The Celtics aren’t off to as good a start as was expected so far this season. And things looked more bleak than ever earlier today as they were outscored 32-13 in the first quarter by the lowly Suns. But the Celtics improved as the game progressed, and then exploded in the 4th quarter to reach overtime, and took away a win that featured big scoring from Kyrie Irving. Here’s the Boston Herald reporting:
Brad Stevens wants to see his team play a full 48 minutes with consistent effort, consistent execution, and, well, a few shots wouldn’t hurt.
And the Celtics coach is still waiting for that end-to-end masterpiece. But in the meantime, there’s last night’s 116-109 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns.
Kyrie Irving saved what started as an offensive slog with a season-high 39 points — the Celtics guard’s second straight 30-plus performance — and the C’s withstood an equally withering 38-point performance by the Suns’ Devin Booker.
The Celtics got off to a horrid start offensively in the first half. Stevens scrambled to make changes in the second half, starting Marcus Smart ahead of Jayson Tatum, who sat for the first nine minutes of the third quarter. The result was an energized second half that found the C’s cutting the Suns lead from 20 points at the half, to 15 by the end of the third quarter, to a point with 7.3 seconds left.
Marcus Morris’ 3-pointer with three-tenths of a second left in regulation tied the score at 100-100, and both sides steamed into overtime.
