The Phoenix Suns lost at the Footprint Center in Phoenix on Saturday night, 117-107, in a marquee matchup versus the No. 1 team in the NBA Boston Celtics.
Kevin Durant led the Suns with a resounding 45-point effort on 18-of-26 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists, while Bradley Beal put up 25 points of his own on 10-of-20 from the field.
Boston’s superstar duo flexed their muscles for the Celtics, relentlessly attacking the Suns.
Jayson Tatum, even on an off-shooting night, 11-of-28 from the floor, still managed to flirt with a triple-double adding 10 boards and seven assists. His back court mate Jaylen Brown got 27 points of his own.
It was another big test for the Suns, who earlier this week defeated the Denver Nuggets on the road without star guard Devin Booker, missing his fourth straight game with a sprained right ankle.
Boston finished the game shooting 49% from the floor and made 15 3-pointers (38%) it might have made the difference in the game as the Suns only shot 9-of-31 from deep, a 29% clip.
“We got some looks, we had 14 turnovers, but I had six of them, so everybody else was pretty good,” said Durant of the Suns performance tonight. “We forced them to 12 turnovers, so I don’t think the turnovers really killed us as much. They made six more 3s than us and out rebounded us, but not by that many. I think the 3-point line is really what beat us.”
Jusuf Nurkic chipped in for the Suns with his 22nd double-double of the season, grabbing 11 rebounds and scoring 11 points.
Grayson Allen who had hit 16 3s in his last two games was not able to hit one from deep. Allen and Royce O’Neale combined to go an uncharacteristic 1-of-10 from beyond the arc.
Boston (49-14) came into Saturday’s game boasting the best record in the NBA and appeared to be more hungry after coming off back-to-back losses for the first time since November 8.
Trailing 77-64 in the third, the Suns responded out of halftime going on a 9-0 run. But the Celtics answered right back going on a 21-10 run.
“I thought we battled… proud of how hard we fought. I didn’t like how many loose balls we weren’t getting in the beginning of the game and how we rebounded. Got to have urgency against the team with the best record in the NBA, said Vogel after the game. “The marginal error is slim against a team like this, but I was proud with how we fought.”
Swiss army knife Derrick White played a pivotal role for Boston filling up the box score with 10 points, five rebounds and nine assists. Off the bench for Phoenix, Bol Bol had 13 points and four rebounds and Boston’s Luke Kornet put up 14 points and six rebounds, almost outscored the entire Suns bench who had 16.
Down the stretch, it was Kevin Durant who shone again hitting a 3 and two jump shots, one of which became an and one.
Both teams went back and forth in the final minutes, but the Suns missed three straight 3s, before Al Horford hit a dagger corner 3-pointer to put the game to bed.
With the loss, the Suns fall to 37-27.
Now they will hit the road for four games, with their first stop Monday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
