1. The Boston Celtics win at the Toronto Raptors was one of the best of the season. Boston was on a back-to-back and without some key contributors. That made that victory very satisfying.
The Celtics win at the Phoenix Suns was the most complete victory of the season. Once Boston took control at the end of the first quarter, it was complete domination. And it came against the best team in the Western Conference and one of the best bets to represent the West in the NBA Finals.
The Celtics held the Suns to 39.8% shooting. Boston forced 18 turnovers. Phoenix shot a paltry 8-of-32 from behind the arc. In every conceivable way the Celtics dominated. And they did it against a very good team.
And then following the game, the Celtics stayed focused saying the is “trending in the right direction” and “none of this matters if we don’t hang a banner”.
2. Boston’s offense was a little bit off to open the game. Jaylen Brown seemed sped up and was rushing his shot. Jayson Tatum seemed a little unsure of how to attack the Suns defense with Mikal Bridges guarding him.
Enter Batman.
In this one, Williams got the scoring started. This is a pretty confident pull, considering there were enough jab steps to make Carmelo Anthony smile:
A couple of plays later, Williams and Blake Griffin (more on him later) work an improvised big-big DHO. Watch how Williams uses his right shoulder without extending his arm to create space against Deandre Ayton on the drive:
If he gets a smaller guy on him, Williams is doing a great job getting on the offensive glass. This is a strong rebound and putback:
Overall, Williams finished with 14 points, on 6-of-6 shooting, to go along with six rebounds and some really good defense. He’s going to be a very, very rich man come July.
3. There aren’t going to be a lot of Jaylen Brown highlights in this version of the Takeaways. He struggled to get his shot to fall, especially early, before eventually finding his rhythm.
More important? There aren’t going to be any lowlights.
Brown is in the midst of a three-game stretch where he’s played more than 107 minutes and committed just one turnover. ONE. For a guy sporting nearly a 1-1 assist-to-turnover ratio on the season, that’s remarkable stuff.
Brown has tightened up his handle and his passing. He’s making a lot of plays as a passer now that were sporadic, at best, previously. And he remains one of the best drivers in the league. This is a very strong finish…
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