BSJ Game Report: Boston Celtics 123, Suns 108 - C's finally find some composure, put together more complete effort

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics' win over the Phoenix Suns, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out in control, building a 30-point lead late in the first half thanks to some great ball movement, good shooting, and a cold Suns squad. The Suns made a big run spanning the end of the second quarter and into the third to cut it down to 13, but the Celtics had an answer this time, finishing the quarter strong and maintaining a 23-point lead. The Suns had one more push to start the fourth and got it all the way down to 11, but the Celtics held on.

Box Score 

HEADLINES

They had answers this time: The Suns came into the game tied with the Golden State Warriors for the best record in the league, so it’s not some indictment on the Celtics that they made multiple runs to cut into a once 30-point deficit. The Celtics mostly had answers this time around, which is always nice to see. It lends some hope to them getting back to answering adversity when they have a full roster. 

The game is easier when 3-pointers fall: The Celtics were both more judicious with their attempts (27) and better at converting them (10) than they were in the previous game. Just being able to hit a few makes the rest so much easier.

Bench steps up: Boston doubled up the Suns, 46-23, in bench scoring. Ime Udoka only went three-deep on the bench, but he got great contributions from Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, and Payton Pritchard. They combined to shoot 15-24 (7-12 3pt), and 9-10 from the line. 

TURNING POINT

The Suns cut the Celtics' lead down to 13 midway through the third quarter and it looked like the Celtics were in collapse mode once again. But they went on an 8-0 run and ended up only losing the quarter by 3. That gave Boston a big enough lead to hold on when the Suns inevitably made a huge fourth-quarter run.

SIX UP 

Marcus Smart: He was able to play true point guard in this game, getting the team into their offense and directing the flow. The Celtics cut a lot off their bigs, so Robert Williams and Al Horford were the main assist guys, but Smart steadied the ship, making key baskets early and late in the game. 

Robert Williams: He put up his first career triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. 

“We really saw some things that we could exploit with their defense,” Udoka said. “So we wanted to play out of our bigs, we had 28 assists and Rob and Al had 17 of them, so we want to play out of those guys in the high post some … that was the game plan, going through those guys and get more off ball movement.”

Romeo Langford: 16 points on 40% shooting from 3 and 80% shooting from 2. He cut well, hit some big shots, and defended. A really important bounceback for him. 

Josh Richardson: His return is meaningful to Boston. He’s being relied on to have the ball in his hands and he came through not just with 50% shooting and 19 points, but with seven perfect trips to the line. 

Grant Williams: He missed all his 3’s but still managed 15 points on some tough buckets in the paint, including one where Devin Booker was draped all over him. He also had a clutch block during Phoenix’s fourth-quarter run. 

Jaylen Brown: Played a much more complete game than he has recently. He cleared 11 rebounds, which is huge when the Celtics are switching as much as they did in this game. Wings have to be able to rebound in this system, and Brown picked up the slack there. He did have 6 turnovers, which continues to be a problem for him. 

ZERO DOWN 

I’m letting guys off the hook for this one. Happy New Year. 

TOP PLAYS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

I’ll scream this one from the rooftops.

MARCUS SMART IS A GOOD POINT GUARD. 

He’s not an All-Star point guard. He’s not one of those elite assist guys. But he’s good when he actually gets to play point guard. 

He got to do that in this game. 

“He’s one of our more cerebral guys who knows who to get shots for,” Udoka said after the game. “You don’t have to call something. He settles us down at times. He gets sped up at times as well, and I tell him you’re the veteran out there, you have to get us shots. He knows exactly what we want and who to get it to. He was great as far as that, got us some big buckets earlier in the third quarter. Just a steadying presence out there.”

He finished with 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists. He missed two 3-pointers and passed up a few that he might normally have taken. 

He tends to take those shots he passed up when he’s playing off the ball. When he’s in control of the offense and he can execute what the coach wants, then he is a much calmer player. 

“We just wanted to come out and get a great shot every possession,” Smart said. “That was for me to make sure everybody was in the right spots and getting the ball where it needed to go at any given moment that we needed it. When they started throwing all kinds of defenses against us, switching, making sure that we don’t get sped up like we’ve done in the past.”

- Dear God I hope they will finally learn to attack first then shoot later. 

The Suns, predictably, made a huge run to start the third quarter and Boston fed into that by jacking 3-pointers. Then, once they got back to attacking the basket, they whipped off an 8-0 run and put just enough distance between them and the Suns. 

“Just trying to settle it down and get the quality looks and shots that we wanted,” Udoka said of the response. “We had some mistakes early on defensively that allowed them to kind of score better in that quarter than they had in the first half. Chris Paul missed some easier shots in the first half, Booker overall did a great job, we knew he was going to get going to some extent as well. And it's really about weathering the storm and getting the same great looks offensively but tightening up defensively and that's what we talked about in the timeouts.”

Do we all want the Celtics to take a 30 point lead, make it 40, and have a full fourth quarter of Joe Johnson? Of course we do. That's not how the NBA works. I don’t know what will happen next game, but if they learn this lesson at some point, they’ll be able to finally string some wins together.

“We've been in this position before, we have a big lead and teams go on the run and we just fold,” Smart said. “So for us, it was just focusing on getting a great shot. They punch us, sustaining that punch and punching back and that's what we did and I'm proud of these guys for that.”