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BOSTON – Marcus Smart earned his first career triple-double as the Celtics crushed the Phoenix Suns in a 117-103 wire-to-wire blowout Friday night. Smart had 10 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in 32 minutes.
The Celtics won out with their usual high pace game, taking 96 shots while assisting on 30 of their 42 field goals. Smart did everything Friday, from holding Brandon Knight to 16 points in 40 minutes to picking up Mirza Teletovic in the paint and handling the mismatch sufficiently.
Smart chased down three offensive rebounds, from pretty much out of nowhere, in the fourth quarter to ensure the Suns’ brief run wouldn’t get them close.
"Before I got in the huddle, the team was just telling me, ‘you know, one more," Smart said after the game. "They were telling everyone, ‘Just box out,’ and allow me to get the rebound. That’s when I knew I needed one more to get that."
The Celtics had seven players in double figures, with Kelly Olynyk scoring a game-high 21 points.
The second half closed with a Klynyk from the Manbun, sans bun that is. Olynyk lost his mind and his bangs when he went on a 13-0 run by himself to close out the first half. The run was capped off by a Jared Sullinger transition three and an Avery Bradley putback on a missed open layup by Jae Crowder that went down a tenth of a second after the buzzer.
"Everything feels better when the ball hits the net," coach Brad Stevens said of Olynyk’s performance. "I think that that’s the bottom line. He can shoot the basketball. He was clearly feeling good. And once he hit one or two, then the rim just looks a little wider."
The Celtics made their last four threes of the half and finished with a 16-2 run in the final four minutes to go into halftime with a 68-47 lead.
While the run set the stage for a second half blowout, the opening stanza of the night set the tone.
"On our first eleven baskets we had eleven assists," Stevens said. "It felt like we were really moving the ball and we were playing good offense. I didn’t think we were great defensively, really, at any point in the night but they – they really kind of put us in a bind late in that game when they were playing Teletovic at the five.
"But I thought our guys, they figured it out enough on that end of the court and we were scoring pretty consistently throughout the game. And the sharing of the ball was a big reason why."