In less than a week, Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns was beaten twice by the Boston Celtics. The first took place last Saturday during the 117-107 defeat at home. The next came Thursday night when the Celtics drained an incredible 25 3-pointers to stifle the Suns by a score of 127-112.
As the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA, the Celtics make themselves even tougher for the Suns and the rest of the league to play against.
Kevin Durant gets real Boston Celtics After a tough defeat
The Suns simply had no answer to the barrage of threes the Celtics rained down on them. Even Al Horford, who started in place of the injured Kristapos Porzingis, made a total of six 3-pointers on 10 attempts.
In the first loss this season to the Celtics, the Suns were also torched by Boston from top to bottom. The Celtics made 15 of their 39 attempts from behind the arc. On the season, the Celtics are No. 1 in the NBA with 16.4 threes made per outing on a 38.7% success rate – third overall.
“You have a center that makes 5-6 3s, it’s hard to stop,” Durant told reporters after the game (h/t Duane Rankin of AZ Central).
“They just know the numbers and beat us at math,” the former league MVP added.
If the Celtics and Suns are to meet again this season, it will be in the 2024 NBA Finals, which has a good chance of happening, given that both teams are among the top contenders for the lead in their conferences respective.
If that happens, Phoenix has a pretty good idea of at least one major key they need to beat Boston, based on how the Suns were lit up by the Celtics’ perimeter shooting.
