Kevin Durant questions Suns strategy against Boston Celtics after ugly rout

The Suns had a little bit to feel good about heading into Wednesday’s game against the Celtics, riding a four-game winning streak for the first time in months. However, the defending champions changed those positive vibes in a hurry, erupting for a franchise-record 10 3-point makes in the first quarter on their way to a 132-102 blowout win over Phoenix.

The Celtics were particularly red-hot from 3-point range right out of the gate even without Jayson Tatum available, making seven of their first nine 3-point attempts in the opening five minutes of the game. All five members of the starting five knocked down a 3 in that stretch, setting the stage for a 42-point first quarter for Boston. That offensive momentum continued before garbage time as the visitors scored 108 points over the first three quarters.

The early offensive outburst by Boston left Suns star Kevin Durant looking for answers as he attempts to secure his team a playoff spot. Phoenix has struggled defensively all year long (27th in NBA in defensive rating) but that didn’t stop the All-Star from wondering about Mike Budenholtzer’s defensive strategy against the Celtics perimeter firepower.

“I mean, It’s risky putting two on the ball against a team like that, especially that’s spread out,” Durant told reporters in Phoenix via Duane Rankin. “You can get away with it sometimes when you got a center that can play under the rim and you don’t care about him shooting 3s, but they got two centers that can shoot 3s and they were hot tonight. So maybe to start the game with two on the ball might have got them going a bit and maybe we were slow on close outs. I think it’s a little bit of everything.”

To Durant’s point, out of the Celtics’ first seven makes from 3-point range in the first quarter, six were wide open shots.

“We double teamed the ball some, probably were not sharp enough in our rotations, they moved it,” Budenholtzer admitted postgame. “They were aggressive.”

The Suns were able to key pace with the Celtics’ avalanche early with 38 points of their own in the first quarter. However, Boston’s defense tightened up in the second quarter and the hosts were limited to just 16 points in the period, setting the stage for an ugly rout as the Suns got down on themselves amid the Celtics’ red-hot shooting.

“It sucks to be on the other side of that,” Grayson Allen told reporters in Phoenix. “I think nine out their first 10 field goals were 3s. You know a team is going to shoot them and you want to take them away and they still get them, that’s tough.”

The Suns and Durant will have a chance to come up with a better gameplan soon against the Celtics as they come to Boston next Friday night for the final matchup of the season series.