Heading right into a match up with the then Jap and Western Convention leaders (Phoenix dropped right down to #2 with the loss behind the red-hot New Orleans Pelicans), the sport additionally pitted the 2 prime offenses within the league. Boston remains to be at a historic tempo with a 119.9 offensive score with Phoenix trailing behind at 116.3. And with level god Chris Paul returning after lacking a month with a heel damage and Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton enjoying a few of the greatest basketball of their careers over Phoenix’s final 7-2 stretch, all people anticipated an offensive explosion in entrance of a nationally televised recreation.
The Celtics would go on to attain 125 factors, racking up 29 assists and hitting a humble 16-of-45 from behind the arc within the win. The Suns, then again, put up simply 98 with eighteen turnovers.
“Proper now, I believe we’re getting again to ourselves, locking down on the defensive aspect of issues, making an attempt to maintain groups to a 100 or so, not let folks get comfy,” Jaylen Brown mentioned after the sport.
“That’s what we hung our hat on final 12 months and this 12 months, we acquired off to a sluggish begin on protection and our offense type of carried us and now, it looks like we’re enjoying slightly bit balanced proper now.”
Final season, the Celtics have been stifling after the brand new 12 months. In 46 video games, Boston gave up simply 105.2 factors per 100 possessions en path to a 34-12 file to shut out the common season. This season, they’re simply ninth in defensive score at 110.8, however there are indicators of enchancment.
Over the primary 13 video games, they averaged 112.8 and have been largely buoyed by their astronomical offense. Of their final 13 video games nevertheless, that quantity has shrunk to 108.7. Within the first three video games of this six-game street journey, they held Brooklyn, Toronto, and Phoenix to 92, 110, and 98 respectively.
In a recreation that didn’t characteristic two All-Defensive Teamers Al Horford and Robert Williams, the Celtics have been in a position to maintain the Suns to below 40% capturing on the night time. That hasn’t occurred all 12 months.
Booker, who’s averaging a career-high 27.9 factors a recreation, hit simply six of his seventeen pictures after being hounded by a plethora of plus-perimeter defenders in Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Sensible, Malcolm Brogdon, Derrick White, and Grant Williams. Ayton had scored in double figures in twelve of his final 13 video games. Defended by Boston’s second and third string facilities Blake Griffin and Luke Kornet, he managed simply eight factors and coughed up the ball 4 instances.
Each Brown and Tatum reiterated that this was only one win in an 82-game season and their focus is on Golden State this Saturday. Head coach Joe Mazzulla echoed these sentiments saying, “it’s understanding what we’re doing nicely proper now and what we will do higher. We’ve had a few video games like this, however our guys have performed laborious it doesn’t matter what. You simply need to consistently give attention to the small print. What are we doing nicely, what are usually not. We gave up loads of pictures broad open tonight. If these had went in, it may have been a unique recreation.”
In a 27-point blowout — and it wasn’t even that shut — the Celtics proceed to seek out methods to get higher and for these followers ready for final 12 months’s protection to return, we’ve seen it flip a nook over the past residence stand and now to begin this street journey.
