Final: Suns 111, Celtics 90 - Cold-shooting Celtics run into Suns buzzsaw

Game 27
Boston Celtics (13-13, 7-9 road, 10th East) vs. Phoenix Suns (20-4, 11-2 home, 2nd West)
Footprint Center
10:00 PM - ESPN, NBC Sports Boston

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

Boston: Dennis Schröder, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Robert Williams

Phoenix: Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, Jae Crowder, Mikal Bridges, JaVale McGee 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Jaylen Brown remains out, but he’s making progress.

“Jaylen is doing much better, had some good workouts over the last few days,” Ime Udoka said after the team’s shootaround. “He’s getting there. He won’t be in tonight but we’re feeling good about him going forward.”

- Josh Richardson is out. He is now in Health and Safety Protocols. The course of action with him is unclear, so it’s possible he may need to quarantine in Phoenix for a while. 

“He had a pretty bad rolled ankle the other night that he played through, had some soreness the last few days,” Udoka said. “Going through shootaround, get some shots up and will be assessed before the game.”

- Devin Booker is out for the Suns with a left hamstring strain. Deandre Ayton is out with a non-COVID illness. Frank Kaminsky (knee), Abdel Nader (knee), and Dario Saric (ACL recovery) are all also out.

- Phoenix is favored by 4.5

GOING A LITTLE DEEPER

The big story out of the Los Angeles portion of this road trip was the Celtics regression into some early bad habits and inconsistency. 

“We just need to focus on the task at hand and just making sure that we just come prepared,” Horford said after shootaround. “Everybody, individually, prepares different for games and it's our job, individually, to get ourselves to that position to start the game the right way. And then, from then on, we'll just feed off each other. But the biggest thing is everybody knows what they need to do, individually, to get ready. And that's what we need to do.”

There have been some better starts to games recently, but the Celtics haven't solved all their problems yet. 

“Just in general, we look at our starting group, I wouldn't say it's the most energetic group,” Udoka bluntly said. “So how can we get them going as a unit and not everybody trying to get their own game going to start the game? We've looked at that, we’ve seen that, how we take pride once we get down, but we can keep ourselves out of a lot of those situations by coming out with the right mindset and the right mind frame from the start.”

The comebacks show the Celtics certainly are capable of playing with the right energy. They have played well in other games when they’ve brought good energy. And while every team will have some stinkers mixed into their 82 games, the Celtics need to put more distance between those kinds of games. 

“The biggest thing is understanding that, and we say it all the time, but basketball is really a game of runs,” Horford said. “Things are going to happen, things are not going to go a certain way. We just need to make sure that, if there's a timeout being called, we need to be poised, refocus and try to build things back up or get things going in the right direction. That's what that is.”

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. Who will step up for Richardson: Is it Aaron Nesmith? Is it Romeo Langford? Richardson has grown into a significant contributor off the bench with his attacking. Someone will have to step up in his absence if the Celtics are to have a chance. 

2. The early response to the coach: He called out his starting group in the media, putting some pressure on them to step up and move the ball. The gauntlet has been dropped, let’s see if they can answer the call. 

3. Pressure their shorthanded frontcourt: Without Ayton, it’s up to McGee to handle the center spot and then second-year player Jalen Smith. The Celtics should be putting McGee in pick-and-roll early and testing his ability to hang with Robert Williams. Maybe they can get some early fouls and test that great Suns defense.

GAME THREAD

Stick around for more comments below as the game goes on. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.