Celtics get back to winning ways behind Tatum, Brown as Celtics top Suns 117-107

On Saturday night, the NBA-leading Boston Celtics defeated the Phoenix Suns 117-107 behind 29 points from Jayson Tatum and 27 from Jaylen Brown.

The Boston Celtics entered the contest having lost their previous two games to the Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers. Boston is now 49-14 overall and hasn’t dropped three straight after Saturday’s victory.

“We’re not flawless. Tatum remarked, “We really do try to be.” However, we are fallible. It’s a competitive league with excellent players on the other clubs. It all depends on how you react.

“You need to respond well if you want to be a unique team.

Tatum stated that the Celtics took advantage of their Friday off day in Phoenix to rejuvenate, partaking in 18 holes of golf while relishing the sunshine and 70-degree desert weather. He claimed it assisted the team in regrouping and returning to success.

Tatum stated, “We rebounded in a positive way today.”

With injured All-Star Devin Booker out of the game, Kevin Durant scored a game-high 45 points on 18 of 26 shots to lead the Suns. Jusuf Nurkic scored 11 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, while Bradley Beal contributed 25 points.

Durant stated, “I just wanted to be aggressive and play through anything.” “I managed to neutralize a few bullets and weaken the defense. They made huge plays after time outs, but we were there for a lot of it.

Brown received an 18 points to give the Celtics a 62-50 lead at the half, and they never looked back.

With 3:54 remaining in the third quarter, Durant’s transition 3-pointer gave the Suns a chance to tie the game at 77-74, but Jrue Holiday quickly answered with a three of his own, giving the Celtics an 87-78 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

The fourth was opened with back-to-back 3-pointers from Boston’s Tatum and Payton Pritchard. With 1:54 remaining, Al Horford made a corner 3-pointer to give the Celtics a 110-102 lead.

Luke Kornet and Pritchard in particular contributed significantly to the Celtics’ bench production. Pritchard scored ten points, and the 7-foot-1 Kornet finished with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

Boston coach Joe Mazzulla remarked of them, “They were tremendous, they were amazing.” “I believed Payton altered the game with his defensive positioning.

Due to right hamstring soreness, Boston starting player Kristaps Porzingis was unable to play.

Due to an injured ankle, Booker missed his fourth straight game. As his anticipated comeback draws near, the four-time All-Star has returned to the court for drills.

Suns coach Frank Vogel stated, “I thought we battled, I’m proud of how hard we fought.” We need to play with greater intensity against a club that has the best record in the NBA because I didn’t like how many loose balls we weren’t getting early in the game. However, I believe we realized our mistakes and continued to play a lively game for the remainder of it.

The Suns entered the contest ranked sixth in the competitive Western Conference and are attempting to stay out of the postseason play-in tournament. The top six seeds in each conference automatically move to the first best-of-seven round.