Celtics 
Kristaps Porzingis had 30 points and 8 rebounds and appears to have recaptured his top form after missing several weeks with a respiratory illness. Ross D. Franklin
March 27, 2025 | 8:12 AM
Kristaps Porzingis and the Celtics put together one of their most dominant performances of the season, crushing the Suns 132-102 to extend their winning streak to seven with Jayson Tatum on the sideline.
Here are the takeaways.
Kristaps Porzingis is rounding into perfect form.
Celtics fans, knock on every piece of wood available to you right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait a minute. If you’re outside, go find a tree or something.
All set? Great. Kristaps Porzingis is rounding into form at exactly the right time, and he looks healthy and confident as the playoffs approach.
As we’ve said repeatedly since last year, the Celtics can win a championship without Kristaps Porzingis, but having him makes the prospect of a repeat seem a lot more feasible. On a night when the Celtics were without Tatum, having Porzingis gave the Celtics a massive, dynamic offensive presence against a Suns defense that didn’t seem to have any idea what to do against him (more on that in a minute).
As a result, Porzingis dropped 30 points on hyper-efficient 10-for-15 shooting, including 4-for-5 from three. Phoenix couldn’t handle him in the post – he abused mismatches, drew a foul on Kevin Durant and got one of his toughest buckets of the season on his final field goal after essentially fist-fighting Royce O’Neal for position in the paint.
The Suns’ half-court logo extends further than most, but Porzingis’ last 3-pointer – which came shortly before he checked out for the final 12 minutes of action – was from a good five feet behind its longest rays.
At the risk of belaboring a point made ad nauseum this season, the Celtics’ 7-foot-3 center shot this and canned it with comfort.
That could be the difference between last year’s Celtics and this year’s in the postseason – last year’s team might have had a favorable draw in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but they were also without their starting center. This year’s team – and once again, we urge you to find the nearest piece of wood and knock on it – looks like it might have him at the peak of his powers.
Jaylen Brown looked healthy and dominant.
After a down night in his return from a bone bruise against the Kings on Monday, Brown – who needs to play most of the rest of the Celtics’ games to qualify for a potential All-NBA slot and other postseason awards – sparked a small amount of chatter as to whether he should even be playing.
The answer, after Wednesday’s game, is clearly an unambiguous “yes.” With Tatum sidelined due to his ankle injury, Brown stepped into the role as the team’s primary star (which, in many ways, means he is the team’s primary 2-on-1 creator) and he performed it with aplomb. Brown blew by defenders repeatedly, turning Royce O’Neal into a turnstile repeatedly in the third quarter as the Celtics built their dominant lead. Brown also finished 4-for-9 from behind the arc, tallying 24 points on 7-for-15 shooting to go with five assists and several of the kind of hockey assist that is usually Tatum’s specialty.
Brown may not have led the Celtics statistically, but he was the team’s most important available player and probably the biggest (albeit far from the only) reason that the short-handed Celtics ran away with the win.
The Suns were a mess.
The Celtics did all this to a Suns team that entered Wednesday’s game having won four in a row, including victories over the Cavaliers and Bucks.
The Suns, however, had nothing for the Celtics, who made 10 3-pointers in the first quarter and scored 42 first-quarter points. The only thing that changed the rest of the way was the defense – the Celtics gave up 38 points in the first quarter, and then 16, 27 and 21 in the next three quarters respectively.
The Suns defended the Celtics by closing out entirely too hard to their 3-point shooters, which – in tandem with Brown’s dominance off the bounce – allowed the Celtics to get into their swing-swing-swing offense seemingly at will.
That led to an absurd statline – the Celtics made 22 triples, and despite taking 52 threes, they managed to shoot 50/40/90 as a team (50.6/42.3/90.9 to be precise). Sam Hauser was 3-for-4 from three. Jrue Holiday was 6-for-10 with 16 points. Derrick White scored 16 points on 11 shots. Almost across the board, the Celtics were hyper-efficient and productive.
Playing the Celtics is a nightmare, but the Suns looked lost to a jarring degree.
Al Horford had a huge game.
Horford continues to defy the very concept of time and aging – he scored 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and five assists.
Horford’s raw numbers undersell his production as well. Four of Horford’s 10 rebounds were offensive. Those offensive rebounds directly produced 11 points total: Horford dished out three assists to 3-point shooters, and he drew a foul and went to the free-throw line where he made both shots after the other.
The Celtics continued to experiment with double-big lineups at times, and Wednesday’s game certainly didn’t produce any reason to stop – Porzingis was +27, Horford was +24 and Luke Kornet was +15 in the box score, and all three recorded two blocked shots.
So … Baylor Scheierman??
Scheierman got first-quarter minutes on Wednesday and continued to impress, making a case for minutes that almost certainly won’t be fulfilled this season but is absolutely worth keeping an eye on going forward.
The rookie hit a movement 3-pointer, pump-faking a defender into the air and side-stepping to his right for a triple. More notable, however, was his passing – Scheierman tallied four assists in just 12:43 of playing time, including this Rondo-esque dime in garbage time.
Remember: Brad Stevens bucked conventional wisdom on Draft Night last year, opting to pick with the final selection of the first round rather than trading down to pick up a player on a non-guaranteed contract, which locked him into four years of Scheierman on a rookie-scale deal.
If Scheierman develops into a role player – let alone a starter, which is far too early to discuss – the Celtics will have done themselves an unbelievable service, picking up cheap and helpful production at a time when they will need to shed some of their bigger salaries.
Jayson Tatum ultimately sat out (thankfully).
After suffering a nasty looking ankle injury against the Kings on Monday, Tatum writhed around on the floor in obvious pain. Tatum, who is not a player known for exaggerating his pain, eventually walked off the floor under his own power.
The Celtics listed Tatum as doubtful before the game and upgraded him to questionable on Wednesday before ultimately ruling him out. Tatum took in the game in a Duke-centric outfit on the bench, chatting with childhood friend Bradley Beal on the court beforehand.
Getting Tatum to sit out was a secondary win on a night when the entire game was the primary win for the Celtics. Tatum very admirably does his best to play road games, knowing that fans show up hoping to see him in person, but playing on a balky ankle would have been a ridiculous decision this close to the playoffs, especially given how well the rest of the team is playing right now. The Celtics (clearly) didn’t need him to win, but they will soon. He shouldn’t have been on the floor, and to his – and Mazzulla’s – credit, he wasn’t.
The Celtics’ road trip continues.
Fresh off a dominant three-games-in-four-nights stretch, the Celtics will get two nights off before they face the Spurs in San Antonio. They will then wrap up their road trip on Monday against the Grizzlies in Memphis before returning to TD Garden to play the Heat on Wednesday.
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