BOSTON — When the Celtics humiliated the Suns with a blowout victory in early December, it seemed to be something of a decisive warning shot to the rest of the NBA. At that point, the C’s had rarely cratered en route to their 21-5 start.
But that victory ultimately came with an important lesson to recall. Their first slump of the season came directly after, and when the Celtics were blown out in a similar fashion in Oklahoma City in January, interim head coach Joe Mazzulla reminded them of that game in Phoenix.
The message? Don’t get too high on the victories and not too low over the losses. And it takes more than a great start to be a great team.
Almost two months later, the Celtics are still atop the NBA but have shown to be vulnerable. And their inconsistencies have become a trend. Those reminders were loud on a cold night at TD Garden on Friday. Two nights after their demolition of the Nets, the Celtics took a step back with a frustrating and humbling 106-94 loss to the undermanned Suns.
Jaylen Brown scored 27 points, Derrick White had 19 points, and Jayson Tatum scored just 20 points on 3-for-15 shooting, emblematic of a horrific shooting night from the Celtics, who shot 38.7% from the floor and 26.3% from long range in the loss to the Suns, who were without star Devin Booker and were coming off a 32-point loss to the Hawks two nights ago.
Mikal Bridges led the Suns with 25 points.
