In less than a week, Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns got beat twice by the Boston Celtics. The first was during last Saturday’s 117-107 defeat at home. The next happened Thursday night when the Celtics drained an incredible total of 25 3-pointers to smother the Suns to the tune of a 127-112 score.
As the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA, the Celtics are making themselves even harder to contend with for the Suns and the rest of the league.
Kevin Durant Gets Real On Boston Celtics After Tough Loss
The Suns just had no answer to the barrage of threes the Celtics were raining on them. Even Al Horford, who started in place of the injured Kristapos Porzingis, buried 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 deep. The Celtics hit 15 of their 39 attempts from behind the arc. On the season, the Celtics are No. 1 in the NBA with 16.4 threes per outing on 38.7 percent success rate – third overall.
“You got a center making 5 to 6 3s, that’s tough to stop,” Durant told reporters after the game (h/t Duane Rankin of AZ Central).
“They just know the numbers and just beat us at math,” the former league Most Valuable Player added.
If the Celtics and the Suns are to meet again this season, it will be in the 2024 NBA Finals, which has a fair chance of happening, considering that both teams are among the chief contenders to top their respective conferences.
Should that happen, Phoenix has a pretty good idea of at least one major key they need to overcome Boston based on how the Suns got lit up by the Celtics’ perimeter shooting.
More must-reads: