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Celtics pick up road win in Phoenix

Feb 23, 2013 - 6:46 AM Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) - Jeff Green had a game-high 31 points on 11- of-14 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, four assists and five blocks, as the Boston Celtics downed the Phoenix Suns, 113-88, picking up their first road win in eight tries versus Western Conference foes this season.

Chris Wilcox had 14 points and eight boards for the Celtics, who picked up their first victory following the All-Star break en route to snapping a two- game skid. Avery Bradley and Jason Terry each scored 13 points and newly- acquired Jordan Crawford donated 10 in the victory.

"He's a matchup nightmare," Boston coach Doc Rivers said of Green. "At (small forward) he can post you, at (power forward) he has speed, and when he's making his jumper like he was making it today, it's pretty much a tough night for whoever's guarding him."

Goran Dragic totaled 19 points and 10 assists for the Suns, who have lost two straight and six of their last seven games overall. Markieff Morris scored 11 points and Marcin Gortat registered 10 in the setback.

"We're just running (around) like some inexperienced kids, and we just don't know what we're doing out there," Gortat said.

The Suns were within five points two minutes into the third quarter, but Courtney Lee answered for Boston with a triple and then Bradley slammed home a dunk, all within thirty seconds, to increase the advantage to 10 points. Terry's 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in the quarter made it 81-67 heading into the fourth.

The Celtics never looked back and extended their edge early in the fourth to 21 points on Terrence Williams' triple. Minutes later, around the midway point of the quarter, Green put the game out of reach with another 3-pointer to make it 101-76.

Boston came out firing and led 16-3 five-plus minutes into the contest. Despite the early deficit, the Suns only trailed 28-20 after one quarter. Green had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Boston led throughout the second stanza before closing the first half from the 4:05 mark on a 9-4 run for a 53-41 edge at the break.

Game Notes

Phoenix sent a second-round draft pick to Houston on Thursday for forward Marcus Morris, the twin brother of Markieff. The duo is just the second set of twins to play together in the NBA, joining Dick and Tom Van Arsdale, who also played for the Suns (1976-77) ... Boston is 9-17 on the road this season ... Boston entered the contest having lost all seven road games against West opponents this year by an average of 16.7 points ... Green made his first start of the season in place of Kevin Garnett, who had the night off ... It was Phoenix's third home loss of 25 points or more this season after having three total by that margin in the last 11 years combined.