Before this season, no team in NBA history had made more 3-pointers than Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and the 2022-23 Golden State Warriors.
The Mazzulla Ball Celtics broke that record Friday night – with five games to spare.
Payton Pritchard’s pull-up three at the 8:19 mark of the second quarter was the team’s 1,364th of the season, making Boston the all-time 3-point kings of the NBA. The Celtics proceeded to drain 14 threes in total – an unremarkable number by their standards – as they trucked the Phoenix Suns 123-103 at TD Garden.
The downfall of the Warriors’ mark of had seemed inevitable ever since the Celtics attempted 61 and made 29 in their season opener. The C’s rank first in the league in 3-point attempts (more than 48 per game) and last in 2-point attempts, just as they did during their run to an NBA title last season, and boast arguably the league’s deepest stable of 3-point threats.
“We’ve got a really good team,” Jayson Tatum said. “A talented group of guys. We play to our strengths. Everybody, for the most part, can space the floor and is a threat behind the line. Credit to guys for working on their game, and that’s what makes us special.”
The game’s headliner, though, was Jaylen Brown, who scored 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting and added five rebounds as he played through what he’s called a painful knee injury. Tatum went 1-for-8 from 3-point range but 8-for-10 from inside the arc to finish with 23 points, eight rebounds, assists, one steal and one block.
Kristaps Porzingis had 15 points, four rebounds and a block before exiting the court – bloodied but smiling – after taking an elbow to the face from Phoenix forward Cody Martin early in the fourth quarter. Derrick White did not score a point in the first half but nearly notched a triple-double, finishing with 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Suns point guard Devin Booker scored a game-high 37 points in a losing effort. Bradley Beal managed just one point on 0-for-7 shooting after missing the previous eight games with a hamstring injury, and the third member of Phoenix’s ill-fated Big Three, Kevin Durant, sat out with an injured ankle.
The Celtics, who had a nine-game win streak snapped Wednesday in a loss to Miami, will host old friends Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon and the last-place Washington Wizards on Sunday.
Brown, the only player listed on Boston’s pregame injury report, came out firing with 10 points in the first six minutes. He hit three of his first four shots and two of his first three 3-pointers, including one of the unlikeliest makes of this Celtics season.
After Beal poked the ball away from Brown and sent it bouncing toward the Boston basket, Brown recovered possession, pulled up to beat the shot clock and buried a high-arcing one-footed jumper from just inside halfcourt.
During that productive start, Brown moved past Antoine Walker and into 14th place on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said he and Brown have been in “constant communication” about his playing time as he works his way back from his knee issue. Brown, who’s been on a minutes restriction, played 28 minutes in the win.
“There’s no one way,” Mazzulla said. “It’s just communicating and trusting how he feels and what he’s doing. To me, the way he prepares himself, he knows what he needs. I’m constantly asking him, and he’s telling me how we can get through it together. He’s doing a good job of that.”
Since Boston’s playoff standing as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference is already secured, some fans and pundits have argued for Brown to sit out the rest of the regular season to rest and recover. He believes, however, that his best course of action is to play through the discomfort to, in essence, teach his body how to do so. Because, although he’s hopeful he’ll be back to full strength in time for the postseason, he knows his injury could continue to linger.
“You normally see people complain about when people are choosing not to play. I’ve never experienced it the other way around, where I’m playing and people are encouraging me not to,” said Brown, who missed half of the Celtics’ recent six-game road trip. “But yes, I think pain is definitely a physical thing, but it’s also a mental thing, so Joe has allowed me, even though my team physically can see maybe I’m in a bit of pain, that they trust me to go out there and I can control my body and still be able to make plays and mentally be able to kind of push through it.
“I think that’s going to be something I’m going to have to have in my back pocket, so I’ve been just utilizing these games in order to feel things out. Things will get better, I’m sure, but if they don’t, I still have a good feel for where my baseline is at and stuff like that. Because there’s no guarantee, honestly, that rest is going to make anything better. I wish it would, but it’s kind of the cards that are laid out.”
(Brown also shared that he watched film before the game of Paul Pierce to study how to find his shooting spots while “playing at a certain pace.” Pierce was in attendance Friday night, watching from the same row of baseline seats as David Ortiz, but Brown said he didn’t have a chance to speak with the retired Celtics champion.)
Brown (17 points), Porzingis (14) and Tatum (12) all reached double figures before halftime as the Celtics built a 20-point first-half lead over a Suns team they’d routed in Phoenix nine days earlier. During that first half, Boston shot the ball well from deep (8-for-18) while also frequently outmaneuvering and overpowering the Suns inside.
The Celtics were 9-for-11 on first-half shots inside the restricted area, including muscular layups by Brown and Tatum, and 13-for-17 in the paint. Their favorite target: rookie center Oso Ighodaro, who was on the wrong end of several successful Celtics drives.
Boston led 60-47 at the half. Starting guards Jrue Holiday and White opened the third quarter with their first points of the night (two free throws and a 3-pointer, respectively), and the Suns never threatened.
A scary moment occurred early in the fourth when Porzingis and Martin collided in midair beneath the Phoenix basket. Porzingis remained down on the floor for several moments, and when he stood up, blood was streaming from the bridge of his nose.
The knock to the face evidently didn’t faze the fan-favorite big man, however. He sported a wide smile as he walked back down the court and danced a quick jig in front of the Boston bench before striding, arms extended upward, down the tunnel.
“I think he’s embraced that (physicality) really on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said. “Tonight, he really showed that on the offensive end of the floor, and then what he did defensively, meeting guys at the rim. It’s important that we do that, and I’m grateful that he plays with that physicality.”
The Celtics later announced Porzingis was questionable to return with “Cut to Nose Requiring Stitches” – but with Boston up big, he unsurprisingly did not reenter the game.
With their entire roster available for the first time since Feb. 23, Friday’s game offered a preview of what the Celtics’ postseason rotation should look like. Pritchard, Al Horford, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet were the only Boston backups who saw meaningful action in the win, with the rest – including recently impressive rookie Baylor Scheierman – not leaving to the bench until garbage time.
The four core reserves combined for 34 points on 14-of-23 shooting. Kornet scored 12 points in his fifth double-digit scoring effort in his last six games, headlined by his fourth-quarter layup off a slick over-the-shoulder assist from Brown.
Boston played its previous 19 games with at least one starter or rotation player inactive. More rest days likely are forthcoming as the season winds down and the playoffs approach.
“I think we’re playing some great basketball right now, and this is the time of year you want to be,” Brown said. “So we want to prioritize health; it’s not going to be perfect. But as a team, if we work together and we keep emphasizing ‘team,’ then I think we have enough. We’ve got plenty.”
Originally Published: April 4, 2025 at 9:52 PM EDT
