By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
No Jayson Tatum, no problem.
Playing without their best player in a battle of winning streaks, the visiting Boston Celtics squad banked on their lethal balanced offensive attack to handle their business on the road against the Phoenix Suns, 132-102, in the ongoing NBA regular season on March 27, 2025.
Tatum, who is averaging a near triple-double stat line in his past four games, sat out against the Suns due to a left ankle sprain injury.
However, Tatum’s absence wasn’t a hindrance to Boston playing their brand of basketball as six of their players all reached double-digits in scoring to douse the Suns’ on their home floor.
It was a tale of two streaks as Boston’s road dub extended their dominance to seven straight games while Phoenix tasted their first defeat after winning their past four outings.
Boston had a waxing hot start after dropping 42 points in the first quarter alone but the Suns had answers from Kevin Durant and Devin Booker who took turns draining perimeter jumpers to keep Phoenix within striking distance.
Just when Phoenix thought they could keep up with Boston’s firepower, the Eastern Conference squad stepped on the gas pedal in the following frame and left the Suns behind with a 31-16 run in the second.
The Celtics relied on their timely defensive stops by mixing their zone defense with a soft man-to-man approach that slowed down Phoenix’s spitfire scoring, limiting them to just seven points in the final four minutes of the second canto.
From that point, Boston didn’t let the Suns grasp some momentum and wore them down more in the third to balloon the biggest lead of the ball game to 34 points.
Kristaps Porzingis led the Celtics’ massive scoring exhibition as the stretch big man logged in 30 points built from an efficient 10/15 shooting from the field including four made three-pointers out of five attempts.
Boston went to Porzingis down the post when the Suns opted to field a small-ball lineup in the second. The versatile center schooled Phoenix’s poor pick-and-pop coverage as he drained treys off several sweet pocket dimes from Derrick White.
Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown, who surprisingly entered a shooting slump after only averaging a single-digit scoring in his last three games, exploded for 24 points in a limited playing time.
Brown finally picked up his rhythm and capped off the huge win with a perfect 7/7 shooting from the charity stripe.
Backstopping Porzingis and Brown in the streak-extending dub were White, Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, and Sam Hauser who each chipped in 16,16,16 and 11 markers, respectively.
The Celtics will resume their campaign on March 30, 2025, and will take on the banged-up San Antonio Spurs on the road in another inter-conference duel.