Friday’s whomping of the Phoenix Suns marked the first time that the Boston Celtics had entered a game with a clean bill of health since their February 4 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The past two months have consisted of a healthy mix of nagging injuries and rest for some of the team’s star players, but they didn’t miss a beat against the Suns with their top-9 available. They hardly trailed the visitors at all en route to a 20-point victory on the parquet.
Boston moved the ball well with 28 assists, hardly turned it over, and overall played an efficient night of offense — all while they made things difficult for the Suns on the other end.
Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
Now, let’s not pretend that beating up on Phoenix is this unbelievable feat. We’ve all gotten a look at those guys twice in the past two weeks, and it’s been ROUGH. Their defense is way out of sync, and no one besides Devin Booker gave them anything offensively in this one.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a more drastic contrast in two teams who were both thought to be (at least somewhat) among the league’s contenders. There’s no disputing that Phoenix looks like a group that has lost far more games than they’d anticipated. But, the Cs took care of business at the end of the day, which is all that we can ask of them.
This entire season has been threaded with discussions of health and freshness once the playoffs roll around, so seeing everyone able to be on the floor is certainly encouraging in that regard.
“It’s just making sure we get reps,” said Joe Mazzulla of his team’s availability. “Obviously you want to get some reps of those guys, as long as we maintain our health, which I think we did. And I thought they were able to execute and communicate with each other on both ends of the floor.”
Speaking of maintaining health, Jaylen Brown was excellent in this game. Despite looming concerns about his right knee, Brown scored a team-high 31 points on an efficient 10-16 from the floor. This outing, paired with his return to action against Miami on Wednesday, made for an encouraging week as the playoffs approach. Brown hardly favored his knee at all against Phoenix.
He, Jayson Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis combined to score 68 of Boston’s 123 points.
Two thumbs up.
This matchup also served as a bit of a sneak peek of what’s to come in the postseason in terms of Mazzulla’s rotation — though it wasn’t fully “foot on the gas” type stuff.
Boston’s lineup ran nine deep for the majority of this one with the usual suspects taking up the minutes.
Al Horford, Sam Hauser, and Payton Pritchard all played 20+ minutes off the bench, while Luke Kornet played just 15.
There was also no sign of Baylor Scheierman until garbage time. Kornet’s short minutes and Scheierman’s lack of any at all are a bit surprising, considering how well they’ve played over the past few weeks. At the same time, you can only be so surprised when the rotation is being shortened for big games.
Someone is always going to have to lose playing time in that situation.
The guys who will be playing in the playoffs looked very comfortable, which is all that matters. Especially when there was a point of this season when that wasn’t the case. They’ve clearly come a long way from Porzingis’s return from injury back in November and have learned from their midseason growing pains.
With the first round of the playoffs just over two weeks away, the Celtics look like they’re hitting their stride, winning 15 of their last 17.
“Keep continuing to build that camaraderie, clicking on all cylinders, and then, you know, just rolling,” Brown said. “I think we’re playing some great basketball right now, and it’s the time of year you want to be, so we want to prioritize health. It’s not going to be perfect, but as a team, if we work together and we keep emphasizing team, I think we have enough.”
