches his career-high of four which took him 79 games to hit last season. He also has two double-doubles now in his last four games.
TWO DOWN
Brad Stevens: Grant Williams was clearly not the right choice to start in this matchup as evidenced by his early benching and ugly first quarter. He went zone-and-1 on Booker in the fourth quarter and that did not pan out as other Suns knocked down wide-open looks it created. Romeo Langford didn’t get a chance. He doesn’t have much to work with right now but he’s clearly not pushing the right buttons at the moment.
Celtics bench: Outside of some solid energy minutes by Tremont Waters (until he got too shot happy in the fourth quarter) it was not a banner night for this undermanned group. Collectively, they shot 6-of-23 from the field and 1-of-8 from 3-point range on a night a boost was needed with Brown/Kemba sidelined.
INJURY REPORT
Jaylen Brown missed his second straight game with a sprained right thumb. Kemba Walker also sat out with a sore left knee. An MRI on the knee came back negative but Brad Stevens indicated Walker was still feeling ‘very sore’ on Saturday.
TOP PLAY
Smart with his TENTH three of the night! pic.twitter.com/DCVVyv0qou
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 19, 2020
TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
It’s time for some kind of shakeup in personnel or rotations: Brad Stevens wasn’t calling out effort after the game but some painful regression is going on right now for this group, as a lack of depth is being exposed outside of the top six players on this team. Enes Kanter has come out flat of late on the offensive end while players like Javonte Green, Brad Wanamaker and Tremont Waters aren’t good enough to give the C’s what they need offensively to survive in games right now. While Jaylen Brown is likely to play Monday, the fact that the schedule only gets tougher from here means the time for a depth upgrade is potentially now for this group if they want to stay in the mix for a top-4 spot in the East. Otherwise, big minutes for the likes of Tatum/Hayward and company is not going to be enough to sustain this team in the top tier in the East. The guys at the bottom of the roster are just not good enough for this mismatched roster to get by anymore.
Gordon Hayward may have lost any kind of trade value he had in the last couple of weeks: Hayward’s box score line looks solid on paper (22 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) but he was a liability for this team for much of the night while playing a team-high 41 minutes. Whether it’s a sore foot or an unrelated slump, his play has been mediocre at best for a few weeks now since returning from his hand injury and that’s not good enough for a guy making $34 million a year. Some were wondering back in November whether he’d be opting out for a bigger deal this summer but there’s no chance he is going to walk away from that type of payday with this type of play, especially with him acknowledging publicly that his foot is bothering him. Perhaps the C’s need to manage his minutes more and that’s something that becomes easier when they become healthier or add some better talent to the bench. One of those two things need to happen for Hayward to get back on track but any thought to dealing him for useful parts now midseason is probably out the window.