BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown had 18 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter and Jayson Tatum scored 21 in his fifth game back from an Achilles tendon injury to help the Boston Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns 120-112 on Monday night.
Devin Booker scored 40 for the Suns, who have lost back-to-back games after snapping a four-game winning streak. Jalen Green scored 21 for Phoenix.
Derrick White, who was presented with February’s Eastern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Month Award before the game, had 21 points for Boston, and Payton Pritchard scored 19.
Boston trailed by three points, 111-108, with less than four minutes left before Brown stole the ball from Booker and fed it to Tatum for a layup. After a Phoenix miss, Brown rebounded Tatum’s miss to give Boston the lead and then added two free throws and a short jumper to complete an 8-0 Celtics run.
Boston scored 12 of the game’s last 13 points to pull away.
Phoenix lost to Toronto on Friday after giving up a 23-5 run in the fourth quarter to blow a 10-point lead.
Tatum missed Boston’s first 62 games while recovering from a torn Achilles suffered in last year’s playoffs. He returned March 6, played three games, sat one out and now has played more than 32 minutes in back-to-back games.
Up next
Suns: Visit Minnesota on Tuesday.
Celtics: Host Golden State on Wednesday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
(Copyright (c) 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
