C’s rally to eclipse Suns
Irving on point in OT win
PHOENIX — Brad Stevens wants to see his team play a full 48 minutes with consistent effort, consistent execution, and, well, a few shots wouldn’t hurt. And the Celtics coach is still waiting for that end-to-end masterpiece. But in the meantime, there’s last night’s 116-109 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns. Kyrie Irving saved what started as an offensive slog with a season-high 39 points — the Celtics guard’s second straight 30-plus performance — and the C’s withstood an equally withering 38-point performance by the Suns’ Devin Booker. The Celtics got off to a horrid start offensively in the first half. Stevens scrambled to make changes in the second half, starting Marcus Smart ahead of Jayson Tatum, who sat for the first nine minutes of the third quarter. The result was an energized second half that found the C’s cutting the Suns lead from 20 points at the half, to 15 by the end of the third quarter, to a point with 7.3 seconds left. Marcus Morris’ 3-pointer with three-tenths of a second left in regulation tied the score at 100-100, and both sides steamed into overtime. Irving drove for the lead on each of the first three Celtics possessions — each basket answered, twice by Booker, and on the fourth possession Al Horford hit an up-top 3-pointer for a 109106 edge. This time Booker answered from downtown, but when Jaylen Brown hit a corner 3 the next time down for a 112-109 lead, Booker missed. Morris drove for an easy two with 1:39 left, and Booker missed again. Brown’s put-back of his own miss, set up by Irving’s steal and transition drive, cut the Suns lead to 98-97 with 7.3 seconds left. T.J. Warren was fouled and hit twice for a 100-97 Phoenix lead with 6.1 seconds left. Irving took the inbounds pass, drove into traffic, and got a pass to the open Morris, whose deep 3 tied the score at 100-100 just before the buzzer sounded. The Celtics, trailing by 16 points, hurt themselves during a 4-0 run after Booker had given the Suns a 92-76 lead with an off-balance baseline jumper. Horford (one) and Brown (two) missed a combined three free throws that would have given the run a little more heft. Instead, they trailed, 9480, when Booker drove to the baseline again. But this time, starting with a Brown jumper and continuing through an Irving 3-pointer and two free throws, the Celtics cut the Suns lead to 94-87. Trevor Ariza missed from the corner, usually his money shot, and Irving cruised in off the break, cutting the Suns lead this time to 94-89 with 2:06 left. Booker missed from downtown, but the line drive rebound went out of bounds off Smart. Booker then came out of a timeout with a turnaround over Smart, drew the foul and converted the three-point play. Irving slashed back off the break to score in traffic, Isaiah Canaan missed the basket with his next jumper, and Smart crashed to the floor after a hard foul by Booker. But Smart missed the first of two with 58.4 seconds left, and fouled Booker down the other end. The Suns star missed the second of two for a 98-92 Phoenix lead with 43.1 seconds left. Irving called for the ball on the inbounds play, isolated on Canaan, hit a 3-pointer, stripped the ball from Booker down the other end, and on the ensuing break set up Brown, who put back his own miss with 7.3 seconds left, cutting the Phoenix lead to 98-97.