Jaylen Brown delivered a dominant performance Monday night, scoring 41 points to lead the Boston Celtics past the Phoenix Suns 120–112 at TD Garden. Devin Booker answered with 40 points of his own, turning the matchup into a star-driven duel that kept the game tight into the final minutes. In the end, Brown’s relentless attacks and steady free-throw shooting helped Boston close it out down the stretch.
Suns surge early before Celtics respond
The opening quarter featured a choppy rhythm, with frequent whistles and free throws slowing the
flow of play.
Phoenix set the tone early with an aggressive defensive approach out of the gates, pressuring the ball and jumping out to an early 8–0 lead. Boston gradually settled in, responding with defensive stops and beginning to find its offensive rhythm as the quarter progressed.
A late burst from the Celtics, sparked by typical energy from the bench, helped erase the early deficit and briefly push Boston in front. Still, after one quarter the Suns held a 32–31 lead.
Boston flipped the momentum early in the second quarter.
Derrick White caught fire offensively, knocking down multiple three-pointers during a quick scoring burst that pushed the Celtics back in front and forced Phoenix to burn an early timeout. White finished the half with 19 points, including four three-pointers in the second quarter alone, helping stabilize Boston’s offense.
The Celtics continued to move the ball effectively throughout the quarter, generating open perimeter looks and attacking mismatches inside. Boston shot 13-for-21 in the second quarter to take a 65–61 halftime lead, while Devin Booker paced Phoenix with 19 points and four assists in the opening half.
Booker was only getting started.
Booker catches fire in the third
If the Celtics were hoping the Suns might cool off coming out of halftime, Devin Booker had other plans.
The Phoenix guard erupted in the third quarter, scoring 23 consecutive Suns points during one stretch and repeatedly torching Boston from all three levels. Pull-up threes, midrange jumpers, drives to the rim — it didn’t seem to matter what coverage the Celtics threw at him.
At one point Booker had scored Phoenix’s last 21 points, single-handedly keeping the Suns within striking distance as TD Garden collectively braced for the next shot to fall.
But unlike many games where a scoring explosion flips the momentum entirely, Boston kept answering.
The Celtics continued to move the ball crisply on offense, generating open looks around the perimeter while attacking mismatches inside. Payton Pritchard knocked down a pair of timely three-pointers late in the quarter to keep Boston in front despite Booker’s barrage.
By the end of the third, Booker had piled up 35 points, but the Celtics still carried a 91–86 lead into the final quarter.
Brown closes the door in the fourth
The fourth quarter quickly turned into a tense back-and-forth battle.
Payton Pritchard helped Boston create early separation, drilling a deep 31-foot three-pointer early in the period to push the Celtics’ lead to nine and ignite TD Garden. But Phoenix refused to fade, getting timely scoring from Jalen Green and a surprising burst from Haywood Highsmith, who knocked down several difficult shots to keep the Suns within striking distance.
As the quarter progressed, the game tightened. Devin Booker continued to carry the Suns offensively, eventually reaching 40 points, while Boston’s offense briefly stalled amid a stretch of turnovers that allowed Phoenix to surge ahead midway through the quarter.
With the pressure mounting, Jaylen Brown took control.
Brown repeatedly attacked the paint and lived at the free-throw line, drawing loud “MVP” chants from the TD Garden crowd as he stepped to the stripe again and again. The chants only grew louder as the clock wound down, particularly after Brown stripped Booker to spark a transition opportunity that led to an easy finish for Jayson Tatum.
Moments later, Brown cleaned up a miss at the rim to give Boston the lead before returning to the free-throw line once again to extend it.
Phoenix still had chances in the final minute, but Booker missed a key free throw with 22 seconds remaining as Boston’s defense tightened down the stretch. The Celtics then played keep-away in the closing seconds before Jayson Tatum sealed the win from the free-throw line, allowing Boston to close out a hard-fought 120–112 victory.
The victory moves the Celtics to 45–23 on the season, keeping them firmly in the mix near the top of the Eastern Conference standings as the regular season enters its final stretch.
Boston will return to action Wednesday, March 18, when the Celtics host the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden.
